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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be angry about this

154 replies

Wheredidallmytreesgo · 30/04/2020 15:15

Bought a house a few months ago, and the garden is huge and stunning. I know bugger all about gardening and I’m as useless as a chocolate tea pot. The gardener of the previous owner had worked there for 15 years so we decided to keep them on. They asked for more hours per week as they said the garden needed a bit of an overhaul/extra time than they had been able to give. Fair enough. We also paid them quite a lot of money to spend a weekend clearing out weeds, old shrubs they said needed to go. All fine so far.

A week later I come home to find they they have absolutely mutilated my garden. They had removed about 6/7 trees and shrubs and essentially left a huge fucking patch of dirt around my garden. I think received a hefty bill for this and also then had to pay to have the trees removed.

I was in a state of shock I suppose and thought “what’s done is done”, paid and didn’t say anything else. He kept working for us. I asked if he had a plan of what to replace the trees with and he said “that’s not really what I do, landscaping”. So no. Just a dirt heap in my garden.

Luckily a good friend of mine is a genius with gardens and has developed a beautiful plan but now that lockdown has stopped everything and I am looking at my shitty fucking dirt patch every day where there were such beautiful trees...I’m just getting ragier and ragier (I doubt those are words but you know what I mean).

AIBU? Should I let it go? Can I even do anything at this stage?!

Here’s a tree as a thank you for reading such a long post 🌲

OP posts:
AlwaysCheddar · 30/04/2020 17:26

Bet he stole them.

SunflowerSeedsForever · 30/04/2020 17:30

Bet he stole them.

The OP said they had to remove the stumps
What would he do with a pile of branches? Start a Morris dance troop?

TinklyLittleLaugh · 30/04/2020 17:36

To be honest, if it was my garden, I would have asked him to get rid of what you had there before: really not particularly attractive at all. You have a great opportunity now to have something much better.

DrBlackbird · 30/04/2020 17:38

I doubt those trees were burnt... they resell them!

DrBlackbird · 30/04/2020 17:40

Ignore last post... didn't read about the stumps, but I've had experience of gardners taking plants and them selling them on.

PippaPegg · 30/04/2020 17:42

I can't believe you paid for that. How awful.

Fluffybutter · 30/04/2020 17:43

That’s shocking . Definitely give him the boot.
Preferably right up his arse

fuzzyduck1 · 30/04/2020 17:44

Tell him to jog on and get yourself a new gardener.

If your in the ipswich area I can recommend a good guy

Healthyandhappy · 30/04/2020 17:48

Nah looks crap now stick some patio down and have a table and hot tub

squirrelsbizaar · 30/04/2020 17:50

Hadn’t seen the update. What a strange thing to do, especially without consultation.
I would have thought someone that has made a career out of gardening would actually like nature, not seemingly intent on destroying it. Get rid.

Healthyandhappy · 30/04/2020 17:51

When I saw looks crap I mean looks crap as its half done. Tbh I dont like tree. Much better without patio and hot tub and table set

GreyGardens88 · 30/04/2020 17:51

Fire the gardener, I don't think you need anyone to design your garden. Take some photos and post them in the "gardening" chat board and they will tell you what shrubs and trees will work, then just buy them online and plant them

LizB62A · 30/04/2020 17:52

Why haven't you sacked him ?

Chemenger · 30/04/2020 17:55

I’ve had similar problems with gardeners when I have said I would like an area tidied up. I mean is weeded, shrubs pruned and herbaceous plants left where they are. What they hear is “remove everything living thing from this area”. I am much more careful with how I phrase things now. Most “gardeners” can’t tell the difference between plants and weeds and really can only cut grass and trim hedges. I’ve had them pull up bedding plants that I’ve planted the day before when “weeding”. We had a brilliant gardener years ago but he lost his business and we’ve never found a reliable replacement.

unlikelytobe · 30/04/2020 18:02

Bin that CF and if you need a new gardener be sure to get one with references and maybe some qualifications. Most of all, be clear that everything has to be run past you first.

