Neighbour wants me to cut down a tree

[Cantyouseeimanaubergine]

Next door neighbour has asked me to cut down a tree. It’s an established tree, tall as the house. It’s halfway down the garden and at the border. She says it drops debris onto her decking and she’s always having to sweep and clean stuff off her garden furniture. (She has a decked seating area half way down her garden). She says it blocks light to her garden too.
I like the tree and don’t want to cut it down.
she’s a good neighbour, often passing us freshly baked goodies and doing our bins when we are away. I suspect she’ll change if we say no.
is there any compromise here?

I wouldn't cut down the tree either. I like rowans with their red berries, their leaves are also interesting.

No I wouldn't, we need trees. I'd pay to have it trimmed back.

Nope.

Get a tree surgeon in to work out what can be pruned to help improve things for her. Use the Arb Association website to find a reputable one (not one of the cowboys who does leaflet drops). https://www.trees.org.uk/ARB-Approved-Contractor-Directory

I’d have extremely limited sympathy for her. Only an idiot puts a decking seating area under a tree then complains about debris.

I’d have extremely limited sympathy for her. Only an idiot puts a decking seating area under a tree then complains about debris.

Well looking at the diagram, her only alternatives were either to fill in her pond or take down her summerhouse. Neither seems a better option to me

I would consider all options with a good tree surgeon. Perhaps its growing points could be taken out and the height greatly reduced (is that called coppicing?). Many of the branches overhanging her garden could be removed and then the reduced height tree would bush more rather than just constantly shooting upwards.

Then it would just need the tree surgeon to prune it every couple of years or so to keep it under control.

I wouldn't just leave it shooting ever upwards. It could put your property and your neighbour's in total shade, and if it did fall down in a storm, or just die and fall (some trees do) then it could cause huge damage to property (and to people).

My mother had to have a lot of very large trees in her garden taken out or greatly reduced due to these reasons. They had got out of control as she and my Dad had aged, and in the run up to his death. It was done for safety, and in fairness to the neighbours, who were becoming concerned too

tell her to move her decking, the tree must have been there before it was installed. Absolutely dont remove the tree.

She shouldn't have put the decking under a tree, say sorry but you love watching the birds. Could you get it pruned to manage it's size ? She could be like my neighbour and chop some branches off her side, he has done this gradually so it actually looks like it has grown that way naturally.

My tree is a rowan by the way and doesn't make much mess.

I’d have extremely limited sympathy for her. Only an idiot puts a decking seating area under a tree then complains about debris.

You're assuming there that everyone's garden is large enough to have a choice about where to put the seating area!

Even if the garden is tiny you still don’t complain about a tree that was there before you.

Looking at your drawing her problem is that if she wants a bendy path her decking has to be where it is. But that’s her problem.
Trees obviously provide shade and cool down the garden - removing the tree would make your garden hotter in summer.
Each tree in your garden will filter the air around it, absorbing pollutants and locking up carbon in its trunk, roots and the soil. It can slow the fall of heavy rain and help drink up water from intense storms. It can scatter the sun’s hot rays, giving shade to cool the air and allowing life to thrive beneath.
Species of wildlife depend on every tree for different reasons. As temperatures rise, water supplies suffer and natural cycles change. Planting more trees increases the chance for wildlife to secure food and shelter during increasing times of trial. The Woodland Trust.
You could ask the Woodland Trust for advice.

@PriamFarrl Not sure if you are addressing me or the poster I quoted there.

Anyway, it's not unusual for neighbours to discuss the effects that trees in their gardens are having on each other. And to consider solutions.

Yes. Garden trees and shrubs need attention. You can't test then like woodland trees.
My late DH and I made the mistake of leaving a couple of trees and the aforementioned laurels to their own devices for too long (30 years+). I've lost about eight feet off the length of my garden (about 20%) because the depth of the laurels can't be trimmed any further back now as inside the branches are thick and bare.

Getting the tree reduced ended up very expensive due to its height, while getting it trimmed back every two years now, is a very reasonable and fairly quick job.

She needs to relocate her decking 🤷🏽‍♀️ was a silly place to build it unless at the time she wanted the shade!

Test= treat.

Again, where? On top of her pond, or on the roof of her summerhouse?

Damn it annoys me when people complain about trees doing tree stuff in a garden.

My mother, a friend, various people, seem to want a garden that has no leaves, insects, trees that they haven't agreed to.

I'm of the belief that the garden is for wildlife, and is the tax you pay for needing a house.
If my garden is an extension of my house, with synthetic carpet grass and no leaf out of place, then where will the natural world be?

I have a tiny garden, about 10m2, but I've had several birds nest in it this year, and it Jim's with insect life.

If she wants it cut back on her side, tell her she can pay to have that done.

Otherwise, it was her decision to put her deck there

@saraclara move her path or pond or make the pond and the shed smaller and/or relocate them. The neighbour has her allocated back garden it's up to her to have what is POSSIBLE in the space she has.

I want a huge lawn with deep flower beds and a patio and pergola etc. guess what my garden is too small so I have to make choices.

Just what I was thinking.

Rowans are beautiful trees. The world needs more trees, not fewer. She's being extremely unreasonable. If you buy a terraced house with a small garden you have to expect a degree of intrusion from your neighbours' garden plants. She should see what we get coming through the fence from next door. (NDN feeds foxes! Neighbour a few doors down has decided he will also feed foxes! Thanks, guys. 🐺)

Damn it annoys me when people complain about trees doing tree stuff in a garden

If you plant a tree in a garden, or buy a property with a tree in it, it becomes a human responsibility to care for it though. You don't get free rein to let it grow as it would in the wild, when the environment isn't right for that.

It's perfectly normal to prune roses, shrubs etc, and its actually healthy for the plant. Same with trees. That's no magic right for anyone to inconvenience their neighbours by blocking out their light because it's a tree. Having it regularly cut back is good tree care in a domestic garden.

Is it a rowan? They don't normally get that big, that's why they are common in town gardens. Might be an ash, if so it will get ash die back soon enough and have to come down anyway.

The neighbour reminds me of people that move next to pubs and then complain about the noise.

Our neighbour had a go at us about this and was an abusive arse about it. Said the same things about decking and leaves dropping, although I don't know how because the only overhanging branch he has not chopped off is the one he has loaded with bird feeders.

It's now peak of summer and he spends all day on a sun lounger in the shade of the tree he hates so much. Our south-facing garden would be exposed and searingly hot without it. I've never been gladder of anything in my life than telling him to get lost.

Except maybe the 6 6 fences we had to put in when he built an overlooking glass window next to our patio.

Great diagram! It's her choice to have her decking there. I'd say a cheery but firm nope with tough shit subtext. You like the tree. She can deal with the issue just as she deals with weeds and other matters involved in keeping the neat garden the way she likes it.