Help with fence and neighbour...

Bumblebee2128

beaker141 said:

I think I'd be planting 2 leylandii tress there instead ! 

I'm gutted I let her bully me into cutting the tree down that was there now. Oh well... 
I emailed my local council today to put my mind at rest. I thought it would be better coming from me and inviting them to inspect when all this is over and normal service resumes. For now I think ignoring them is my best way forward, hopefully they will take the hint that I do not want to hear it. 

robatwork

With this in mind:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/high-hedges-trees-and-boundaries

You can plant one large evergreen tree in that corner (Bay Laurel?), or a row of something deciduous, or even bamboo that can grow fast and give cover, or a few pleached hornbeam above a trellis.

FreeBear

robatwork said:  or even bamboo that can grow fast and give cover,

If you must plant bamboo, stick it in a large pot to contain it. Once loose, even the clump forming varieties run and they can be very difficult to control. Trust me, I'm trying to get rid of a clump myself and may well have to resort to hiring a stump grinder.

troffasky

If you must plant bamboo, stick it in a large pot to contain it. Once loose, even the clump forming varieties run and they can be very difficult to control. Trust me, I'm trying to get rid of a clump myself and may well have to resort to hiring a stump grinder.

Pick mattock, 3 weeks of lunch breaks/quick before-work hack and some weekend work. I filled the green bin three times and there's still a small heap of roots waiting to be disposed of. A round of applause to whoever of my predecessors planted it. The only thing of any use that has come of it is a nice big bundle of bamboo canes.

Davesnave

If you both had had 'proper' clumping bamboo, there wouldn't have been a problem. Non-invasive bamboo grows slowly and is therefore expensive.

I have some. Planted it in 2013 near a watercourse. It is still where I put it and nowhere else.

WeAreGhosts

Good leylandii alternatives are Portuguese Laurel or Griselinia. If you alternate them with a deciduous shrub then you shouldn't fall foul of the high hedge laws. Just be canny about where you plant the evergreens.
Any "fargesia" bamboo is clump forming - I have Fargesia Winter Joy and it's put on quite a bit of growth in two years.

Davesnave

WeAreGhosts said:

Good leylandii alternatives are Portuguese Laurel or Griselinia. If you alternate them with a deciduous shrub then you shouldn't fall foul of the high hedge laws. Just be canny about where you plant the evergreens.

Portuguese laurel is classier than the ordinary one IMO and it seems to need only a yearly trim with me. Griselina may be scorched by cold winds, or a very severe winter might even be terminal in some locations, so watch out if you're in a colder area.

My comment about about the trampoline was tongue in cheek, but your children will one day be of an age when they won't be easily intimidated, so the neighbour isn't very far-seeing if they want a fence they can look over the top of!

When our neighbour installed a trampoline, we were concerned at the heads bobbing up and down and the cheerful "Helloos!" Luckily, next door's kids weren't  prone to take large quantities of exercise, so after about a week they just used it to sit on and slob-out.

Davesnave

robatwork said:

With this in mind:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/high-hedges-trees-and-boundaries

You can plant one large evergreen tree in that corner (Bay Laurel?), or a row of something deciduous, or even bamboo that can grow fast and give cover, or a few pleached hornbeam above a trellis.

Bay is useful if you eat lots of spaghetti bolognese and birds like it for nesting. I use pleached hornbeam next to my commercial neighbour, who is too busy thatching to care about his rampant bindweed. I can spray with gay abandon through the bare bottoms of the stems ("Oh matron!" ) and I still have relative privacy. It doesn't matter too much if anyone sees my lower legs.

robatwork

WeAreGhosts said:

Good leylandii alternatives are Portuguese Laurel or Griselinia. If you alternate them with a deciduous shrub then you shouldn't fall foul of the high hedge laws. Just be canny about where you plant the evergreens.
Any "fargesia" bamboo is clump forming - I have Fargesia Winter Joy and it's put on quite a bit of growth in two years.

 Very good shout here - and I planted some Fargesia a few years ago to cover a fence and if anything it clumped too much - didn't spread at all. If all else fails get @Davesnave around to wave his lower legs over the fence, a guaranteed way to get the neighbour to comply.

Bumblebee2128

After the palaver over the tree I think anything that would even reach over the wall would be a no no.