Neighbour’s tree is basically living rent-free in our garden — now she’s offered us a leaf blower 🙃

[Buddhabuns]

Our neighbour’s enormous tree hangs over almost the entire width of our garden. It blocks sunlight, drops catkins and leaves everywhere, and last autumn we filled four garden bins (which we pay for) clearing up her mess.

We’ve asked — nicely — twice. She trimmed a few bottom twigs, probably with nail scissors, and called it done. No difference. Now the roots are pushing up our fence, and the leaves are back in full force.

Her solution? She offered to buy us a leaf blower.

We already have one. We just didn’t realise we’d signed up for unpaid groundskeeping for her passive-aggressive tree.

Every other neighbour manages their trees. She clearly thinks if she waits long enough, we’ll give up or vanish under the leaf pile.

AIBU to think she’s completely taking the mick — and that the leaf blower offer was basically an insult?

Well, push hard for a solution? Contact the council. Cut down the branches on your side. You don’t have to be passive in this.

Anyone notice that it’s always the neighbours or the trees fault, as if all these houses were already there before a very large mature tree!

We also have a large tree in our garden on the boundary, we didn’t plant it in that location, and guess what it’s now at least 100 years old vs 1970s houses, and of course the neighbours aren’t happy…

Yet in London your nicest most desirable streets are all tree lined (usually with something huge like a London plane)!

Anyway as far as I’m concerned we need the tree more than all these grievances, a slightly moving fence is hardly something that can’t be overcome by adjusting the fence it’s hardly going to affect your existence on this earth, it’s not a life or death issue with it being there, or going to lead to the building/house falling down, those leaves aren’t going to kill you.

The leaf blower response was actually quite rational from their neighbours! Just remember that when you think about complaining about these irrational issues whether you can even compare it to farmers in India having livestock eaten by tigers in that sort of wildlife conflict, is that tree actually affecting your livelihood.. anyway just some things to consider!

not true around here! When new houses are built, ALL the mature existing trees have TPO's put on them. When we moved into this house, we had 8 trees with TPO's on in a reasonably normal sized rural/suburb garden. Over the years (over 30) of my trees have become unstable, outgrown their space or become diseased and permission has been given to remove them. When i asked to remove the last three which were unstable and risking my neighbour's fence, I was required to replace them with native species and the replacement trees are protected.

Our local council tree planning group absolutely recognise that trees do outgrow their space in gardens and can need to be managed/removed where the same tree in a wilder location could be allowed to grow. Its not always possible to keep trees!

"OFFER them back. Lots of people think they can just chuck them over, but that's actually classed as fly-tipping."

It's only an offence if it's on council land. Dumping the cuttings back on private land is a civil matter...

AFAIK in European nations there are more 'prescriptive' rules about trees and how close they can be planted to a boundary, 'high hedges' etc

My neighbours asked I do this too with my tree that over hangs their drive way by about 3 foot

Tree surgeon literally cut vertically upwards. Looks awful from their side. From my side it looks fine.

Everyone happy.

I can't do anything about where the leaves drop though.

@godmum56 I’m sure those London planes have also all outgrown their place in the street, but can you imagine the uproar 😂. These are also not the types of trees that would ever be planted in highway areas now, yet they persist. I agree some probably do outgrow their spaces, but I feel like that’s very much the minority! And anyway where are all these new wilder trees being planted to offset the huge number of lost garden trees and the wider globe!

It's a tree. Trees have leaves. Deciduous trees drop leaves. If it's causing damage it's of course a different story. If it's unsafe, it's also absolutely a different story. But complaining mainly about leaves, I'm sorry, you are being very unreasonable.

Poor birds are going extinct, nowhere to nest, nowhere to feed. Literally in the midst of a climate emergency. I'm sorry but it's a garden. Buckets of of leaves in the garden waste bin - oh the horror. Turn them to leaf mould. Leave them in the ground for insects to hibernate in.

As an aside -

Did it occur to you that this tree. could be her absolute pride and joy? She could literally have bought her house solely because of the big beautiful tree. She might be loving looking at it. She won't butcher it so you don't get leaves in your (gasp) garden.

Perhaps tell her that you'd appreciate it if she trimmed it more than she did last time, and let her know you'd be trimming anything that overhangs? What did she say about the damaged fence?

There is no automatic right to light re: trees.

Thank you. Honestly, if there were more neighbours like you, we’d all be living the garden dream! You actually sound like the gold standard of tree ownership—thoughtful, responsible, and not trying to casually offload an entire forest on your neighbours.

We’ve tried the nice route (twice), but our tree drama is more “welcome to the jungle.” It’s now reaching across nearly the full width of our garden, shedding catkins like confetti. We love wildlife—I’ve named the squirrels and the regular moody cats that wander through—but this is getting a bit much.

Really appreciate your reply — it’s so reassuring to know some people still understand what neighbourly actually means!

