OK so it’s hard to make out here but the Beech hedge behind the beautifully maintained flower border was lowered by about 3ft or so. Unfortunately the angle of the sun meant I couldn’t take matching before and after photos. It was a deceptively large hedge on a very hot day!
More often than not I find that whilst lowering a hedge (or crown lifting a tree) does let more light into a garden the effect is actually more psychological in that increasing the amount of open sky in a given eyeline really makes an area feel more open and less enclosed.