Neighbour butchered our tree

artbaron

Never thought I'd be so amused by a photo of a tree.

Leif

I suspect if some of the people here woke up and discovered that their neighbour had done something similar to one of their trees or shrubs, they would have kittens.

anotherbaldrick

Leif wrote: »

I suspect if some of the people here woke up and discovered that their neighbour had done something similar to one of their trees or shrubs, they would have kittens.

If I woke up and found I had a 45ft Lawsonia conifer in my back garden I would have more than kittens.

phoebe1989seb

I think your garden looked lovely in the *before* pic

Definitely agree that the neighbour shouldn't have gone ahead without speaking to you first. We had a similar issue at our last house - originally the property had a large garden with orchard and masses of specimen (and other) trees. At some point around twenty years ago the then owner divided the land, built himself a new bungalow next door and sold the original Tudor house. A Lawsonia conifer was planted close to the boundary on the original plot soon after he moved next door - I guess in an attempt to block out the site of his eyesore of a house

By the time we purchased in 2007 the tree had grown to 30', but it was adjacent to his front garden/driveway, some distance from his house and didn't impact upon the use of his outdoor space. From the day we moved in our neighbour kept complaining about the tree in his former (now our) garden, asking when we were going to remove it. We told him we wanted to live in the house a while before deciding what direction to take with the garden, but TBH so many garden grabbers had built in the neighbourhood that trees of any kind were in short supply, so within weeks we had more or less decided to prune it to reduce the height only.

A month or so later we noticed he had tree surgeons outside his property and the next thing they began going up on his side of the tree, removing branches. By the time they'd finished it looked at though it had been cut in half vertically - from his side it looked appalling (although slightly neater than the OP's)! I did go outside and ask what was going on and he said he'd had enough of it shedding onto his front garden & driveway. He said if we were prepared to contribute £280 they would cut the whole tree down - I politely declined. He didn't offer me the cuttings and I saw his tree surgeons putting them through the chipping machine, but the neighbour was an intimidating, argumentative kind of guy and I was there alone so didn't approach him further......

He probably got on well with the people we sold to in 2011 - they received a chainsaw as a house-warming gift and used it to remove the remaining specimen trees - some of which had been in place for 100 years or so - philistines

Jinx

I can appreciate you're upset, the tree does now look terrible but they are within their rights - I'm assuming the got fed up waiting......

We have a stone dyke all around our property but our neighbours have a big hedge (laurel maybe) which is really nice and while they have trimmed the top they haven't cut our side which is now overhanging our dyke and so Im going to have to cut it back or it will just get wider and wider........... Big job, sigh... Feel the neighbours pain!

Biggles

He's done you a favour. He certainly had no need to ask permission or tell you beforehand, I'm just surprised he let it get as big as he had.

It'll look a great deal better when you've had it cut down.

Davesnave

I think this tells you quite a bit about your neighbours and their attitude towards you. Why they didn't do this to the previous occupant?

You say you have been working non-stop since buying the property. Noisy, much?

Just a thought.

poppellerant

Going by the state of your overgrown garden and the dirt track that runs right through it, I am not at all surprised by what your neighbour did - their side of the tree must have been awful for them to have to do that.

With all those trees in the garden, I have to ask why you feel the need to make a nuisance of yourself to your surrounding neighbours? Your neighbours are suffering because of your tunnel vision wanting only your garden to look nice. What about other people's gardens? Don't other people matter?

Davesnave

poppellerant wrote: »

Going by the state of your overgrown garden and the dirt track that runs right through it, I am not at all surprised by what your neighbour did - their side of the tree must have been awful for them to have to do that.

With all those trees in the garden, I have to ask why you feel the need to make a nuisance of yourself to your surrounding neighbours? Your neighbours are suffering because of your tunnel vision wanting only your garden to look nice. What about other people's gardens? Don't other people matter?

It helps if you read the thread first before commenting.

thebullsback

personally I would remove the trees then remove my self and family from what I fear could be problem neighbors .
Remove trees replace for sale sign .