AIBU Or is this just tragic? What can I do?

[TigerTooth]

I have a lovely (Ok - very child friendly) but still lovely mature garden.
We're away a lot, for months at a time sometimes, and backing on to our garden is a council estate. At the end of our garden, on the other side of the fence, so not ours, were lovely mature trees.They gave us and neighbour privacy and were beautiful.
New neighbour over the fence has cut the trees down, the whole lot, we now have a lovely view of his home - NOT.
I know I'm not BU as they were gorgeous mature trees but I'm posting really to vent and also to ask any green fingered MN's wwyd? I need something that grows super quickly and not too wide, that will look after itself whilst we're not here. He has also bought with him a menagerie of cats who shit in my garden daily.Any ideas on effective cat deterrents? We've tried a few to no avail. It stinks in the hot weather until we've been round and collected all the cat poo. I miss my green country garden.Before and after pics, it doesn't even look like the same garden but if you look at the trampoline then you can see the extent of his butchery. Any ideas on how to speedily cover the damage?

If you did plant something tall it’s likely a complaint would force you to cut them down, councils don’t cut trees down for the sake of it as it’s a hard expensive job depending on the type. I have lots of trees at the back of my garden so I understand how you feel I love my privacy too, but there’s not a lot you can do if it’s blocking neighbours light.
As for cat crap you can buy lion poo online they’re pellets you put around your garden and it deters them from coming in. Doesn’t work for all cats but it made a big difference for us.

SOmething I saw on a gardening program years ago, they put a sail up,just like a ship sail but bright blue, as it was 'temporary' they didn't need planning permission.

Hawthorn grows quite quickly and the cats won't like it.

It's a real shame to see mature trees cut down. In your position I'd get some trellis up on the fence and maybe some honeysuckle or similar to grow up the fence. Not the same but at least it'll soften up the boundary a bit.

Chilli powder on the soil gets rid of cats. When we moved in there were 5 cats that used our garden as a toilet, a generous sprinkle of chilli powder all round the beds, and we've never seen a cat since!

You neighbours is a twat.

Trellis with some trachelospermum and some jasmine might help. Both grow like billy-o.

And he's inflicted his tatty cats on you.

Get some water pistols and get aiming at the bastards.

I bet that lot was seriously taking light from them. Your garden is in full sun in your photo, can you imagine theirs behind it? Must have been so dark.

programme i mean - damn

I have pleached laurel. I've also heard good things about pleached hornbeam. Not sure if the latter is evergreen. I keep my laurel thin (like a screen) but tall (ish). That way it remains manageable. I'm going to buy an li-ion cordless pole trimmer this year to save me clambering up ladders to prune it

How old are your kids? Do you need the large expanse of lawn for playing? If not you could incorporate a horizontal flowerbed and arch midway across so that your eye isn't drawn straight to the rear boundary.

I'd recommend mid-height evergreen shrubs (and climbers) and maybe trellis to create a screen either side of the arch if you down this route. Fatsia, choisya, euonymous, skimmia, ceonothus are all good for this. You can plant smaller perennials and annuals in front for colour.

Buddleia is the fastest growing thing in my garden - it absolutely shoots off but is a nuisance to keep on top of. You can cut it right back every year but then you have the problem of disposing of all the vegetation!

I'd not recommended lleylandii or bamboo whatsoever.

we had similar and just put up trellis with honeysuckle and bamboo in pots . but you need to check about how much watering is needed for the type of bamboo .

I would be heartbroken. But they are his trees and probably ruined his garden and light. I am surrounded by huge sycamore Andy I hate them - but they do make the garden more private.

Think you are taking unnecessary abuse here, all you are asking for is solutions.

Agree bamboo in posts is the way to get to get screening this summer - trees for longer term solution.

Call into your local independent garden centre and have a chat - they will have loads of solutions

Buddleia is good solution. They grow quickly and bees and butterflies love them.

You neighbours is a twat.

Her neighbours are not twats for not wanting to sit in the dark! The people who planted the trees should have had more sense.

Buddleia will be a nightmare to keep on top of, especially with the OP being away for months at a time. The right kind of bamboo will be fine.

Just seems factual for me, for context. Would you be offended if she'd said 'backing on to a new housing development' or 'backing on to a row of 1970s bungalows' or 'backing on to a terrace of 1930s cottages'?

Oh come off it, there was no need for the OP to mention what type of housing she backed onto at all, it is not relevant and council housing was only mentioned as a dig at the neighbour because she's so angry at them for daring to cut down their own trees, those awful council house dwellers thst don't care about the trees.

The neighbours recently bought the house, they could see the trees and the garden. They didn't have to buy it, only to start chopping trees after moving in.

So, in my opinion they are, indeed, twats.

You need clumping bamboo, which doesn't spread. You can google it. We had one for 10 years which did not spread anywhere.

You neighbours is a twat

Why? For wanting light and to be able to sit in their own garden? Yeh very twattish.

Had a similar issue here and we are in a conservation area - 5 old established trees disappeared in new neighbour's garden and now I have 10 windows looking into my home
I've bought 2 magnolia trees which I have planted hammock width apart as they have year round leaves and apparently spread wider which should block them out more. They were £300 each which was so that they are tall enough to be fence height already - you could get a more established tree if you have more money. It's horrid when the whole area is suddenly less green, I feel for you OP.

I would plant a flowering cherry - they grow remarkably quickly, and are quite open so it wouldn't cut out all the neighbour's light, but it would soften the houses beyond for you. I have two because one self-seeded 5 years ago. They do self-seed, so you need to make sure you don't turn your back for too long if you only want one tree.

I'm not convinced buddleia would grow tall enough without looking leggy, and leylandii and bamboo wouldn't be things I would want in my own garden.

I was going to recommend a hornbeam or two, but lots of people already have, they're very easy trees. Also mountain ash would be pretty and not too dense, and you can get them in a variety of berry colours which would be lovely if you had three or more of them.

I think buddleia would be a temporary screen, while the trees OP could plant become established.

Thanks for so many great suggestions - I like bamboo, clematis and leylandi amonst others.
To those who needed to bitch - as expected - but the trees could have been cut down - to rip them out is tragic.
As for the view of the council house - well sorry, but it IS really ugly.

Try a few friendly cat deterrents, fresh orange peel or lemon peel along the boundary or spray any cats you see lightly with water.

I think you just have to put up with the view, unless instead of trees you could put trellis up with climbing plants like honeysuckle, climbing hydrangea and clematis. Bee and butterfly friendly, will give you back some privacy but not so dense it will block your neighbours light.

complain that we had ruined their outlook as our trees gave them a lovely backdrop to their garden

Ours complained that I'd eradicated the bindweed growing from our garden into a hedge, she thought it looked lovely in Autumn.

Not leylandii, they would be far too big for your garden, you'd lose the whole end because they grow wide as well as tall. You need a less bushy option.