Teleman wrote:

I have "inherited" a VERY overgrown garden

Worth looking at previous threads on this topic. FWIW my advice is
concentrate all your firepower on the bit nearest the house and get that
right first. You have to look at that most often.

Glyphosate any obvious bad weeds in the rest and pull all the sycamores
out before they can get any bigger.

It slopes quite steeply from the house and is long - about 100' or so
The neighbours tell me that previous owner was a keen garderner until
ill health forced him to all but abandon it.
Looking out on it i see, amongst the fushias, clematises (clematii?) etc
some sycamore sapplings (quite a few), various hawthorn bushes, and
LOTS of bindweed and brambles mixed in to the privet hedge that runs
the full length of the garden, front to back, which too, is overgrown.
What i would like to do is "sort the wheat from the chaff" and go in
there well armed.
This is where my question starts:
Is there such a thing as a motorised pruning saw i can hire, to especially
cut back the hedge so it matches the contours of the neighbours?

I would just get a good ordinary hand held pruning saw. They are pretty
vicious and will easily cut two inch wood with a few brisk strokes. I
have used mine on upto 8" diameter wood without too much trouble.

I'd recommend a good quality heavy hedge trimmer though if you are going
to fight a 100 foot of unkempt hedge. That can take out material upto
about 15mm diamter. But I find I burn out cheaper models too easily
cutting heavy wood in unkempt hedges. They are OK only for trimming soft
new growth.

You may be better off taking it back in two stages so that it doesn't
end up completely bare and woody for too long. Bindweed and brambles are
pretty in a hedge provided they stay there.

I would rather do it myself as opposed to calling someone in to do it, as
finances are a bit tight, but also, i dont have the time to spend using
hand loppers etc - its too far gone for that
Any advice gratfully recieved

NB Don't try and do too much at once or you will get disheartened.

Regards,
Martin Brown