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 think SOME developers and some district council planning departments have a lot to answer for, as does central government. There could be laws about the amount of green that must be incorporated into any development and adhered to. I know the developers would bleat about how poverty-stricken they are if they had to make gardens a bit bigger and couldn't get as many houses on to a particular space.
Are you old enough to remember Nina and Frederick's song about houses made of ticky-tacky and looking like boxes, little boxes, little boxes just the same? Round here it's villas or little boxes, on wonderful arable used-to-grow-food land.

Plant an oak tree. Brilliant for wildlife. That’ll teach them! 😂

You can pick up bare root hedging plants for around £1-2 each in the autumn (best time for planting). If you can add well-rotted manure compost then they’ll be massive in 1-2 years.

I do sympathize with wanting a low maintenance garden as I really struggle to keep up with our garden on top of work, two energetic children, supporting elderly relatives etc. My husband has zero interest in plants and doesn't lift a finger in the garden. The garden isn't huge but does have a wildlife pond, mature trees and bushes. Loads of wildlife. I do sometimes dream about a little new build type garden when everything is getting on top of me. but I also love the wildlife... I am trying to gradually reduce the height of the trees and bushes so it's a bit more manageable to keep on top of.

Boom. I wondered when someone would say that. You are the classic snooty moaner netter!

Something called biodiversity net gain has recently been introduced (under the Tories!), meaning that any development should have more biodiversity when completed than the land did initially. It's helping a bit, although you can imagine all the fudging that's taking place.

But "wonderful arable land", although indeed useful for growing crops, can often be a biodiversity desert, what with chain flailing and cutting back hedgerows almost out of existence, not leaving field margins anymore, not leaving fields fallow over winter, and the widespread spraying of glyphosate weedkiller over entire fields. Etc etc etc...

A great part of the UK's biodiversity crisis is down to intensive agriculture. You often find way more wildlife in back gardens....just not the ones talked about in this thread.

In addition, blackthorn is so vigorous you might be able to get plenty for free, if you can find someone with land.

I would have planters rather than pots- the bigger the container, the slower they are to dry out. If you can site them on bare earth and pave around them, even better. Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, bay,oregano, lavender etc would be good- they're also good for bees, smell nice and you can grab a handful for the kitchen when you need them.

Too many people do not give a fig. But more worryingly, are proud of the fact they don’t.

Grey is going to go out of date oh so fast…..

That moment cannot come soon enough.

yeah, I've already got a few herbs like this out the back and yes, was thinking of adding some more in the front with a few larger/taller options like rosemary and Bay. Rosemary actually grows really well in the soil around us so that might be one I'd just plant in the few spots where there will still be spots. Good thinking on planters. My pots are all large, but you're right, that will help even more - although there's a part of me that doesn't want to spend even more emoney. I'll have to figure it out.

I'm also looking at lavender which I never had in the back because DD is terrified of bees but I think will be nice in the front and it does seem to do well in sun and our NDN has some lovely ones (albeit planted, not in pots/planters) in her front garden so they can clearly cope with the crazy sun we get in the front.

If we pave it, the other nice thing will be that I won't have to park as close to the hedges as I currently do so I will have space to add a few things in front of those bushes, which will provide some shade.

Thank you so much for your advice, that's really helpful!

We do actually have a crab apple tree already which the developer planted. It's alive but didn't get any blossom this year. We also have another tree in the front garden but no idea what it is.

We're considering a normal apple tree too for in the back garden.

It’s so sad. When we moved in I spent a lot of time, effort and money on the barren garden and now it’s a thriving (slightly too much at times!!) wild oasis with lots of plants, flowers, insects and birds. But now we’ve realised this probably isn’t our forever house due to changes we couldn’t have predicted, one of the things I’ll regret most is leaving the lovely garden that I love for the next people to probably rip it all out.

I do get why some people want/need low maintenance gardens, but it's depressing when they're just doing stupid things.

My neighbours across the way are a lovely couple in their 30s who are so very proud - they bought the house last autumn and have now installed poured concrete over the whole small garden, decorated with a half-terrace, strings of fairy lights and outdoor cushions. The husband told me proudly that they'd noticed it gets wet and boggy so they have had the concrete gently slanted at the edges so the rainwater 'pours away'. I asked if he'd had any conversation with the neighbours on either side about this. It hadn't even occurred to him.

