Of gardening, neighbours and large trees

[Guest]

feather I did neglect to mention what they used to dump - their daughter on me. They'd bugger off shopping to sometimes while she was here.

 

She was always at the fence desperate to come over. My garden happens to be the biggest in the area, is full of swings, ladders and kids stuff. Thus the pressed noses at the fence.

 

Worst was once when we blew up our pool one summer - one of those blow-up 3.5m jobbies. Within minutes of it being full an army of the little buggers marched in, towels under their arms!

[mlovett 8,681]

jeremy & feather - I guess you know what would happen in the USA if one were to dare cut ANYthing on the neighbor's property without permission... A guy a few streets over shot at his neighbor recently for much less!

 

My neighbor was getting pissy about the low branches on one of my trees, and I finally caved and let her help me cut them. I now have much less shade at my favorite bench.

 

I have a tall, locked fence for a reason...

[Guest]

mlovett: then I am grateful I do not live in the States! Violent place.

 

Can't you lot sort anything out without guns?

[nina_glyndwr 4,748]

Rose74

 

I would check what the rules are with your local authority.

 

I think there are certain rules about how high a tree can be with regard to its distance from a property. Something to do with subsidence. A tree consumes a heck of a lot of water and if it takes too much out of the soil, it can affect the foundations of a building.

 

I mean, there are rules about the height of hedges. I am sure there must be some rules about the height of trees and the lack of light in another person's property.

[mlovett 8,681]

@jer: That guy is in jail, now. It was scary, as he lived near Jr's school, which had to go on lockdown while helicopters searched for the maniac.

 

German neighbors use snow shovels and gardening tools to maim/ kill their neighbors, oder? Same rage, different tool.

[DanHessen 2,964]

 

So what's the latest word, two years into the war?

 

 

 

Actually ten years. The garden Nazis next door still leer at me but they haven't gone lopping off any limbs since last time. Guess they got it out of their system for a while.

[rose74 0]

ok i bought it because it is a great house and admired the tree then but one only knows when one lives in the house then see how the sun comes and goes etc.. aso hope that they would cut it like all normal people who do gardening .. i do not want to fall out with them so i will say nothing. We lived here 4 months so far.

[Guest]

well rose - one of the things we did when we bought ours was to ensure which aspect we had. We have a good facing south which was important to us.

[Guest]

 

ok i bought it because it is a great house and admired the tree then but one only knows when one lives in the house then see how the sun comes and goes etc.. aso hope that they would cut it like all normal people who do gardening .. i do not want to fall out with them so i will say nothing. We lived here 4 months so far.

 

Took a long time for you to answer.

 

So you did not/were incapable of inspecting your future property properly before purchasing it... probably a very cheap bargain methinks.

 

Which normal people cut trees?

 

Dunno your definition of normal. Have fun with your moss :D

[featherlight 1,368]

Rose, we also had a huge pine tree in the front garden which took all the sunlight and left our front garden a wilderness. One January there was a hurricane / tornado in Munich which felled that three like a matchstick. Tree surgeon did all the rest. So, there is always hope.

[lil96 12]

Maybe someone can help me out, I have a similar question.

 

First my neighbor has one of those big pine trees that can't be cut down. It annoys me, but I don't care that much.

 

We have a hedge between us. It grows from their side. The hedge was here long before I moved in(so was the tree). They cut it religiously on their side. On our side it grows wild. I have always heard what comes from their side is their, don't cut it. But from what I am reading here, that might not be true??

 

So the next problem is there are some blackberry stalks that definitely come out of the ground on my side. A few yearsago, I wanted to get rid of them and use that space. I cut them back. The neighbor left me a nasty letter saying they were her berries, I had no right to cut them and I should have at least said something first. That was 3 yrs ago.

 

Last week I was back there and noticed they have pulled all the blackberry stalks through the fence to their side. But they used a ton of strings a clamps and what not to hold them back. That stuff is all over on my side. It makes me want to cut the dumb blackberries all the way down and cut their dumb strings. Anyway, doesanyone know the official ruling on blackberries? Since it grows from the ground on my property can I cut it down? Or not because they pulled everything over there (except the bottoms that still grow on my side).

