Last fucking straw

[sarahC40]

Handhold please and advice (on how not to utterly lose my shit or get arrested for this). It’s not been a great lockdown.

Saving Grace: my garden. Lovely tree, probably in the wrong place but predates the houses, was cut down without warning, so that my view, which was of said lovely tree, is now of the back of someone’s house. They have now closed all of their blinds because, yes, we are now overlooking each other.

The tree is in no man’s land between the gardens - it doesn’t belong to them. They’ve got down everything that overhung my garden (my son woke up to find men climbing over my fence and most of tree gone) and they’ve left a twenty foot high stump. My other neighbours were open mouthed in shock, so this isn’t just me sounding off; it’s horrendous.

I know there’s nothing that I can do, but I would like some vengeful suggestions that I won’t act on but will help me as I try to stop crying at the fucking awful sight of their fugly house.

God, these twats and the wankers who buy classic homes so they can gut them and put in a plastic ikea furniture are some of the worst people on the planet. If you want a sterile hospital of a home, build one. Don't destroy history.

Fuck them.

This is horrible. Similar happened to me (they "don't like mess") and I sobbed for days. Will never speak to them again. It was a huge tree and habitat for many species. Cut down on a May day in nesting season.

I planted six crabapple trees in my small yard and they have grown quite a bit and fill my eye so I don't notice the tree gap as much. Three years on. Birds like them. You have to carefully select varieties with small enough fruit for birds.

Good luck. The pain fades but not the anger.

@Zenithbear

Beautiful tree, Birds nesting! I would be fuming. Over tidy gardens are shit for wildlife especially at this time of year.

Agree.

My garden is very wild and unkempt for precisely this reason. I'm itching to do a spring clean but overwintering insects still need the cover so will refrain for another month.

People need to get over their mania for outdoor neatness.

@myusernamewastakenbyme

I have a huge walnut tree in my back garden...i had it pollarded last year...tree surgeon said it needed it as it had lots of dead in it ..also had the crown lifted and the tree looks much healthier now.. as a side note tree surgeon told me he often gets abuse from the public when hes on a tree job....he said people dont understand that its better for the tree...keeps it healthy etc.

I don't take tree advice from people who make more money the more they cut off.

Whilst there are some good planting suggestions here, I wouldn't plant either silver birch or eucalyptus, for the same reasons.

When we moved into our house, we planted a silver birch. And lovely it is. However, our garden is relatively small, and after 17 years it reached approx 15 metres in height and needed to be reduced by 45% and now that it's been reduced, it's growth habit has changed and its considerably bushier and not as attractive.

Looking at it as I type, it still must top 8m and whilst i love it I wish we'd gone for something more appropriate for the situation.

Eucalyptus I could only see as being worse, although stunning, because it grows even faster.

@RileyG73

And I'm not anti nature, far from it!

There's currently a huge hideous tree in my neighbours garden, council owned. I'd fkin love them to lob it down before it comes crashing down onto my house, hideous thing is rotten, covered in ivy. Ergh

I have literally never seen a 'hideous' tree. I've seen a lot of hideous people but trees almost never fail to be, in their own way, beautiful. OP I'm raging for you. I hope it had a TPO on it and I hope the council fine them heavily.

Our neighbours cut down the tree that was giving us cover in the corner of our small garden ( because of tree roots causing probs). They didn't speak to us about it and I came home from work to find us overlooked by 6 houses and absolutely no privacy. We were devastated, so can understand how you feel I'm looking for fast growing trees but so far all are out of my budget. Potted bamboo can give a bit of privacy.

@PerveenMistry what an odd comment...do you think trees should be left to grow and never be cut back? the price i was quoted and paid was regardless of how much he took off...as i said earlier the tree is much healthier and more importantly safer.

Never seen an ugly tree, never

Her garden was probably in complete shade due to the tree

@Sweetnessfight then why buy the house? It's once again the entitlement that pisses me off, I'll cut down the tree because I want to, never mind anyone else and it wasn't even their tree

[quote Daleksatemyshed]@Sweetnessfight then why buy the house? It's once again the entitlement that pisses me off, I'll cut down the tree because I want to, never mind anyone else and it wasn't even their tree [/quote]
Not to guy a house that otherwise may tick every box in terms of distance to work, school catchment, proximity to family, the space working for you family etc etc
Because of a tree causing shade seems.... unlikely

I had a lovely tree on my land and someone hacked at it to the point where the whole thing had to come down. I do not know 100% who it was (I had been out and came home to find it had been chopped about) but have strong suspicions about it.
I really liked that tree, I was in tears also as the thrushes liked it for a nesting spot.
It was years ago but I still have not forgiven the person who did it - and if you are reading this now you know why you get scowls every time you go past my house.

