Why do people want to rip every plant out of their gardens?!

[Turnedtochaos]

Just that.

My NDN have spent the past 2 days pulling up every mature tree, shrub and plant from the fence lines at the back and sides of their garden. Now instead of a view of lovely trees I can see all the houses behind and get a view of 3 families who now have no privacy. I can now see NDN wandering around in wheras before I could see nothing at all!

The plants weren’t shading their massive garden either and were covered in beautiful flowers. Just why?

Before anyone says…I have my own plants but due to the angle it won’t offer any privacy for those behind NDN.

I have my own trees.

Due to the angle of the garden I couldn’t block of that bit of view myself. If that makes any sense.

So she’s to the left. The lovely wall of plants was at the bottom of her garden blocking the view of the people at the bottom of her garden, not mine. My house is elevated more than hers so now from my windows I can now see the people at the bottom of her garden sitting in the conservatory! She might not be able to see them as badly as me as she’s lower, unless she’s looking from upstairs.

I can plant my own along the side of the fences between me and her (and will if anyone can recommend anything fast and tall) but it’s going to take a while to grow.

Because they like the idea of a garden but are too lazy/unable to do any work and/or can’t afford to/don’t want to pay a gardener. I must admit I find it thoroughly depressing when people rip out plants and turf and slab it over, it looks like shit. And I’m no Monty Don.

Completely take your point about securing your garden for your dog.

Too late for you now, but an option is to put a chain link fence just inside the hedge. The hedge will grow through it to hide the fence. You can trim it as and when necessary. It would have been much cheaper than wooden fencing.

The hedge was probably a really excellent wind break protecting your garden from the wind and weather coming at your property over the 'open farmland'. You might find your new fence takes a battering.

Brambles and ivy are probably the very best habitat for nesting birds.

even worse is when they replace plants and turf with fake grass. Absolutely fucking vile stuff that should be banned.

YANBU Op. I find it extremely depressing. They will probably pave it or put down that horrible plastic grass soon. Meanwhile I’ve just eaten this year’s first homegrown strawberry.

That sounds lovely. Our baby blackbirds fledged this morning and have been fluttering around the garden all day. Nothing more beautiful than the song of blackbirds (but please don't tell the robin I said that).

Beautiful! Well done.

My DH would 100% rip out all of the plants in our garden if I let him! He hates plants and flowers, says they are untidy. He hates weeds and finds them stressful to look at. He said to me, just this weekend actually, that he is so fed up of a specific path in our garden - it is a gravel path - and there are weeds popping through the gravel, quite a few actually! It did have a weed prevention layer down before the gravel but clearly the weeds didn't read this information!

I mentioned to him that he rarely sits out in the garden and he said it is because of the weeds, especially on the path, and the general look of the garden and the plants that he find it just too stressful. Our garden is actually very lovely, beautiful in-bloom plants and flowers and gorgeous lavender that is just turning purple. It is not untidy, there is nothing lying around that shouldn't be there - he likes order and symmetry. He did choose some of the garden design and some plants but because they haven't grown symmetrically he just can't deal with it! He would have lots of concrete, fences and perhaps a tree or two but that would be it.

I think he's in the minority of people but there must be others like him!

@Turnedtochaos Fast and tall hedging = laurel, photina, hornbeam.
You have to be prepared to maintain a fast growing tall hedge forever though.

Could you put in a tree nearer your house rather than at the fence line? Because it's in the foreground it blocks out the view quicker than waiting for a tree/hedge to grow at the furthest point of your garden. Hard to explain, but perhaps if you stand in your garden/window you'll be able to picture how it works.

I share your sentiment!! In my opinion a garden should have trees, flowers, be full of life!

I live near a new build estate and a lot of my local friends/ my kids friends live there. They have largely gone for patio slabs and astro turf. Not my idea of a garden and awful for wildlife.

