Neighbours planted bamboo at our fence… but now moving away.

[ReginaaPhalangee]

As title suggests, our neighbours planted bamboo about 18 months ago. We are in a semi detached with a shared fence. It’s right at the fence, right up at the property. They are a nice couple, very quiet and keep themselves to themselves. They have totally transformed the garden from the previous owners and it’s full of beautiful plants, thus attracting beautiful birds etc.

they have recently sold the house and moving soon.

im worried about the bamboo. I’ve heard from friends who have had issues with it, and seeing more and more news articles how it is causing damage (the one where the couple had to demolish their conservatory due to the roots growing through it).

I know it will take years for it to cause major damage but I’d rather nip this in the bud now before It gets to that stage.

I don’t like confrontation or these types of conversations but I know I need to. I want to ask them to pull it up before they move as, now this may sound petty, I’d rather have the issue with these neighbours lol rather than new ones who move in and live there for potentially years..

how do we handle this? I’ll upload some pics that aren’t identifying to show where it is to the house etc.

Get rid of it earlier rather than later! Our neighbour had it in her garden, caused damage to the concrete fence posts and the sewer. Also damaged the garden wall of the property behind our houses. I believe it cost her around £4k to fix.

Note that clumping bamboo absolutely can spread. Bamboo is a menace. I had some in my garden and the roots tracked 20 feet through the lawn, I had to remove so much turf and dig channels in the garden digging out the root. This was 2 years ago and roots still appear periodically.

It’s called gardening. No need for all this melodrama!

@Theroadt so true! We have wild raspberries coming under the fence from the land behind us, those roots travel far. We just keep it maintained, it would take over the DCs swings otherwise.

That sounds almost exactly like what happened to me. Idiot neighbour planted bamboo rather than put up new fencing, Of course it spread under his rotting fence and if i had not waged war against it sometimes on an almost daily basis it would have taken over my tiny inner city back yard. I paid to have the hideous stuff on my side removed but of course could do nothing about the original planting on the other side, Twat neighbour long moved out and the people who rent the property now try to control it but nobody has the money to have the bloody stuff properly removed. Like you I mentally curse him whenever I spot a new shot popping up. I even imagind bumping into him and ranting at him about the time and money I have expended due to his selfish stupidity.

Even in a planter it can break through. The planter needs to be metal or concrete or ideally both layers. Periodically it needs to be removed from the planter and the roots sawn back! A ruthless approach to this plant is needed even in a planter.

Not necessarily as again it depends on the type and where it is. We moved in with it in our garden (shock horror in the ground) and it’s been absolutely fine. It hasn’t really spread at all or grown that much. Didn’t come up on the survey for our house nor next door when they moved in and had a survey done. I think sometimes it seems a bigger deal than it actually is.

Exactly the same for us. Mumsnet is so weird about bamboo. I had a relative destroy my garden and posted on the gardening board, very upset, for advice and the number of absolute morons telling me they did me a favor (i had posted pictures too) because bamboo would get in my house and murder my family was insane.

Obviously it's a very, very tiny amount of miles (or km) per hour; but it's true - here's just one link of many:

www.sciencefocus.com/nature/speed-bamboo-plant-grow

but that could be said about anything...snails moving, hair growing...glaciers moving....any plant or anything growing....you just have to measure it by small enough parts of a mile.

Well after panicking from mn, this afternoon we have dug up our 2, ‘sets’ of bamboo.
It had been in several years, not spreading, barely growing.
Not only had it not spread it was still in it pot shaped root based.

we have put them in a pot each and stood them on concrete - just to be sure.

Quite honestly, I think you need to inform the council, the Horticultural Society, the government and possibly the EU in case it smashes its way out of the pots and invades your entire town.

Don’t forget to log it with 101 either! In fact, I’d also log it with 111 for good measure.

Can you take a picture of it with the app “picture this” - it will tell you what type of bamboo it is and whether it is invasive or not. I’ve got bamboo at the bottom of my garden and checked it with this app.

A seller ( with an accepted offer ) can’t start pulling up garden plants unless the new buyers are OKwith that.
The buyers will have made their offer based on what they saw at the viewing.

So whilst it’s fine to ask your current neighbours it’s not just as case of them removing it. They will have to discuss it with their conveyancers to pass on to the buyers.

If I was told my potential new neighbours wanted plants removed I’d immediately think they, ie you OP, are difficult neighbours. Equally if I was asked by my neighbour I would not want to pass this request down the line to my buyers for the very same reason.

Think you should have asked before they got the offer and now I think you should wait till the new people move in.

There are some plants which are illegal to grow. Some types of bamboo should be one of them!

There is one that will go through the street underground and come up for air further than you would have thought possible.

Except cannabis etc, no plants are actually illegal to grow in your own garden, including Japanese knotweed (there's loads of it about the hedgerows here, nobody cares), but some invasive plants it is an offense to allow them to spread uncontrolled onto agricultural land or other land.

You are right about it not being illegal if you grow them in your garden, but if you have Japanese knotweed in your garden, you can be prosecuted if it spreads to neighbouring properties. If your NDN sees these plants in your garden are spreading, you can be prosecuted.

If the plants are in your garden, they will devalue your property, or your NDN's house sell, if the surveyor spots it. In a report for a buyer, it will make your property virtually unsellable. No mortgage company will give a mortgage. People have had to sell the house ''as is'' to cash buyers.

They are listed in the 'Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. If your property backs on to a road, grass verge, and countryside you will be prosecuted if it can be shown to have come from your property.

My bamboo travelled 30/40 feet. I thought I had got rid of all of it in 2018, then, with the hot dry spring, it is shooting up again.

There are a lot of things in life that are not against the law. It is the consequences and risks of doing something that you can be prosecuted for.

The house at the end of my garden have a big fir tree that makes a mess of my garden.. The house has been sold so hoping new people will cut it down.

I wish you well on that. I am hoping the same.

Same. We bought a house 13 years ago with a bamboo hedge that serves as boundary between our raised deck and the main garden. It needs a bit of annual maintenance but as far as I know has behaved itself. Plus the free canes are useful.

Our lovely elderly neighbours died and their house was on the market for ages. They had a screening hedge of leylandii that they looked after and contained when they were well.
At the time many local houses were bought by BTL landlords who don't look after gardens. I decided to pre empt likely problems and nipped over the fence one day and began to saw the trees down. The neighbour the other side saw what I was doing and jumped in to help with a chainsaw.
The house was subsequently bought by a BTL landlord who still entirely neglects the garden so I feel vindicated by doing what I did.

But it is illegal to transport JK without proper precautions and its illegal to sell it.

Get rid, get rid, get rid, get rid!
Ask them to rip it up. Then check under your garden for it. Salt it. And hope it's gone.
I hate bamboo!

You are being far too nice.
Just wait util they move out. Smile; wave them Goodbye.

Wait a few days

Then get over the fence into their garden.when dark.

Pull it out of the ground as soon as you can. Then chop it into bits and put in in your Green. Council Garden Waste recycling bin asap.

It any one says anything. Say that there was a rats nest here. And you got a company to remove it and all the vegetation.

Good Luck

If your property was damaged they'd be liable for it so politely checking the type of bamboo, if roots are contained etc is fair enough. We had similar with a neighbour and caught them before they'd had any viewings to discuss their invasive garden, blocking sunlight from our garden year round. We offered very politely to pay for the issue to be dealt with any they went mental and it was very difficult but the offending greenery was gone by the time the new neighbours came and we have a lovely garden now, not same for the neighbours sadly but can't have it all.