To be angry about this

[Wheredidallmytreesgo]

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 🌲

He definitely should have walked you around the garden before doing this and discussed what he thought needed to be done. No excuse for not doing that - unless you had already had a - "do what you think is best, I know nothing about this" - conversation. But even if you did say that, I would still have expected a how-to-replant conversation with him, with at least recommendations provided.

The price charged for the work done is not unreasonable - that is a of work.
However, it should have been quoted beforehand and agreed to by you - you would have been well within your rights to refuse to pay.

You anger remains valid no matter how long ago the event was, but you must take action to quell it:

1. Speak with the local authority's tree officer and check that the tree wasn't protected (with a TPO), otherwise you will be liable.

1. Look into a small claims court on the grounds of being ripped off for work you didn't agree to and are not happy with

1. Ask an independent tree surgeon to look at the roots if there are any, plus the photos and possibly a call to the gardener. Costly, but keep this as evidence for the small claims court.

1. Let him go on the grounds of dissatisfaction with his work. In any communication, do not take responsibility for his actions as he can use that against you if you take it to small claims.

1. Make a vision board of your dream garden. Add to it every day to give you something to look forward to. Watch a few gardening programmes and fall in love with the idea of creating your magical space. Perhaps start to tinker yourself - it's excellent therapy.

Sadly, I suspect he was always a con merchant and saw you coming. New home owners with no interest or knowledge are prime targets.

Did this happen with no discussion at all?

Yes, I’d be very mad at him. It’s strange he dug up all your trees, very bizarre when all you asked for was for him to do some weeding.
I think you should talk with him about it and ask him why he did that ,say how much it upset you, otherwise you are going to get more and more cross. You don’t have to be confrontational about it. I would also let him go.