to go and cut some plants in my neighbours garden?

[StripyDog]

I have a hedge in my front garden that borders my neighbours driveway. I cut the hedge every year, have done since we moved in 10+ years ago, usually around this time of year when it stops flowering.

I bumped in to my neighbour the other day and said I’d be cutting the hedge soon - it was about 6” or so over her drive.

This morning she has butchered it! Not only has she cut the bit that was overhanging on her drive, which I know she is perfectly entitled to do, she has cut quite a lot off the top. Badly! It’s at different levels and now looks ridiculous!

I can’t decide if I should just ignore her from now on, go and ask what the hell she’s playing at, or just wander over to her garden and start hacking at her shit plastic flowers?

But why do you want to do that? Even if you are not breaking any laws by blocking her view of the road, why risk the life of other road users just because of stubbornness? I'm beginning to see why she hasn't said anything about it now.

There's only a legal height in the hedge if it's evergreen.

You will need to make it clear she is only welcome to cut the sides, frankly she should be grateful you're willing to do that - our neighbours hedge has been left and is easily 6 metres tall in places. They won't cut it so it now costs a fortune every year getting someone in to cut it and stop it encroaching

Any chance of a picture so that we can judge how bad it is?

From experience, some people have the oddest way of interrupting things.

Maybe she took your comment about needed it cut it soon as a passive aggressive dig meaning that it's her turn to cut it.

I know someone who would do exactly that. They would have themselves worked up into a state thinking they had to do it before you got it it.

People are weird.

I think there's definitely some history between you and your neighbour.
Are you absolutely certain that she didn't just think she was doing you a favour to save you from having to do it (and not realising that it was harder to do for her than it looked?)
She's obviously not a confident/competent gardener if she's got plastic flowers and plants in her garden (and the very fact you've gone so snipey about them, also makes me think you have history between you. Her plastic flowers may well look crap but they don't affect you or anyone else).

She's legally absolutely in the wrong. Your garden, your plants. I'd have to say something - like "don't ever prune my plants again. It's a skilled task and I know how to do it." And leave it at that.
I'd be fuming, but arguments with neighbours are best avoided.

Be a grown up and go and have it out with her face to face.

Why would you think there is ‘history’? There absolutely isn’t.

I don’t think doing someone’s else’s gardening ‘as a favour’ without asking is in any way normal behaviour. Would you pop next door and do some gardening as a favour? Or wash your neighbours car because it was dirty and you were doing them a favour?

If they’d have just cut what was overhanging, fine. If they’d knocked and said, do you mind if we cut the top because it’s a bit high and we can’t see coming out of the drive, I’d have said crack on or gone and done it myself, but she didn’t ask.

People can’t just go about doing stuff on other peoples property without asking.

Op, did she cut her side of the hedge and the top? Because I think she is allowed to do so.
If she had to get on your side to cut anything on your side, that is wrong.
You still can trim the top nicely yourself, can't you? Or has she cut it too short, maybe damaged the hedge?

Yes, she cut her side and the top. She is not legally allowed to cut the top because it’s in my garden! It’s out the front, so open boundaries, but the hedge, other than the 6 inches or so it had grown on to her side is completely within my boundary. You can’t just go leaning into peoples gardens cutting their hedges down

It is not right, but if she has not cut it to 10 cm over the ground, it should survive.
I would ask her straight, politely and without anger, but ask.

Make she thought you were hinting...

You seem nice

I would have to say something!!

Oh dear someone doesn’t know their feet from inches 🤣

It will grow. Next year just trim it first and she is unlikely to further cut it.

I think in your shoes OP, I would write her a carefully worded note, and put it through the door. You could say that you were shocked to find, that having mentioned you would be trimming your hedge soon, she has gone out and not only trimmed her side, which is her legal right, but has taken it upon herself to cut the top of the hedge, which is NOT her property. Depending on how narked you are, you could even go so far as to add, that she has done a crap job, and in doing so has also committed a criminal offence. You could then go on to say, that if she was finding the top of the hedge made getting off the drive difficult, she only needed to have mentioned it, and you would have seen to it, so in future, please leave any trimming of MY hedge to ME!

On the other hand if you don't want to upset her, instead of saying she did a crap job, you could just say that while she may have been trying to save you a job, you actually enjoy trimming the hedges, so please don't touch anything other than her own side in future. Hopefully this will make it clear that you're not happy, but at the same time avoid World War III.

If all the hedge needs is the top levelling off, and it’s an easy do for you, then why create a load of fuss🤷‍♀️ Perhaps she thought it would be helpful, but didn't have good tools, or wasn’t confident in doing what she tackled. A genuine mistake, hopefully one that won’t get repeated.
Any kind of neighbour dispute is really a lack of adequate communication, or it’s underpinned by lack of understanding in some way or other. More importantly, if you own the property, it is something you have to declare if trying to sell. So, rock on if you can live with the bad feeling, the nastiness and ultimately having to declare yourself as part of a dispute. But it might just be easier to have a quiet word, make sure it’s known that you are happy to trim the top and ask her to leave it…….preferably over a cuppa and a biscuit.

Perhaps she didn’t want you to be on her property for whatever reason to cut it back so she did whatever she could reach from her side so you wouldn’t need to be on her property.

Is she elderly? Any possibilty of dementia. Just wondering as sometimes when a job like that is mentioned to someone with dementia, in their brain you have asked them to do it, or see it as a job to be done so just get on with it. Just a thought.