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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be really annoyed with my neighbour?

38 replies

BettyTurnip · 21/07/2009 09:46

Our neighbour said to dh two days ago that he was going to trim the privet hedge separating our back gardens to "a more manageable height". (I didn't know anything about this, but dh assumed he meant about head height).

Yesterday evening I come downstairs and see that the neighbour has absolutely butchered the bloody hedge, taking it from a height of around 7ft to below waist height. Not only is it ridiculously short but he's made a crap job of it, huge tufts sticking out, totally uneven and mismatched with the tall hedge we have on the other side of the garden.

The worst thing is that we now have no privacy at all, and the garden is exposed to view from several houses in our street and the street backing onto us.

I'm totally pissed off about this and it's put me right off going the bloody garden. How long will a privet hedge take to grow 3ft?!

OP posts:

MamaLazarou · 21/07/2009 17:14

I wish my problems were all like this.

MamaLazarou · 21/07/2009 17:16

Sorry, that sounded flippant. After the day I'm having, the OP's hedge story sounds soothing.

I hope it grows nice and quickly for you. If it's any consolation, mine grows like a bastard and DH has to cut it every couple of weeks.

Original poster

BettyTurnip · 21/07/2009 17:18

Eh???

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Original poster

BettyTurnip · 21/07/2009 17:21

Ok, x-post as I'd actually typed something along the lines of "Not all my problems are this trivial acksherly" but deleted it.

Anyway, going to stop whining about and prepare some food.

OP posts:

katiestar · 21/07/2009 17:57

We have got 300ft of privet growing round our garden and it grows SO bloody fast ! . At one side it is only about 4 .5 ft high and we have suggested to next door going halves on some fencing so we both have more privacy but they didn't want to.And really annoyingly keep cutting down the tops when we try and let it grow up a bit.Why wouldn't people want privacy in their back garden

ninah · 21/07/2009 18:13

If you do fence don't go for the 7 foot solution as you need planning permission for anything over 6 feet
Not everyone likes privacy. I replaced an old dangerous length of chicken wire with a 6 foot fence and my neighbours were horrified and reported me to the council - the land slopes and at one end it exceeded the 6 foot limit by 1.5 inches, ended up having to apply for retrospective planning

Flgihtattendant · 21/07/2009 18:36

Oh dear yes my neighbour was like that...'Oh don't worry, we can have Open Plan!!!!' (this after leaving us with NO hedge for about 5 feet of what used to be it) ' Now all the trees are gone we can have a proper quince hedge, it was so pretty...' yes this was the quince hedge that took 20 YEARS to get anywhere, and I have a one year old child, and your garden leads directly onto the ROAD....

SoupDragon · 21/07/2009 18:44

Send your children to stare over the tiny hedge regularly. That and an awful lot of lost footballs and you may get the neighbour to agree to go halves on a fence.

Original poster

BettyTurnip · 21/07/2009 22:36

Never mind staring over the tiny hedge, dd2 will probably be grabbing a garden chair and climbing over it, little bugger daredevil that she is .

Well, dh has phoned a fencer(?) who is coming round to give us a quote tomorrow (I suspect dh is secretly quite pleased about this as he hates trimming the hedge. I am openly not happy about potentially paying out £££s and I liked the greenery).

Who knew that hedges could cause so much blardy hassle, going off other people's posts as well.

OP posts:

hippipotamiHasLost49lbs · 21/07/2009 22:38

Have you spoken to the neighbour about this? Just be careful - if you fency inside your boundary you may eventually lose the stip of your garden on 'their' side of the fence.
If your neighbour hates the hedge perhaps he would be willing to go halves on taking it out and putting fencing up. (which personally I detest as I am a hedge lover but if you are going to put a fence up anyway you may as well do it properly, on the boundary and get the trimmer-happy chappie next door to pay his share)

TwoIfBySea · 21/07/2009 22:40

My parent's neighbour did this when I was about 8 or 9. Ended up that he made such a bad job, again cutting the hedge from about 6' or 7' to very short, that it totally killed the hedge and my parents had to fork out for a fence. The bugger didn't even help pay for it at the time but had to replace the fence a few years later because of damage to it.

Original poster

BettyTurnip · 21/07/2009 22:50

Yes, we'll have to speak to the neighbour. Really can't see him and his wife being willing to stump up the money tbh. Dh is planning on asking him to take up the whole hedge if we do decide to get a fence as he obviously likes wielding his chainsaw. Hmm, might start calling him Eminem actually.

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Original poster

BettyTurnip · 21/07/2009 22:52

Ah well, that's karma TIBS.

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