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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be so sad neighbours cut down a Pear Tree

187 replies

danny735 · 02/04/2022 13:33

Just that really.

There was a beautiful pear tree right on the border of our garden. I returned from a trip and the neighbours had chopped it down.

It was on neighbours side of the fence but half of the foliage was in our garden. I love nature and adore tree silhouette.

We've only lived in this house for 2 years and the pears were blooming when we moved in. There are usually beautiful blossoms in spring time. I'm so devastated that it's gone - I can't work out if I'm being silly I not 🥺

OP posts:
Floralnomad · 02/04/2022 14:10

@balalake

I think you should ask them why, and if it was not for reasons of disease express your view.
Don’t be so ridiculous , it’s a pear tree if they want to cut it down they can , whatever the reason . If you want a pear tree to look at @danny735 just buy one they are really very cheap .
BlanketsBanned · 02/04/2022 14:10

I wouldnt ask them, its their tree in their garden so what would you do anyway if they said they were fed up with it. They can hardly put it back. Best just to plant your own.

GuyFawkesDay · 02/04/2022 14:11

According to our neighbours there were apple trees in our garden years back. I've found the stumps in the bed at the back.

I am replanting some trees. A developer went through our house and it was lawn and badly built raised beds which are now out and I am planting and planting (and trying to keep the puppy out!)

Hawkins001 · 02/04/2022 14:12

I understand your perspectives op, I do love nature.

Undecicive · 02/04/2022 14:18

Kill me... but I've cut down a lovely, mature apple tree in our previous garden and loads of conifers.
The apple tree had cooking apes on it, they were inedibly sour and most of them very high up, the squirrels/rats loved feasting on them. Conifers were very close to the house and growing like crazy.
There's still more conifers and I planted new (edible) fruit trees in their place. (they're probably all dead by now ).

Undecicive · 02/04/2022 14:19

My local Morrisons is selling fruit trees for £5 at the moment. Far too big for our current garden but you might like them OP.

rwalker · 02/04/2022 14:20

We have a pear tree at the bottom of our garden . Pears always rock hard and inedible .
Pain in the arse to prune all the windfalls that no one want rot on floor and kills grass .Puts a lot of shade and grass all mossy and nothing grows .

They could be in the same position

ComtesseDeSpair · 02/04/2022 14:21

We have a giant mature pear tree and it’s a nuisance. The pears are pest-damaged or gnawed but squirrels before they even ripen and then they fall and turn half the garden into squishy mulch unless collected daily. We probably wouldn’t have it cut down, but I also wouldn’t choose to have it.

Chikapu · 02/04/2022 14:27

@balalake

I think you should ask them why, and if it was not for reasons of disease express your view.
Seriously? To what end?
GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 02/04/2022 14:27

Vandals!
How about planting one on your side of the fence?

We have a neighbour like this - he wages war on the mess of deciduous leaves. He once got tree surgeons to start felling an ornamental tree in a communal area - he had no right to touch it.

Dh got them to stop, paid them to go away, got the council tree officer round to slap a preservation order on it. Tree officer didn’t think the tree would recover, but it did.
Win! Neighbour was seriously pissed off - serve him right.

My FiL cut down their lovely pear tree when poor MiL was away for a few days. She was devastated and I don’t think ever forgave him.
Gardening to FiL consisted of cutting things down, or pulling them up.
We had to hide the garden shears and any other weapons of mass destruction whenever he came to stay. 😩

jytdtysrht · 02/04/2022 14:28

Fruit trees can present problems. Yabu. All very nice for you to look at but they have to deal with it.

We have a plum tree (here when we moved in, still here). Many plums have bugs in. Others fall to the floor and wasps go in them - which can be bit of a hazard for small dc and a problem for my dog who gobbles anything he can see - splintered plum stones would be dangerous. I’d happily chop it down and be done with the bother.

nightfairy · 02/04/2022 14:29

I despise people who cut down trees for no good reason.

Nanny0gg · 02/04/2022 14:31

@HoveringDonkeyofKnock

That’s a disgrace and you’re not being silly. They’re philistines. You can’t easily replace mature trees like that. They take decades.

I know someone who chopped down a mature cherry blossom. Heartbreaking.

My neighbours at the back of me did that.

The only upside is that I no longer get pink pigeon poo on my washing!

jytdtysrht · 02/04/2022 14:31

If you want one, buy one. You can get them cheaply if young or you can buy something more mature from a nursery.