Wheredidallmytreesgo · 30/04/2020 18:10

Thank you for all the comments! To respond to a few:

If the trees were in a bad condition/dead or similar - and I do on balance believe him if he says they were - that still
Doesn’t give him the right to tear everything up without asking, and nor was it prudent of him to do it all at once with no replacement plan.

Honestly he has left me with a shithole garden. It’s not acceptable at all - and the work he did was months ago now, well before lockdown. I can’t understand it.

To the PP who thinks the garden isn’t huge - the picture is a funny angle. It is pretty large, yes (although this is subjective), but mostly we don’t know a thing about gardening and don’t have time to maintain it so happy to pay someone. Ironically the reason we kept him on was because we liked how it looked so much!!!!!!!

I feel like a fucking idiot.

Also no idea whatsoever about the types
Of trees there. I agree 100% it can be made to look far nicer, I just wish it was done step by step to avoid it now looking sooo much worse!

OP posts:
areallthenamesusedup · 30/04/2020 18:10

WTAF?
That is a massive amount of work to get done in one day. Way more than one person could do. I wonder if he sub-contracted?

TenShortStories · 30/04/2020 18:19

I wonder if he tried to tidy them but made such a mess he decided to cut them down and tell you they'd died?

Not that it matters; you can't go charging people for cutting down trees they didn't ask you to. Such a shame you didn't say anything at the time. And it's horrible how the rage about 'things you should've mentioned at the time' just and builds and builds with no release! Either give him the boot and forget about it or message him something like:

"John, we need to have a chat about the garden. When you took the trees and shrubs down in the back corner I wasn't pleased but paid you, mostly due to the surprise of it leaving me unsure what to say. However, the more I look at the now dead corner of my garden (which you have no remedy for) the crosser it makes me. Before I decide what the not steps should be, could I please have a clear explanation of why you thought it was OK to cut down those shrubs and trees without my say-so. Awaiting your response, Wherehaveallmytreesgone".

He might crap himself and scurry to sort something to help it look nicer before you can begin your friend's plan.

UpAndGoing · 30/04/2020 18:30
Shock
Dowser · 30/04/2020 18:35

To someone who suggested growing lettuces/ veg etc
I’m no gardener either but we had a fit tree that was getting quite large
Trees often deplete the soul and nothing would grow near it
So be careful about rushing to do something with you could throw good money after bad

tara66 · 30/04/2020 18:44

You need to know or find out what work you want done in your garden; know about how many hours it will take to do that work and tell /discuss the matter with the gardener before he does anything . He should not have carte blanche to do anything just because you do not know what you want. He should have been told that. He did not know what to do but clearly had a mind of his own about the matter ( i.e had his own ideas). He needs instructions even if you need to go through the garden plant by plant, area by area. Otherwise nothing is safe - put it in writing for him. If you can't tell the gardener what you want done - better no gardening at all. If you do not know what you want - how will he? Read some gardening books; find out what kind of soil you have etc.

Wheredidallmytreesgo · 30/04/2020 18:48

I think I can’t keep him on Becuase I’m
Too annoyed about this and the execution of it. The trust is gone.

I have a specific plan - he has been told
This plan btw since the trees were cut down, so he does know
Now, but I will
Start again with a new gardener and let them
Know exactly what the plan is from
Day one.

OP posts:
tara66 · 30/04/2020 18:55

Good luck OP - gardening can be wonderful!

couchlover · 30/04/2020 19:00

I would be ferocious if that happened to me.

We've never had a good garden. In our last house we had a small front garden only. Small patch of grass, a path (which was cracked and a bit uneven) and a hedge running along the path. My in laws used to look after our children once a week and one week saw a neighbour having a new path laid so arranged for him to come a give a quote to relay our path (a path that never bothered us). Anyway, the builder said we would need to cut back the leaves of our hedge from 6 inchs from the bottom before he did it.

We relayed this to fil and at next week he hacked up at least 12 inches if not more. The hedges looked terrible and what was worse was the quite wasn't in yet and when it came in it was for £800. Fil said they would pay £500 and we could pay £300. This was for something we didn't want in the first place! We refused and it never got done and the hedges took years to grow back in.

Nottherealslimshady · 30/04/2020 19:03

God I'd be fuming. I'd sack him and tell him very clearly why.