@PerveenMistry

This is horrible. Similar happened to me (they "don't like mess") and I sobbed for days. Will never speak to them again. It was a huge tree and habitat for many species. Cut down on a May day in nesting season.

I planted six crabapple trees in my small yard and they have grown quite a bit and fill my eye so I don't notice the tree gap as much. Three years on. Birds like them. You have to carefully select varieties with small enough fruit for birds.

Good luck. The pain fades but not the anger.

You sobbed for days? Are you unbalanced?

So sorry OP. Unfortunately they walk among us. I attach an example of this sort of idiot. This Magnolia was, granted, allowed to run riot and it is in the wrong place in a tiny terrace garden but hey why not chainsaw back just one side? Maybe because that chap is not the owner but the next door neighbour who did this by stealth one afternoon! He very kindly left all the cut off branches in the garden for the tree owner to dispose.

@Chewingle, would you buy the house without finding out if you could legally cut the tree down or would you learn to live with the shade? I'm probably tetchy about this, lived with a massive tree in the garden and it shaded the house at the bottom of the garden and every one who moved there whinged about the tree. They saw the tree before they moved in but they still moved in. I told them they could cut back the bits on their side to the boundary but they all thought we should do it. Tough shit because we rented so not our job, landlords wouldn't pay for it.

Like a PP I had a magnificent cherry tree reduced basically to a trunk with a few sticky-out bits when the tree surgeon was only asked to prune. I still mourn it now even though (10 years later) it is finally back to a reasonable size again. But it was utterly beautiful and covered my whole lawn with blossom. It's about 1/3 the size now.

So yes I get it. Ignore those who are mocking - even one tree is a massive ecosystem of life, definitely to be mourned. Especially as it wasn't even her tree to cut down!

Yes, my neighbours who instructed their hedge cutting people to take down the height of my hedge on my property behind their fence had only lived there 1 year and were fully aware of the hedge when they bought the property.

We have other neighbours who bought their houses with massive trees in their back gardens. Funnily enough these trees suddenly became 'unsafe' on a Sunday and needed emergency tree surgery on a Sunday when it was not possible to contact the council for approval.

2-3 different sets of people have done this in our road. Apparently there are tree surgeons who are happy to declare trees unsafe on a Sunday or bank holiday and cut them basically in half with just a trunk left.

What makes this even worse is that's not only about nature.

It's about people, trees are invaluable for people's physical and emotional well-being and survival.

But no, we cut them down because we don't like the mess and because we feel entitled to deprive wildlife of their homes and survival for our convenience.

It's disgusting. We need to planting more and keeping trees instead of stupidly cutting them down.

Her garden was probably in complete shade due to the tree

And? Why is she more important than the enjoyment of other people?

@RileyG73

And I'm not anti nature, far from it!

There's currently a huge hideous tree in my neighbours garden, council owned. I'd fkin love them to lob it down before it comes crashing down onto my house, hideous thing is rotten, covered in ivy. Ergh

Ivy is really important. It's one of the only fruiting plants during winter.

More animals and plants are threatened with extinction than at any point in human history.

Oh OP I sympathise so much. Our new NDNs are the remove every living thing in pursuit of a tidy home types. Cut the trees down, removed the hedges, put down fake grass. When I suggested they not cut the main tree between us and them as it gave us (both) privacy, they said they didn't mind and would like to see our children playing . It's awful. Poor tree. Do plant another!

@Boatingforthestars

Sneak into their garden after nightfall with a bag of frozen sausages and a hammer. Hammer said sausages upright into their lawn evenly spaced.

Watch on as all the local cats and foxes completely destroy their lawn over the next week digging them out!

I'd love to claim this idea as mine but I have borrowed it from another forum.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Our new next door eighbours lovely though they are, have emoved all the beautiful mature lilac in their garden which were gorgeous in May and provided lots of privacy.

They are systematically removing all shrubs and admittedly the monster conifers in their garden too so they'll be completely overlooked by the house at the end of their garden.

It's a real shame but it's their garden and the conifers have sucked all the moisture from the lawns on either side of them including ours.

I've planted lots of laurel and the lilac has self seeded too so next year I'll have a bit more privacy again.

It's really bizarre as their garden is basically one long boring strip of crap lawn now but I don't want to fall out with them over it. As far as I can see I just need to plant as many fast growing shrubs and trees as I can in my own garden.