RosesAndHellebores · 02/04/2022 14:36

We have had an avenue of trained and fanned apple trees (4), pear and plums removed this year. They were planted in 1927 and were rotting away despite still producing quite a lot of fruit but which was not particularly disease resistant. The stakes and wires on which they were trained were also rotten and breaking.

We will be replacing with miniature varieties next year once the ground has recovered.

They may have had valid reasons to remove the tree and if it didn't have a tpo they can do as they wish. We had to have a rotten silver birch with tpo taken down and had too replace with an acer. The beautiful cedar on the other side of the garden had no tpo but had to go despite its beauty because the roots were causing havoc with the drive that had to be partially relaid.

sunflowerdaisyrose · 02/04/2022 14:38

We removed an apples tree from our garden (left the cherry blossom!) as we needed the space and the apples were inedible. I'd be a bit annoyed if a neighbour questioned us about it! But YANBU to be sad about it.

godmum56 · 02/04/2022 14:38

I am a tree owner and surrounded by tree owners. Its usually sad when a tree gets removed but if you don't own the tree then yabu a bit. Fruit trees are difficult. I had a victoria plum and the wasp problem was horrific. At the time all the trees in my garden (8) had preservation orders on so I got a man from the council out to advise. He immediately agreed that the plum should be removed for safety, but also said that a massive mature oak that I wanted to have pruned had outgrown its spot and needed to be removed as the roots were putting my foundations at risk, and identified that the wild cherry was actually diseased and rotting from the inside and again was a danger. It must have looked like wholesale carnage but wasn't. Anyway my point is that that its up to the tree owner to manage the tree. If you want a pear tree then buy one and plant it.

Sceptre86 · 02/04/2022 14:39

You should move next to my parents they have a pear tree and a plum tree with no plans to ever cut them down.

Plant some trees in your own garden. I'd ask why they cut them down.

CanIbeRio · 02/04/2022 14:40

Not silly at all. Trees are beautiful and it's such a shame when a mature tree is felled ...they are so majestic....it almost feels like murder!!
My mum's house backs onto a pretty major road in our city. Ever since she moved in 50 odd years ago there's been an ornamental cherry in the grass verge directly outside her back gate. Over the years it had started to lean and its branches partially brushed her top fence. This blocked the presence of this busy road out nicely....she swears also fumes and noise. Sadly it blew down in the storms last month and it is no more Sad. She's so upset.. no pretty tree to look at any more....all she can see now are the pedestrian lights which the tree hid beautifully. It's so sad....it was like an old friend to her Sad

comealongponds · 02/04/2022 14:53

You don’t know that there wasn’t a good reason (disease, damaging foundations or drains etc)

If you want a pear tree, you’re free to plant one in your own garden.

Original poster
danny735 · 02/04/2022 14:55

@JodieFoster1

We planted a half dozen pear trees ten years ago, they grow fast and produce a lot of fruit pretty quickly. Ours were dwarf specimens but some are 8 ft tall now (we are a bit neglectful and don’t prune them etc). They don’t need decades to look good. They’ve done much much better than our apple trees planted at the same time. Plant your own. Smile
Thanks for the info. I'll definitely plant one - so glad to hear they grow quite quickly!
OP posts:
lhjjhdjsdhkshdbc · 02/04/2022 14:59

I feel your pain. I live in a lovely rural area that has become popular with ex-London suburbanites. They move here because it is beautiful, and green, and promptly cut down every tree in their garden and tarmac or crazy path the entire frontage of their house, thus replicating the look of the place they have just left 'because it was too urban'. Seems like they like to look at other people's lovely gardens, but not the hassle of maintaining their own. Annoys me! The biggest irony is someone with a senior position in the RHS moved here, and did exactly the same! Removed every single tree. If that's the mentality of the people who are supposed to care.... Hmm

RandomNumb3rs · 02/04/2022 15:04

I’m on the other side of the argument at the moment.

25 years ago I planted trees on a plot of land that we weren’t otherwise using.

Now I want to use the land for something else but neighbours are trying to have a preservative order put on the trees.

I planted them - I should bloody well be able to take them down.

OfstedOffred · 02/04/2022 15:19

My neighbour was fuming when we felled the gorgeous cherry tree in our garden.

They couldn't see that it was diseased. The tree surgeon said we were risking our other trees leaving it there.

It's been 5 years and I'm still sad :(

starfishmummy · 02/04/2022 15:26

Tbh, much as I like trees, I wish our neighbours would cut theirs down. They don't pick the pears- which is understandable as they are not nice at all, they become wasp infested, rotten and loads fall into our garden so we have to deal with the mess.