Our garden isn’t huge but full of life. Robins, blackbirds, squirrels, hedgehogs and frogs all visit/ live here ❤️.

Ugh, please not laurel :(.

Native species like hawthorn, blackthorn, crabapple etc also grow fast, but have lovely blossom and provide food for wildlife.

Has everyone watched Small Prophets? It was very cathartic!

Much better ideas for nature. Quite right.

Ours is a bit of a jungle at present, big trees, shrubs and rather overgrown grass and wild flowers. And quite a few pots of 'nice' things wilting in pots. We need rain!

I could, but it would have to be pretty much in the middle of my lawn to block the bit that means I can see into the old couples bungalow.

At the moment my lawn is open but surrounded by trees and hedges at the fence lines. The plants bordering along the side that adjoins hers would need to almost double in height and I don’t think it can. It’s a lovely vine/climber but there’s no way it can make 8-9ft which is what it would need to be!

Loved it. Michael's garden was just heaven.

Great conversation with his neighbour about slug pellets.
"I can't think why you need slug pellets because your garden is all plastic flowers. What do the slug's eat?"
"The slug pellets."

Because people are idiots.

They like the grey "clean" aesthetic.

I love our garden. The previous owners planted some things and we've taken down a row of yews and grown/planted a gorgeous border. We have a wildlife area where we leave to just grow, gaps in the fence for wildlife, water left out and a compost bin. I love spending time gardening and enjoying nature.

Pleached red robins along the fence line where neighbours have cut down trees/ hedge/ plants make a good shallow screening.

A tree might be lovely in the centre of your lawn. I saw one in an Open Gardens just this week. A fantastic crab apple underplanted with wafty grasses and tall alliums - the purple globes seemed to float on the grass under the tree. The lady of the house told me that when the crab apple is in blossom the bed underneath is full of pink and white tulips.

Our slugs (and snails) eat cabbages and all other greens, pea and bean plants virtually anything you want to grow as food, and then there are aphids.

Oh I totally agree. A few years ago i bought an absolute wreck of a house with the most wonderful 120ft long garden although overgrown had the most beautiful flowers and trees. I moved away and had to sell it. A few years later the new owners put it on the market. I was gutted to see that they had torn everything out of it and it looked so sad. Just why I will never know.

Can then plant other shrubs/ flowers underneath. If you don’t want to lose depth.

This is such sad reading. A while ago friends moved to a new house and on my first visit I thought how lucky, a garden with lots of mature shrubs . Second visit they'd all gone and the garden was very different. Admittedly they have planted things, but now it's a very "neat" suburban feel with the 18 inch border all round, rather than a glorious abandon of tall shrubs, which they obviously thought were untidy.

I saw this, it was sad and I wasn't very impressed the BBC showed it. She said part of it was children wanting to play, which I understand, but in my view it's best to just have plenty of tough shrubs etc and accept that some might get damaged by footballs and not be too precious!

When we moved in, our garden was a blank square canvas, with no plants and lots of slabs, and a few dead tree stumps and big rocks. In some ways we were pleased because it meant we could do what we wanted with it. DH worked hard to clear the dead tree stumps and rocks, and lift some of the paving slabs so we could have a veg patch and deeper borders. We have put a good number of plants in, and fully intend to keep adding over time as energy, time and budget allow!

Our DD is 2 and has this year been starting to 'help' us in the garden with her little watering can, sowing some seeds, picking the strawberries, filling up the water for the birds. And she plays in the garden while we do gardening. I have no doubt this will only increase as she gets older. There are also balls kicked and bikes ridden around, that's life. We will teach her to care about nature and look after it.

Our new arsehole neighbour did this wiped out a 60 year mature oasis basically, two months ago however they did a bad job as they just cut to the ground and now it’s fighting back which I find very funny. Also some bamboo I didn’t know was there over 6ft already by a hidden waterfall.

Also that the gardens smaller than they expected. The garden they want to grow fuck all in.