(It is, obviously, quite dodgy to channel water onto someone else's land deliberately, and concreting over a wet garden is just beyond stupid, but he doesn't know, and someone obviously saw him coming and took his money.)

Around 15 years ago, my SiL walked into my kitchen and totally freaked out over the pot of basil on my windowsill. She kept going on about it being dirty and about me keeping a pot of dirt in the kitchen.She vowed never to eat in my house again and to this day, still hasn’t. Unsurprisingly, their garden is grey, minimalist and plastic.

My own sister hired a landscape gardener last year to transform her garden, which is a great size but was pretty wild and overgrown. She kept going on about the beautiful garden she was going to have and I was stupidly imagining borders of colour, and shrubs and trees which would mature. She invited us all to the grand unveiling of the new garden – the whole thing was paved over with a small square of plastic grass in one corner. She said she was delighted because there was no more dirt and no more birds attracted in – as if this is a good thing. Now she power washes the concrete and posts “look at me, I’m a gardener!” photos.

Closer to home, we live in a small cul-de-sac, with a narrow road opening. As long as we have been here, there has been a stunning border of mature shrubs lining the pavement as you enter the cul-de-sac. I’ve never seen anyone maintaining them - they seemed to look after themselves, never became overgrown nor unruly and were planted in a way to give colour throughout the year, including a stunning display of snowdrops each year. Visitors to our street would always comment on how beautiful it all looks and how inviting the street was. I suppose I’d never really given it a thought that this border belonged to the first house at the entrance to the street, until it was sold two months ago and, you guessed it – everything was ripped out within days of the new owners arriving. It’s literally just a border at the side of their house so it hasn’t been done for any practical reason (children’s play area or parking space). They’ve put chips down instead but now there are weeds coming up through the chips – and not the nice, wildflower-type weeds – and it looks an absolute mess.

I know all these people are entitled to do what they like with their own property and are not obliged to maintain an aesthetic. I’m also now realising just how many folk are out there who really hate plants and grass – it’s alien to me but each to their own. The impact on wildlife, pollination etc is real though

This ^ !

Yes, we've done the same, now we have fabulous garden with tall plants and different areas for sitting and private areas. It's horrible to think that the next people will undoubtedly tear it all up. It's kind of a relief to read this thread and feel glad that there are other people who appreciate plants.

@ThatMintMember Just another little tip. With your existing trees you can really help them along by adding a mulch around them. It improves the soil and help keep the water in the earth. Just add a bucket or two of compost or soil around the tree in spring - make sure to not take it right up to the tree trunk i.e. make like a ring doughnut around the tree. Your tree will do much better for it.

I hope you get some time to really enjoy your garden soon.

A near neighbour also ripped up a mature garden to lay 10 foot of plastic grass. There nothing else.
destruction of wildlife habitats is very sad.

.. meant to say 100 foot of the plastic grass

I don't like the outdoor room gardens with no grass or living things in them to be honest a few of my neighbours have done it and I think it looks a bit bleak but of course their garden their choice.

We have kept our garden with its bushes and grass but I am totally clueless about it all. My husband goes out a few times a year to trim it back and cut the grass but it doesn't look the best. In the winter the garden which is on a slope at the bottom of a larger hill is a total quagmire (we literally have reeds growing there due to all the water) but if we put in drainage it would just direct more water to our neighbours garden and we have more water because other neighbours have slabbed, decked and astroturfed their own garden.

I have no idea what to do but I do want to keep it alive and full of living things.

@IsawwhatIsaw I can't imagine how expensive that was. Or what a faff it's going to be to get leaves off it in autumn. They're going to blow onto it, mulch down into a nice growing medium and 12 million weed seeds are going to germinate across it.

It'll be in a skip within 3 years.

@GardenTable I heard the grass smells strongly of the plastic in hot weather , that it’s too hot to walk on in summer and that leaves, cat and other animal poo is a major chore to get off.
I understand people might not want a high maintenance garden, but this is a dead place .

When my neighbours moved in it was like watching an episode of Garden Rescue backwards. They started out with a lovely garden on two levels with a pretty summer house and landscaped planting areas with well established plants. They razed the ground flat, dug everything up and bulldozed the summer house. Now their garden looks like a classic new build garden with no character and black fences. Oh and an outside TV of course 🙄