Fast_Blue_Scooby

In the 4 years since I bought my house, I have worked hard on getting the garden looking really good. The previous owner had left it a wilderness!! Not only did I have to clear my garden up, but found myself having to tidy up all the neighbours' overgrown shrubs, trees etc that were hanging into ours! It was a lot of hard work.

Now with my garden looking really smart, it is again the neighbours' gardens which are causing me some grief. I have 3 neighbours that back onto the side of my front garden. However even though their back gardens are very small, they have stocked them with trees that are really too big for the type of garden. In the time I have been living here, all the neighbours do is to cut their lawns once a week. The rest of their gardens which back onto my side fence, have just been left to grow into a wilderness, nettles, weeds, overgrown bushes, shrubs etc.

Every time I have had a word with them to cut it all back, they just say that they will be getting round to doing it soon. Well this has been said for the last 4 years. It got so bad last year that one of the trees had grown to the size of our house and the branches were coming right across to our windows. With their permission, I chopped down all the offending branches and removed them to the local tip.

What is getting to me, is that is always me who has to do the work, which they should be doing! They just come into their gardens at the weekend, cut the lawns and then just laze around in it. I have told them several times that they need to cut down and tidy up their borders so they look neat and tidy and I always get the same answer! Now with autumn approaching, it is me who has to put up with the thousands of leaves that fall off their trees and into my garden and it is me who has to tidy it all up! I just wish they would remove these trees which shouldn't be there or at least they tidy them up

Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do next?

boxst

Hello

Assuming you don't want one of the normal answers here (sneak into their garden and burn them or something...) then the only thing you can do is continue to cut down the parts that encroach upon your garden.

Steve.

ProperCharlie

is this a joke?

just wondered.

the short answer is that there is nothing you can do. if your neighbour chooses to grow a forest in his garden, that's his business. if the trees are not protected by the local authority, you can cut back any parts of the tree that overhang your property, back to the boundary, provided you can do this without trespassing on your neighbour's property. You must offer your neighbour the branches, as they are his property, but if he declines to accept them you have to get rid of them yourself. unfortunately, many disputes are caused by trees in adjacent properties and there is no easy way to resolve them

hth

jjones

LOL @ offering them the braches.

Mice_Elf

That's the "law" unfortunately. The branches are technically the property of your neighbour.

Cut down the offending ones and tar the stumps - will stop anything growing back.

How are the roots of these trees affecting your fencing, out of interest? If the trees are causing damage...

RB5320

cant add much to the above unfortunately. Your neighbours are within their rights to have trees in their garden and are not obliged to tidy up any mess those trees make in your garden.
As for the general untidiness, again there is not much you can do. If your neighbour cant be bothered to remove the weeds they dont have to. The only exception to this being certain types of thistle, dock and ragwort.
As with most cases like this, all you can do is try to discuss the matter reasonably with them and see if a compromise can be reached. Is there a reason why they want the trees in the garden? Are they decorative trees, a windbreak, screening from the road,etc, or were they just planted a while back with no thought for how they would grow. Perhaps you could persuade them to remove the trees by suggesting a cost effective alternative.

Steve

Apparition

Copper nails driven into trees just above ground level have a devastating effect.......

But I didn't say that.

Leslie

I would be tempted to throw the clippings over the fence into their gardens!

Les

john_s

iTrader: (1)

As Apparition didn't say... *cough* copper nails *cough*.

John.

ProperCharlie

sorry - copper nails do not work. the only effect they have is to blunt your chainsaw when you finally decide to cut the tree down. large quantities on rock salt into the soil around the tree does work, as does weedkiller.

remember people, you didn't hear it here first....

druddle

FBS - next time you offer to trim the trees, generously apply brick acid to the offending trees or shrubs. Hey presto soon enough they will be dead.

Dave

Fast_Blue_Scooby

"or were they just planted a while back with no thought for how they would grow."

Spot on with the above comment!

Thanks for all the advice from everyone.

I've decided today to tackle the 'jungle' that is encroaching onto my garden AGAIN. The worst stuff is the ivy that they have left to grow wild. Also the 36 feet branches that they should really trim down and make the borders look presentable.

What gets me is that they think they do their spot of weekly gardening by just cutting the lawn! They give no thought to the borders which are an overgrown and unsightly mess. I wouln't care their gardens would take such a small amount of time to maintain once they got it neat and tidy. My garden is 10 times the size yet I find time to keep it looking the best I can.

Also I am sick and tired of having to cut and bag all their branches and take them down to the tip over and over again. So this time I am going to call round afterwards and tell them that while I was pruning their trees that had grown into my garden, a 'few' cut branches had 'fallen' into their garden.
I do believe it is their responsibilty to dispose of them!!!(LOL!!!!)

Scoobydick

Let loose a flock of woodpeckers!