[featherlight 1,368]

Don't know about the berries but they are responsible for cutting both sides of their hedge. You don't have to do it and if they don't make arrangements to come round and do it, it is your right to ask them to do it. Give them a deadline.

[Guest]

I think of the stems are on your property then its ok to cut them. Go for it!

[fraufruit 41,963]

lil96

 

Can't you just plant a bush or something beside the blackberries to hide their mess?

 

Meanwhile, put a rubber snake in there. Make a funny video of your neighbor and put it on youtube.

[IvoMV 258]

I love blackberries, I would just eat any on my side of the fence. Sorry I don't think I can help more.

 

I'm surprised that people often consider these brambles as something negative. It is true they have thorns, but they look decently nice to me. And ripe bramble blackberries are extremely tasty!

 

Ivo.

[lisa13 12,245]

for the blackberries, the only thing that will really stop them is an underground, usually plastic, barrier to prevent the roots from spreading. I think your neighbors should be the ones to install that, but even if you have to do it yourself, it should be worth the time as it should end your aggravation.

 

I don't know anyone who regularly prunes pine trees, unless it's to remove dead matter. The whole point of pines is that they have a pleasing natural shape and they don't get all rangy and weird, as well as the evergreen aspect. Yes they get tall. They are trees.

 

I have a neighbor who had asked the previous owner of my house to cut down a tree because it blocked her sun. They refused. She then planted a wisteria to climb up the tree (which CLEARLY is not going to give her more sun, ahem) and of course the wisteria was also strangling the tree and by the time I moved in it was dying (I'm PRETTY sure she expected this outcome). This conveniently meant that *I* had to pay $500 to have the tree removed. NOT COOL. I started pruning her wisteria after that as it started to invade the arborvitae (I asked her to take care of it repeatedly), and now it seems to be dead. Normally I would feel really bad about that, but in this case, screw it. The great irony is that even though she wanted the tree gone to get more light, she then complained that she had no privacy and too much view into my neighbor's ugly yard. Which leads to the point that cutting down a tree has a MAJOR impact that you can't always envision before it's too late. But anyway...

 

Bottom line: don't be too selfish about these things (I don't mean the OP explicitly, just anyone in general who has this bee in their bonnet). If a situation preceeded you, you have no choice but to deal with it. There are lots of lovely, very special plants that do best in shade so work with what you have. This idea that neighbors have a right to expect major changes to existing landscape to property that is not theirs is just crazy. It's just not yours to fiddle with.

[fraufruit 41,963]

 

And ripe bramble blackberries are extremely tasty!

Yes, so long as you eat the ones above dog weenie level.

[nina_glyndwr 4,748]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1376524/Let-light-Vicar-threatened-ASBO-imposing-rectory-conifers.html

[lisa13 12,245]

To my knowledge, topping a conifer will not cause it to grow more horizontally, the way it does with some deciduous trees.

 

Awful idea.

[mtbiking 1,887]

OK, if possible I'd appreciate a few words of advice on the following situation. Or maybe I just need to rant.

 

I live in a rowhouse. My neighbor, who is currently renting her place out during a supposedly one year stay in the UK, has decided this spring to renovate her garden/garden house in a way that involved cutting large root pieces of a huge (higher than a four store building) pine tree she has in her garden. She originally wanted to have the tree removed but balked at the price.  OK, not my business I thought (and had other things to worry about), I did talk to her when I saw how much of the roots the Handwerker were actually removing but to no avail. She told me that they had guaranteed that the tree would be OK and that was it.

 

Fast forward 6 months: the tree is dying or dead already. The upper 3/4 of the tree have lost most of the leaves

 and the remaining ones are brown. I'm now afraid that the tree will fall onto my garden/house and in worst case hurt someone. I phoned the neighbor and she started complaining that she has no money to take care of the problem, which also makes me wonder whether she's adequately insured..

 

So, in the end my question is: can we do something to protect ourselves? And what are the possible legal consequences if the tree falls, bzw. which insurance would she need to have to cover the costs (halbpflicht?) and what happens if she doesn't? I feel bad about the tree too, it provided us with a beautiful view and was home to a lot of wildlife. if I knew then what I know now I'd have actively tried to stop her.

 

The next house I'm buying will be free-standing. F.. neighbours.