Evil trees

[Gettingbysomehow]

Once again tree hating neighbours going on and on about my tree and a few leaves blowing around. I planted a slim horn beam that is tall but narrow and the majority of the leaves fall in my garden and a few go over the fence if the wind blows hard.
I'm also planting a flagpole cherry...grows straight up. No spreading branches.
I put the trees in as the house that backs onto mine can see straight into my house.
I was considering my neighbours when I anted them by not planting an enormous tree like an oak. Neither tree affects their sunlight.
They detest the trees more than death. They go on an on about them.
Both neighbours have artificial turf and no plants of their own. Its so depressing.
Why are people so angry about trees and wildlife. We need them.
So far I've just ignored them. I collect my leaves and compost them. They do wonders for my plants.
It seems to me that people more and more want to live In barren empty landscapes. I cant understand it.

It's depressing, isn't it? Our street is one of the few in the neighbourhood that still has a lot of mature large trees like maple, oak and chestnuts. Massive trees, probably as old as the houses around.
We were lucky to buy a property with a large beech and a couple of evergreen trees. We so often get asked why we don't take them down, so much more light apparently. But they are a haven for the local wildlife; this would all be lost otherwise. But people just don't care.

I'm about to go and fill our garden waste bin for the third time with leaves from the enormous sycamore in our neighbours' garden. In spring I will spend weeks pulling out little seedlings, and will still find hidden saplings for months to come.

But this summer, when it was roasting hot, we still had cool shade at the bottom of the garden for the kids to play. And we have hundreds of beautiful birds who come to visit, who hide in that tree and the shrubs in our garden. We also have evil squirrels and messy crows, but that's another story.

The thought of artificial turf and barren skylines is just so awful to me - I'm with you OP.

If they don't like trees they could go and live in a sterile apartment somewhere! Don't get me started on artificial grass, it's an abomination.

We have leaf whingers on our drive too 😢

Ignore ignore.
It's awful. Nothing you can do though.
Ignore.

I don't have trees. I'm disabled with mobility issues and leaves are a slipping hazard for me.

I don't have any plants either because I'm disabled and I can't maintain them or look after them.

Reminds of a neighbour I met when we'd just moved into a miserable barren grey concrete estate where everyone seems to have 3 cars. She told me they moved in 20 years ago and when the estate was new the council had planted rows of cherry trees that blossomed heavily. She was so proud that she'd been the one to organise a petition to get them all cut down 10 years later because of "that nasty blossom spoiling the pavements and sticking to cars." It's a totally alien mindset to mine, I plant trees all the time and I only rent. I hope that at least some of them survive after I move out but I doubt it.

Why are people so angry about trees and wildlife.

People are lazy I think and have got used to an unnatural life of cheap quick cleanliness and disposability because it makes life easier.

They'd rather have a tarmaced drive to park a car on than a beautiful little lawn at the front with plants and flowers that they have to tend , water and look after.

They'd rather have artificial grass than lawn and experience the joy of the scent of freshly cut grass than have the bother of weeding/mowing/lawn care.

They'd rather have artificial plants and flowers than have the bother of watering and changing the flowers in the vase.

They'd rather have an ugly fence than a beautiful green hedge and the bother of having to get it trimmed.

My friend has a pear tree on her neighbours boundary and she and her friends/family have repeatedly nearly had an eye out with neighbour wankers throwing the pears back over like fucking cannon balls.

Writing this makes me actually surprised that no one has started selling fake whole plastic trees for a garden so you have no leaf fall to clean up.

This is a sad time of the world to live in. I know it's a trope to blame the internet and social media but likely part of the problem.

Maybe they're worried about the trees blocking light to their house? My parents used to have a row of huge trees in their front drive for years, but they cut them down and their living room got a LOT brighter.

(fwiw I like a good tree, especially if it's easy to climb)

How close did you plant the trees to the border?

I've planted several big trees in my garden but have planted them well away from the border.

Thank goodness I'm not the only one. People are totally obsessed with light. The estate I live on is horrible in summer it's baking hot with no relief from the sun. There is nothing I love more than sitting under my tree in the shade. It's the only thing that makes summer bearable.

Our green bin was emptied on Friday, but it's full again today, with debris from our neighbour's trees. Not leaves, but pine needles, pine cones and small branches, that drop all over our garden when there's a bit of wind. Idiot neighbour has 4 massive Scots Pine trees that are about double the height of our houses. His own roof is so full of debris it has plants growing in it!! Not only have we spent half a day of our time to clear his debris, green bin collections cost us every year and we barely put any of our own stuff in it as it's always full of pine debris. Every few years a huge limb falls down - the last time it ruined our fence, the time before it ruined our shed. He doesn't care! He refused to have them trimmed, refuses to apply for permission to have them felled. They're right at his boundary, so don't bother him as much as us. Some people are just arses about their trees and have no consideration for neighbours!

