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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be a bit freaked out by this....

40 replies

Putmedownforanap · 22/08/2018 22:43

We've relatively recently moved into a new property (new to us I mean). It has a very long garden with a neighbour (elderly woman) on one side and a very high fence. On the other side is a park, which opens out on to woodland. There is fencing on that side but most of it just wire (anything else would be difficult because of the very big trees). At the bottom of the garden is a very high fence, which backs onto fields. The last section of our garden is a kind of 'orchard', with a cherry tree, several apple trees, a pear tree and what I think is a plum... I went out into the garden about a week ago and the apple, pear and plum trees were FULL of fruit, not quite ready to pick. We all got this horrendous stomach bug and have barely left the house for a week. Finally got out into the garden properly today and ALL the fruit has gone! Every single piece, literally. There isn't a single core or bit of fruit on the floor, not a single little one left on a branch. What on earth could have happened??? Team of squirrels? Scrumper? We also have chickens and another apple tree closer to the house, they are as yet unharmed...

OP posts:
SpiritedLondon · 22/08/2018 23:29

I’ve never seen stones left by our parakeets. I think they must be saving them up as ammunition for when they take over the world.

Putmedownforanap · 22/08/2018 23:36

I'll ask the neighbour, she's been here a long time I think. The previous owners are lovely, I don't think they're the culprits!

OP posts:
Naiceprosecco · 22/08/2018 23:37

We've got an orchard including two large cherry trees. We never get to eat any cherries because the birds get there first!

No evidence is left behind either and my chickens have also been caught eating fruit off the lower branches 😂

Whereismumhiding2 · 22/08/2018 23:38

Put a fence up ! You might have trees, but you can find some way to fence it off unless trees literally are at edge and back into public land. Even then they still can't get round to your side of trees on your property (rented or owned?) If you fence it off.

If it bothers you.

Whereismumhiding2 · 22/08/2018 23:40

Can't do anything about birds nor squirrels. But I have fruit trees and wildlife like a nibble, they have never strippes a tree bare... Well, not in 3 days!

Maelstrop · 22/08/2018 23:41

I put up chicken wire to a height of 5 feet along a row of conifers to stop the dog getting into next door’s garden. It’s nice and flexible: could you try that?

MaryandMichael · 22/08/2018 23:42

People who live free-range. They know all the fruit trees, all the edible crops.

SpiritedLondon · 22/08/2018 23:48

Free range people?

MrsTommyBanks · 22/08/2018 23:53

You've been scrumpt. These days known as free ranged.

Lunde · 22/08/2018 23:53

I had a CF fruit-thief neighbour who picked all of my plums when I was away for the weekend. The tree was groaning so around 15-20 kg of plums. She then used the "emergency" key for our house to leave a single jar of plum jam on our kitchen table!

SpiritedLondon · 23/08/2018 00:45

Bloody hell.... it’s still theft even if it’s fruit off a tree. If I ever scrumped as a kid it was for an apple or two not the entire crop. Calling it free range or leaving a jar of jam does not make it wholesome or acceptable.

Putmedownforanap · 23/08/2018 11:21

You're right spirited I think it's really mean and a bloody violation! They must have picked fruit that was tiny and not even ripe? Literally every single trace. One of the reasons we moved here is because I wanted to be able to pick the fruit with my little girl. I didn't expect to have to put up great big fences or CCTV!! There are fences and hedges all the way down, its just where there are very large trees backing right on to our land boundary they have to be wire and there's gaps. I was planning on making some of the garden into an allotment/veg garden, not so sure now... Sad

OP posts:
SpiritedLondon · 23/08/2018 11:25

Well maybe now is time to get a big dog. A nice big “ free range” one.

Putmedownforanap · 23/08/2018 11:47

Hmmmmm, interestingly the previous owners had exactly that...

OP posts:
SusieOwl4 · 23/08/2018 23:33

Any ideas from the neighbour?

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