To think we should be allowed to pull up our NDN’s stupid tree!!

[QueenofmyPrinces]

I live in a crescent and there are about 5 of us who have gardens that all kind of back on to one another.

In one of these gardens is a huge tree that is a total PITA! It’s at the end of their garden and some of it hangs over in to ours.

All winter our entire decking area and the lawn of our garden are COVERED in dead leaves that fall from the stupid tree that we have to go and rake up every day, and then every summer our entire garden is covered in bloody annoying soggy blossom petals and stuff which makes it looks awful and so messy.

We’ve had to buy one of those leaf blower/hoover type things because it’s the only way we can keep on top of it and we can’t actually play out in our garden with the toddler/baby until we’ve hoovered up all the crap that falls from their tree.

Last summer we looked in to our rights and as a result we hacked off all the branches that overhang our garden but it doesn’t solve anything because the other 90% of the tree still exists and its leaves and soggy blossom bits are still blown all over our decking/lawn every bloody day.

I can’t even explain how pissed off I am by it and every year the problem just gets worse as the tree gets bigger and bigger.

A few of the other surrounding neighbours have voiced their anger too because their gardens suffer that same way ours does and two of the neighbours gardens are practically in the shade all day because the big tree blocks the sunlight out.

AIBU to think that surely there’s something more we can do? Can a house owner be forced to have a massive tree removed if it impacts on everyone else?

www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2017/apr/18/cherry-blossom-around-the-world-in-pictures

Yes hoochyoo the transient nature of life:

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow."

AE Housman

The houses are 10 years old and so the tree was obviously planted by whoever first bought the house.

So this tree which is the size of a house and blossoms endlessly is only ten years old?

or it was there before the house was, you know, like nature is

Queenie - I don’t know what kind of tree it is, various people have said cherry trees but seeing as it is as big as the house, incredibly wise and does bloom for months then I’m assuming it can’t be as many have said those characteristics don’t match a cherry tree.

The tree is shaped like an upside down artificial Christmas tree in that’s its narrow at the bottom but then the branches grow upwards from the trunk at about an angle of 45 degrees and the tree just gets wider and wider the taller it gets.

Looking at it now it’s about 60% green leaves and 40% pink blossom. There aren’t any nests in it, there never are - the branches themselves are quite thin, they blow around horrendously if it’s a bit windy. They don’t look like they’d be supportive enough to contain a nest securely.

the tree just gets wider and wider the taller it gets.

Is it upside down?

No, it’s just shaped like an upside down pyramid

The main trunk is about 3 foot high and then splits into three and it all grows from there.

At its highest point it’s probably about 25ft high, maybe a bit bigger.

I've just remembered another fabulous thing about trees.They act as a great sound baffle in summer.Quite a distance from our house is a busy road but in winter if you're outside you hear the distinct hum if traffic.Just in the last two weeks as leaves have unfurled road noise has vanished.Just masses of birdsong.The same in our local wood .Mind you some people would not be happy with that.Beats the occasional thump thump of someone's music blasting out far too loud the minute the sunshine is out.Well for me anyway.

@Queenie8, yes magnolia soulangeana.....so beautiful and the sweetest fragrance.
Yours OP does sound like a cherry. The barks have a kind of shiney sheen look with horizontal grooves down the trunk. As they age, the thing to watch with them is they become brittle. For this reason in public areas they are often felled and replaced not crowned. They cannot be crowned. Not a prob for you as you've lopped all the overhangings.
People have talked about the benefits of trees. In urban areas tests have shown they are brilliant cleaners of air pollution. The particulates stick to the leaf surfaces and the leaves drop end of season and the baddies go into the soil. Do think about that before stripping the garden of trees.

This reminds me of a family member who's neighbour kept complaining about their cherry blossom tree and how it got blossom on their bbq. It wasn't overhanging their fence or anything and it was only the blossom that seemed to bother them as they believed my family member should keep it in their garden. They were even more upset when a storm knocked the whole tree over onto their bbq.

They are an absolute PITA but we live in a conservation zone so every tree has a TPO. No, that is incorrect. The reason you have to notify the Council before any tree work in a Conservation Area is to allow them the opportunity to put a TPO on the tree. But unless they do that, then the tree remains without a TPO even though it is in a Conservation Area.

OPs tree is not a Magnolia. The leaves are wrong. The leaves and petals do look like a flowering cherry, but I'm surprised at the stated height and spread.

I'm always confused by people who complain about trees and shrubs "but they were only small when we bought the house.." Trees and shrubs grow, it's what they do naturally. If it's going to worry you, then you need to find out what size they'll grow to naturally before you buy, not move in and expect the owner to hack them about to keep them at an artificially small size.

My bet is a Kwanzan cherry (sorry I can't make a link - just google). Full height 8 - 12 metres and spread 8 metres.

