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.

That's awful OP, what is wrong with some people. I'd be so upset.

We recently sold my in laws house after they both passed away. Their garden was their absolute pride and joy .. before they became ill/very elderly, they'd spend hours tending it. It could have been on the front page of a gardening magazine.

I'd be so upset if the new owners paved it/ripped stuff out.

Our neighbour hacked down a beautiful old wisteria that was growing over this garage ... he wanted to paint the garage. Fair enough but he could have pulled it away slightly to paint it, not hack it all down and bin it. Dick.

Surely an outside TV or screen of any sort is the ultimate two fingers up to your neighbours.

My DH can get a bit over excited with the shears .... I've had to rush out and stop him from cutting down plants that he thinks are dead ... I have to explain that in a few weeks/months they'll be beautiful again.

I have been distracted by contentious divorce so my actual garden is overgrown and needs some attention but not ripping out. In the meantime for the sake of wildlife I have focused on pots and hanging baskets.

Re your first paragraph - I think I know a fudging bugger and had a row with him once. I pronounce curses on him from afar, when I see his van. "When you die may you spend the first thirty million years of all eternity looking at a brick wall six inches from your nose, in return for the pig's ear you have created."

Re your second paragraph, I understand exactly what you are saying. When I was a child we would be overwhelmed by those little black flies when the wheat was ripening. We called them thunderflies. I don't see them now. My relation's old fields are now a massive prairie, no headlands et cetera. I wrote to Defra a few years ago with 'Ideas' but I didn't send my address so didn't get a reply. I didn't want one. I just wanted to make suggestions that at least one person would read.

I do my best. I said to a man, "oh, dear, I've put in too many trees, too close." and he replied, "We've all done it." Sadly, not everyone has.

Edited to change i to I.

I couldn’t post the wild garden shots - I’ll try again - images too big.

I think all the thunder fly’s have relocated to rural Suffolk! Along with the horsefly’s. Having moved to rural Norfolk we have an abundance of dragon flies of multiple species. Lovely.

Yes, thanks, I'm aware of that. But there's only so long grass will stay alive in that dormant state. It's fine if it does that in late summer, not so fine in April when it should be putting on green growth. For lots of us in the droughtiest bits of the south east it's been getting more and more difficult to keep a lawn alive and this spring has been exceptionally dry here. We had very low rainfall in March, no rain in April, and I think we had one day of decent rain in May, which came down all at once and mostly ran straight off because everything was so dry. I don't have brown and crispy grass I have no grass. I have dust. So I could water it through spring, reseed every year, which again takes a load of water, or just accept that in the particular spot where I live a lawn is not sustainable.

Yes, we use bark for pathways and it's OK for running around but not great for kicking a ball. Also it tends to turn into a giant litter tray if you're not vigilant.

I was thinking of something firmer like some sort of coir matting but less rough. There probably is something, I'm not in the market for it because my DC have grown up and left home, so I haven't looked.

You know having read this thread I’m actually pretty proud of my wee garden. I’ve been quite embarrassed of it in the last as it’s tiny but I have been looking at it afresh having read this, it may be small but it’s full of lovely flowers, shrubs, bushes and trees. Much nicer than a garden of concrete slabs and plastic grass and plants.

Shitlawns on twitter has some awful and depressing images of such gardens. Grim to look at and environmentally awful

Yes I'm proud of mine too This is the front from above, it's really steep. The back garden, with the tragic scrap of ex-lawn is a bit of a wip still.

Then do a more formal, symmetrical type of garden, rather than rambling English country garden.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVXD36PDdOu/

Here's a delightful large garden

Take a look at Beverleys_garden on Instagram. She's made a new build look lovely. And Pollyanna Wilkinson has inspiration and practical stuff to do now type of content.

My ‘tree view’ from the lounge.

MIL and FIL are like this. For some reason they like having some small plants in pots, but won’t tolerate plants growing in the ground at all. They spend most of their spare time ‘working on the garden’ but it’s empty and soulless compared to when they moved in.

I find it very odd but then I like a slightly wild and free growing garden.
Bring back long grass and wildflowers! Good for nature and minimal work.

Aren't there other non grassy plants you can use in a lawn? I thought clover was good for dry conditions?

Yes, I have heard that, and I've certainly noticed that clover stays greener than the surrounding grass in a 'weedy' lawn. I've got some glorious flowering clovers in the beds that I planted as a green manure and then decided they were too pretty to dig in. They do well but I do water them regularly.

But I'm not at all sad about saying goodbye to the lawn. It's a tiny garden anyway and we've got a couple of little patio areas to sit, just a few loose slabs with stuff growing inbetween. That suits us now it's just me and DH. I'd rather have flowers and shrubs and veg beds.

Because we can

In England the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects nesting birds, nests and eggs. The hedge of tree isn’t generally protected (though there are some that may be). Cutting now would pose a high risk. Presumably the reason this is owners not qualified tree surgeons or gardeners that
value wildlife and their livelihood. A

Looking to see whether the same protection applies to Scotland and Wales and NI it does and this Tree surgeon notes that bats and roosts are protected all year.

I also wonder how many people who pave their front gardens for a driveway actually follow planning laws?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permeable-surfacing-of-front-gardens-guidance/guidance-on-the-permeable-surfacing-of-front-gardens

The driveway is supposed to be permeable, or run off into a border area, to prevent flooding, and the drainage system becoming overwhelmed. But as far as I can tell they just seem to get someone to slap a load of tarmac down, without even attempting a border / drainage area. Some of the houses with driveways don’t have dropped kerbs either which is illegal.

In fact I would like the Council to stop allowing any new dropped kerbs to be built.

Paving of front gardens is known to be contributing to flooding, and increased temperatures in cities but councils don’t seem to want to discourage it.

There are some ideas here from the RHS on how to incorporate planting into a front driveway:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/pdf/gardening-matters-front-gardens-urban-greening.pdf

I hate, hate, hate the plastic grass.

Love a garden with just an edge of wild