I despise our neighbours tree which butts up against our fence. Which we will need to replace for the second time in 10 years because their tree has bowed the panels and cracked the concrete base bits and posts where it continues to spread outwards. Our lawn needs extra watering as it sucks all the moisture out. And I’m sick to the back teeth of the shit it drops into my garden and then blows all over my lovely patio. We have 2 small fruit trees at the end of our garden which we maintain and look after.
Shame our neighbours can’t do us the same courtesy and control their revolting leylandi which was 6ft tall when we moved in and now well over 20ft.
Your neighbours are lucky with only a few leaves, we have absolutely shit loads and it makes our garden look tatty.

Damn right I want to make my life easier. You're welcome to my disabilities if you want to give it a try for a fortnight and see how you get on.

There are some trees that don't belong in gardens, and I can empathise with people being frustrated by them. Things like eucalyptus, evolved to survive
drought for months in Australia, grow to insane sizes very quickly in the rich damp soil of the NE. But native trees are a positive boon to gardens.

I'm lucky enough to have numerous mature trees around and they are chockful of wildlife. Then again, my garden is sufficiently sized that I have a mix of sun and shade during the day.

A neighbour has a hornbeam, OP, and they really are beautiful trees.

I agree. My garden is a wildlife haven. Look on Rightmove and you see a stream of gardens that are mostly paving, decking, gravel and plastic grass. In just one generation, people have become disinterested in having living plants in their garden and welcoming the animal life that comes with it.

With increasingly extreme summer temperatures we need more plants and trees, not less. There is solid evidence that where there are trees and grass the local air temperature is lower; where there's artificial grass and concrete, it's much higher. The more we deplete green plants, the more we bake ourselves to death.

That's all fine, but what are people like me supposed to do? I cannot manage to maintain a garden more than lawn (which I have).

I can't get outside when the paths are covered in leaves as they're so slippy I'm a fall risk and I don't want to give in to using my wheelchair all the time. I physically want to keep walking as much as I am able (albeit with an aid).

It does depend on size and location. I love nature (volunteer at a nature reserve, have a wildlife friendly garden and an allotment) but my neighbours trees do wind me up, we have narrow gardens (15' or so, terraced houses) and they have a silver birch and a beech whose canopies spread across our garden, over the canopy of our smaller fruit tree which is suffering, they are too high for us to cut back easily, we get very little sunshine now as they are to the SW of us. They are also full of clematis and rambling roses which get into our tree and swamp it, again from so high it's hard to stop them. I like shade but it there is very little of our garden that you can grow much in now. I'd like to see them replaced by smaller trees.

Fully agree OP. Ignore and plant plant plant.
Oh, and artificial grass 🤮 don't even get me started 😂

@howtonavigate Damn right I want to make my life easier. You're welcome to my disabilities if you want to give it a try for a fortnight and see how you get on. You know full well that the OP and whoever else you responded to are not out to criticise you and your disability and therefore your lack of foliage. So really, we get it, you have a disability, point made, now move on.

@howtonavigate

Damn right I want to make my life easier. You're welcome to my disabilities if you want to give it a try for a fortnight and see how you get on.

I am sorry to hear of your disabilities.

However, as you well know, I was talking about able bodied people with no disabilities who are deliberately choosing convenience and laziness over natural beauty and some minor effort they are perfectly capable of making if they could be bothered.

Well no, I didn't know that because you didn't say that.

I agree with you @Gettingbysomehow absolutely, at a time when everyone needs to look after the natural world more than ever, more and more people rip out hedges, take down trees and don't think about the consequences for anything but themselves. My trees and hedges are full of birds and it's wonderful to watch them. One day people will complain when their child never see a bird or a butterly

Keep ignoring them.
There is the question of sunlight though. Has all your planting plunged their garden into shade. Dont expect a Christmas card if it has.

I actually think it's shitty behaviour to do something that makes work for your neighbours.

If you love trees so much then you could offer to go around and clear up the leaves from your tree. That would solve the problem. Or maybe you don't actually love your trees that much 🤭

I love trees and I have some big trees in my garden but, as I mentioned earlier, they are far from the boundaries. I also regularly get a tree surgeon in and take care of my trees. Two of my neighbours use the same tree surgeon as me and we work together to decide what work needs to be done.

I spoke to my neighbours when I moved in before removing trees on the boundary. (Ugly huge leylandii )

@howtonavigate

Well no, I didn't know that because you didn't say that.

David Attenborough's voice (whispering): And here we can see a really fine example of the Egocentric Bias in all its glory.