I live in a small house with a small (25ft) garden . There is an absolutely huge sycamore tree in the NDN garden . It is a pain to clear the leaves.

A couple of years ago when we moved in the whole garden was a sea of leaves as the tree hadn't been pollarded for years. I have never seen anything like it. It took three of us an hour to gather tham all (filled about 30 massive garden bags). Then the next day more had fallen !! Our garden is to small to contain that many leaves without getting rid of the majority and it is irritating.

The tree has a preservation order on it so can't be cut down but it dfinitely can be cut back. The neighbours did pollard it last year which made this autumn great as there were many fewer leaves. Apparently it cost in the four figures get done, so they won't be doing it often I imagine ! I am slightly dreading this autumn as the leaves have come back with a vengence this spring so we will have so many to clear this autumn!!

Anyway, annoying as it is , I quite like the shade it provides and I know that we shouldn't cut down trees unless necessary but I do think that a massive sycamore tree is too big for a very built up area (it must be 20-40 ft high and very very wide) with lots of small gardens all crowded up next to each other. Nonetheless we knew it was there when we bought the house so we live with it.

concreteseive - I have just googled Kwanzan cherry and it very much resembles what is in my neighbors garden - especially the image attached.

It really is a beautiful tree, nobody can deny that but it is a nuisance to about 3 of us and also to the people who actually live there.

I don’t want it cut down really. I just find it hard I believe that we just have to put up with it. I don’t see why the landlord hasn’t realised that in his small garden, that backs on to four other gardens, it’s really not practical to have a 25ft high tree which is about 20ft wide too when it impacts so much on others.

The garden to my right looks horrendous because the whole garden is pretty much shaded by the huge tree which mean large patches of their lawn has died, all attempts to grow flowers have been pointless and there are just withered stalks in the lawn boundaries and in the plant pots etc - it all just looks so dark and depressing. I know I’m moaning about the blossom but if I was one of the neighbours whose garden had no sunlight becsuse of the tree I would be really angry.

I don’t see how a tree that causes other gardens to be unable to flourish is a good thing.

Forgot to add the image of the Kwanzan cherry that looks like my neighbour’s tree....

Your neighbours should try planting plants that prefer shade, they don't do well in direct sunlight. You can still have a nice garden if it's in shade.

Kanzan (not Kwanzan) would have been my first guess. Not many trees have sufficient blossom to carpet the ground beneath them with fallen petals.

I don’t see why the landlord hasn’t realised I don't see why you didn't realise when you were considering the house that the tree was likely to grow.

While a lawn isn't going to flourish under a tree, it is possible to have an attractive garden. There are many beautiful plants that will grow in shade, and a lot of gardeners without the benefit of trees and their shade would give their eye teeth to be able to grow some of them. It is of course more difficult if you're not interested in gardening, can't be bothered to find out about plants' preferences, and merely want to pick up something that catches your eye at the nearest garden centre.

Gosh. If only trees provided something useful like free WiFi rather than boring old oxygen. That might change a few people's tunes

I think people do notice trees when they view houses but assume they will landscape their neighbour's garden after moving in as they feel entitled to do.

I have 2 neighbours with a similar attitude, am surrounded by 5 in total. Have told the whingeing ones if they moan about my tree again I'm going to plant an orchard. That shut them up

YOur kid is going to put worse in their mouth than blossom !!! Grow up.

Wasn’t the tree there when you bought the house? We can’t all get rid of everything that’s annoying us - then where would we be?

I hope OP and neighbours can find a good solution, trimming some branches without damaging the tree or causing susbsistence. It would be kind of you could wait till autumn. At least it’s not a connifer/massive evergreen leylandii, if it was you would have my full sympathies OP.

To console you, it’s a cherry tree, and they have a short life span, at some point, probably within the next fifteen to twenty years, it will rot and have to be chopped to some extent, and I hope that the landlord will leave the rotten stump for birds and other wildlife rather than dig it all out dead wood is rare and vital to the environment.

If there are any branches endangering you then that is a good reason to chop those boughs. But “messy blossom” you will have to get used to. You are not a Dursley from Harry Potter.

Are you a city child like me?

YABU. There are bigger problems to have. Enjoy the nature.

You are allowed to cut down branches that encroach onto your garden but that is all. Trees are beautiful aspects of nature that benefit everyone so perhaps you can learn to live with it. (It sounds as if the tree was there before you were.) I have several large trees in my garden and have mature oaks opposite me which drop leaves, acorns and twigs so i know what a chore it can be keeping the ground clear. They are hard work, especially at blossom and leaf fall time, but their presence is otherwise a blessing.

You need the chill the fuck out about leaves and blossom in your garden. It’s a garden. It’s outside. Nature happens outside and you should be glad of it. The tree sounds beautiful. YABVVVVU. And no you can’t cut his tree down. Legally or morally. Sort your self out fgs.