Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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:
Saz12 · 30/04/2020 21:26

The guy you employ(ed) isn’t a gardener, he’s a self employed bloke earning relatively little to mow the lawn and trim the hedges. (Which it looks like he did well).

If you want a gardener you need to pay for someone who knows how to actually... garden. Not just someone who’ll keep it tolerably neat. Maybe the previous owner wanted the garden to be kept neat, but hadn’t the energies for more.

The awful bony leggy shrubs he removed needed to go, but he clearly didn’t communicate well (!!). Depending on what roots are left behind it could be that he did a reasonable job of removing them. And if you’re left “looking at dirt” then it sounds like he’s kept on top of the weeds over the years.

You can’t in fairness expect him (or anyone else) to know what you want your garden to be like unless you tell him... tastes vary.

Maybe this is a good chance to see the garden as a blank canvas to do something amazing with, that suits you perfectly. Spend some time figuring out which bits are sunny, which bits shady, what the soil is like... Then you know what the plants are, how to treat them, and can supervise someone to keep it on track (or be able to do it yourself if you’ve time).

A genuinely good gardener will be difficult to find, so think if you want to try and get your current guy to do lawns and hedges u til you find one, of if you’re happy to do the work yourself.

billy1966 · 30/04/2020 21:40

OP, definitely make sure you know your aspect and evening sun spot before you make any decisions👍

managinged · 30/04/2020 22:04

Ok, it's a shock, but what's done is done. Maybe he did a lot of extra work because he hasn't been earning much money lately (lockdown) and he wanted to charge you for a lot of work.

  1. Obviously you won't hire him again. Decision made; that's easy.
  1. Start planning your new garden. Look at gardens online. Buy some gardening magazines. Choose plants that you like and that are appropriate for your soil, climate, sun/shade level. Create the new garden gradually over the next several months. Don't expect it to be all finished in a month.
TheHumansAreDefinitelyDead · 30/04/2020 22:16

Did he give an hourly rate? A breakdown of cost? £900?! If he charges £20 an hour that would be like 45 hours work?

At £30 an hour it would still be 30 hours work?

Bluntness100 · 30/04/2020 22:21

I think there is some miscommunication here. You said you were having someone design what to plant, you wanted it so you could plant stuff, and that stuff he took out is no loss and you even agree it was probably dead. You’ve now got a clear space to plant some decent stuff.

Yes it looks shit right now, but I honestly think he’s done you a favour. If it was my garden I’d have had that stuff pulled out too.

Cherrysoup · 30/04/2020 22:30

15 years tending the garden and he does that to it? I just cannot understand it.

Wheredidallmytreesgo · 01/05/2020 08:10

Thank you for all the opinions - very interesting mix!

OP posts:
Cambionome · 01/05/2020 08:53

I agree that he has probably done you a favour in the long term. Yes, it looks bad now but you have a blank canvas to plant some really lovely things in; that will be much more effective and easier than trying to plant round some manky old stuff. Agree he should have communicated much better though.

Not sure how far you have got with your plans for new planting but if I were you I would concentrate on that now.

billy1966 · 01/05/2020 10:01

One other point.
Fully removing the stumps and roots of bushes that size IS a good bit of work.

And I think a thousand pounds IS reasonable to have paid, to have had the garden effectively cleared and it all disposed of.

DoubleTweenQueen · 01/05/2020 11:04

Agree with stump removal - often gets left. We have four sizeable ones just left in the ground - cut flattish with the ground, but a nuisance we will have to deal with. (Done before we moved in )
We had some huge conifers removed, along with stumps, and it has opened the garden up a lot and let's in more light so the other much nicer trees are now thriving.
You have a blank canvas with no stumps - really good starting point.

ElephantsAlltheWayDown · 01/05/2020 16:49

I'm very sorry to report that something similar happened to me, but not to this extent. We trialed a new gardener and discovered after the fact that his definition of a "tidy up" was to decimate everything in sight. It made me angry every time I stepped outside for about a year, at which point the clematis and new shrubs I planted started to become established. I will never have anyone in my garden again!

bringbacksideburns · 01/05/2020 17:04

You paid him a grand to do that???!

If he's been the gardener there previously for 15 years why would he choose to do this now when he was supposedly being paid to maintain it and keep on top of things for over a decade.

He's ripped you off. I can't believe you paid that much.

He must have seen it as a nice little earner.
Get a decent Garderner.

bringbacksideburns · 01/05/2020 17:10

This definitely shows how worlds apart we are on mumsnet because for me thats a hell of a lot of money to get rid of that.

I'm in the NW and luckily have a friend who does landscape gardening. I wonder what he'd charge for that just out of interest.

Maybe it's just me.

DocHolliday · 01/05/2020 18:12

OP If the previous owner is dead, who told you that he had worked fpr her for 15 years?
Did he knock and tell you that himself?

DocHolliday · 01/05/2020 18:13

*for
sorry, wrong specs.

madcatladyforever · 01/05/2020 18:14

The only thing that would assuage my anger would be his slow lingering death.

SunflowerSeedsForever · 03/05/2020 02:07

The only thing that would assuage my anger would be his slow lingering death.

Do you not think that comment is highly inappropriate?

GameChange123 · 03/05/2020 04:27

Assuming none of the trees had a tree preservation order (TPO)? Hopefully he checked that before removing them?

Also a m guessing that if you don't contact hin after lockdown he might have the temerity to get in touch with you.

NOt.much left for him to garden!

Agree with PP that neighbour may have lobbied him about the tree. Perhaps speak to your neighbour about what they think about the results of his labours?

fuzzymoon · 03/05/2020 04:35

Where you were wrong was to not have a plan of works he intended to do.
You agreed for work to be done without knowing what they were going to do.
A simple walk round the garden with him saying this one and this one are going and why.
You then say yes or no to his plan.

Aridane · 03/05/2020 05:10

Oh, OP - you have been mugged - I am so sorry

Tennistime · 03/05/2020 06:02

I too have suffered a CF gardener.

Came highly recommended. Once he got his feet under the table there was no end to the extra plants he’d turn up with & charge me for.

He also started getting a bit creepy. Even after I got rid he rang a couple of times wanting to come back because something vital needed doing at that point in the season.

I’d never have a gardener again, borders now grassed with easy shrubs and small trees, flowers in pots for colour.

Peridot1 · 03/05/2020 06:14

He must have gotten a tree surgeon in to get rid of the tree surely? He can’t have just chopped that down on his own?

We have had trees taken out and we use a local company who come with a few guys and all the kit and machinery and do their thing. It’s not just a case of digging a tree out or chopping it down on your own.

I do think in the long run it will be better but he massively overstepped the mark. And I agree the trust is now gone so it will be very hard to have a good working relationship with him now.

I also wondered if the neighbour had anything to do with it. Does he do their garden?

Mypathtriedtokillme · 03/05/2020 06:44

Let him go then buy a truck load of compost and prepare the ground for your friends design.

That way your bare patch is actually a prep for the future patch and you can release your rage digging.

LunaLula83 · 03/05/2020 08:02

They must be laughing

Rubychard · 03/05/2020 08:47

What @DoubleTweenQueen said - some great ideas.

I'm a gardener, theres no way I'd do something like that without a detailed conversation about what had to go and why. It's all about expectation management.

That said, there was nothing special about what was there, and you now have a blank canvas to do something really outstanding.