I think the tree is a type of sycamore! It's lovely but huge!
We also live on a tree-lined street with similar massive sycamore trees, and the council comes around every other year to prune them, so it's pretty obvious that they need to be maintained and not neglected.

What is it with people who can't rake up a few leaves, once a year. Modern gardens seem incredibly sterile. Birds and other wildlife need the trees. No trees, drastic reduction of birds.

I think you'll find that cats are responsible for any drastic reduction in birds in this country, but shock horror if anyone suggests that. Tree reduction not so much.
The point of the OP's post is the lack of understanding that her neighbour has on the impact of a large, growing tree on anyone else.
Trees can cause a lot of damage, as my neighbour found out when a 100ft street lime crashed through their roof in a storm last autumn. By sheer good fortune, no one was hurt. Another had to be hastily felled before it did the same. Our council has a policy of not maintaining their trees unless they pose a danger. That didn't work too well. The same council that boasts about the number of trees they own btw.
As I said earlier, trees need proper managing but many people won't pay to have that done.

I think it's a bit ridiculous when people get worked up over a few leaves.

You can cut branches that overhang your boundary. They belong to your neighbour so you should let her have them back.

You are absolutely within your rights to get tree surgeons around to prune your side. We do it, our neighbours do it also. We live in London with small gardens so lots of trees overhang others. I honestly didn’t even think twice about getting them around.

In our garden it isn’t a few leaves. It is massive, overbearing branches that squish the other trees and bushes we have. There is so much pollen as well. It is good tree management to have trees pruned every few years. I wouldn’t want to tree to go- completely opposite actually as it is the privacy shield between us and the house behind

When you bought the house with the enormous tree planted right on your fenceline what was your plan to manage it if your neighbour didn't, as it inevitably continued to grow both in branhces and roots, and how did you envisage dealing with the annual shed of leaves and catkins?

Do that. You can engage with the council if you feel it's contravening laws and would like it removed, otherwise a reputable tree surgeon will help you manage the tree, you'll need them round annually depending on the species. Beyond that you have to suck it up and learn a lesson I think.

My DS has a neighbours tree overhanging the bottom of his garden. He likes to watch the squirrels so doesn't mind it, but if it was close to his patio doors I don't think he would be so keen.

Loss of wildlife is certainly from cats/slug pellets etc but loss of environment is incredibly important, if not more so. My neigbour had a large rather overgrown Leylandii hedge about 4 m long and at least a metre thick. When it was removed the birds just vanished. Nowhere to hide or nest.

This absolutely even when the trees have protection orders on them. The TPO man who visits me has agreed that trees can and do outgrow their space in gardens and can even put house foundations and drains at risk. If planning permission was given to put houses there then there is an assumption that the trees can't just be allowed to grow on regardless.

We have a tree with a TPO in our back garden, it needs trimming this winter as we noticed a few branches poking over neighbours fence.
I must say the process is rubbish, we have to print off a massive paper form from the council which has an 8 week turnaround their side just to get permission to get the tree trimmed.

I had a similar situation. They didn't want to pay so I hired an arborist, who cut it back to the fence line.

Many thanks for the comments. Honestly, I love nature — especially in London. Our garden’s basically a David Attenborough episode: squirrels doing fence parkour, cats dropping by like they own the place, foxes occasionally checking in on us, birds in full song from sunrise, and my two bunnies living their best lives with twice-daily garden zoomies.

And just to be clear — I’m not some tree-hating villain. A couple of years ago, we cut down our pear tree after our other neighbour let us know pears are toxic to their dog. We really liked that tree, but we weren’t about to be responsible for harming someone’s pet. So down it came — because we’re that kind of neighbour. The considerate ones.

I don’t even mind leaves — they’re part of gardening. I’ll happily do a seasonal sweep. But when it becomes a full-time job from a tree that isn’t even mine, it starts to feel like I’m running a community woodland clean-up service. I’d honestly be mortified if I looked out and saw my neighbours constantly having to clean up after one of my trees.

And this all really kicked off because I asked the neighbour — very politely — if she could trim the branches that are now overhanging nearly the entire width of our garden. Her solution? She cut a few lower branches, and then patronisingly offered to buy us a leaf blower. Because apparently, we just don’t have the right tools to manage her tree. That was the moment I realised we weren’t dealing with any kind of shared-responsibility energy here.

So yes — I’ll probably get a tree surgeon to take a look. Sensibly, professionally, and not with a chainsaw and a vengeance. It’s a garden, not the Amazon. I’m just trying to keep it that way.

No doubt the overgrown leylandii 'hedge' was responsible for overshadowing a fair portion of land, preventing anything else growing.They can be a menace.
I guess the birds found somewhere else to nest, having wings. Do you not have a suitable habitat for them yourself? Every tree does not have a clutch of nesting birds.
We'll agree to disagree about the impact of cats. 40 to 70 million birds lost per year, as a recent study estimates,in the UK alone. They'd probably be wiser to stay out of gardens.