to think the neighbours should have told us they were cutting down their hedge?!

[PDR]

Right so I just got home from coffee at a friends.

See the neighbours have tree surgeons vans outside their house. Wonder to myself what they are doing...

Get into the house and see that they have cut down the entire hedge that shields their garden from ours!

We only have a 3ft fence up our side as the hedge was very tall and didn't need anything really.

Now we can see right into their garden and them into ours.... great.

I can see why they have done it as the hedge was eating into their (smallish) garden but maybe they could have mentioned it to us?!

Have spoken to my husband who thinks he will probably put up a 6ft fence unless they are planning on putting something up on their side.

Am I being unreasonable in thinking they should have at least mentioned it to us before they did it??!

YABU. It's thier hedge and they can do what they like with it.

Yanbu i would have been annoyed too, get a high fence probably the best solution

Oh no do NOT plant Leylandii. Someone posted ealier that they grow to 30 feet, believe me it is way more than that. They are the trees that often feature in programmes about problem neighbours, they are huge, huge trees which will grow about 10 feet a year and block all the light.

We had to have five of them cut down in our garden last year, as they were getting to tall & wide and too close to the house. They were fine when we moved here 7 years ago, but at the time of cutting they'd grown to nearly twice as high as the house & so wide that they were blocking our path and the light to the front.

it cost us over £1000 to have them removed. If we'd kept them and just lopped them to a reasonable height, you'd have to do it every year & that would have cost about £400 every year.

For those of you thinking about planting a Leylandii hedge, read THIS!

Leylandii and the law
In Britain and Ireland, x Cupressocyparis Leylandii is estimated to be the cause of over 20,000 ongoing neighbour disputes. The disputes usually centre on encroachment or the exclusion of sunlight; many of these problems end up in court or worse still, the local accident and emergency room.

Here is the leylandii tree law as it stands in Britain?
? If Leylandii or another form of hedge is encroaching on a neighbour's garden, the neighbours is entitled to trim back the hedge to the boundary themselves, but must return the trimmings to the owner. This law also pertains to Ireland as well.
That solves the sideways growth of the tree for a while, next is the upward growth. You are not entitled without permission to reduce your neighbours tree in height, often done to allow extra sunlight to sites. This is where your people skills will be put to the test as you try to convince your neighbour to top his trees or allow you permission to do so.

? In Britain, if the neighbour digs his heels in and stubbornly refuses to reduce the height of the trees or hedge, then you can contact you local council. A complainant must prove they have tried to resolve matters privately first before approaching their local council. If the council deems the hedge excessive, they can ( under the anti-social behavior act 2003 ) order it to be reduced in height to two metres.

? Failure to comply with this order could mean a fine of £1,000.

OK OK Leylandii definately off the menu!

DMspeical - we are going to wait and see what they have planned. I am optimisitc but none of my friends/colleagues are!

If they really don't do anything then we will have to look into changing our fence. I must admit I probably won't discuss this with them since they failed to discuss their actions with us.

If it wasn't because of the fact that they can now quite clearly see into our bedrooms and I can see their children playing in the garden from my bed then I would have waited until next summer to see if we could live with it.

I totally understand your surprise but your neighbours probably didn't want to be able to look into your bedrooms anyway, they might have wanted something of a trim and then when the gardener came round they were more thorough than your neighbour expected and that's why the hedge is now so low? It's unfortunate but agree you'll need a fence now to replace the privacy, which is annoying as it's expensive. So YANBVU, if that reads right.

I can sympathise with your neighbours, especially if they thought you might object - when we moved into our house there was a 40 foot leylandii hedge stretching from the front of the house to the road on each side of the garden. The neighbours on the left hated it as much as we did and that one has now gone, replaced by a hedge of mixed shrubs which is kept to about 5 ft high.

We mentioned to the neighbours on the other side that we wanted to get rid of the other hedge & they were horrified & practically begged us to keep it, which, in the interest of good relations, we did.

Luckily the shadow falls completely on their side of the hedge, so we don't lose any light & over the years we have gradually reduced it to about 20 feet, but we are still spending a considerable amount every year keeping it trimmed, and if they move and we get new neighbours who don't like it, we may get a sudden and possibly inconvenient demand that we cut it back to 2m which would be expensive and would probably kill it.

Incidentally, when we get the sides trimmed, we now only do our side - before we used to pay for it all to be done, but once the hedge was only there because the neighbours wanted it, we reckoned if they want to keep it, they can pay for their side to be kept neat.

Right - we have just banged in a load of Leylandii and have read several comments about them. They are not established so could be easily removed but can anyone tell me any suitable alternative which will grow quickly to about 6-7 feet high, remain at that height and will give good coverage and privacy? Or does such a plant/tree/bush not exist?

Squishabelle yew is faster growing than most people think and has the advantage of being to cut it hard back and it will regrow. Laurel is fast growing, evergreen, and easy to maintain at around 6-7 feet (we have laurel as our front hedge). Beech hedges are slower growing, and are deciduous, but keep the old leaves until the new leaves come through in the spring. And finally, privet is another option, but will need trimming at least 3 times a year.

Leyandii are the invention of the devil as they will grow to 100 feet or more if not trimmed.

start playing a lot of naked volleyball

they'll replant quick enough

Thank you Shellingpeas, you have given me food for thought.

Oh god you don't live in a rather well to do town that starts with M do you? My dad asked tree surgeons to cut some stuff back last week and they did it when he wasn't in and he came home to find he had a new clear view straight into the neighbours. He felt awful about it but nothing he could do by then and had no idea it would make the difference it did when he asked the surgeons in.

Our neighbours have 2 huge leylandii hedges bordering the length of the front drive (120'). However, when we moved in, they begged us not to touch it and every year they have it professionally manicured on all sides so both of their neighbours are kept happy.

In fact, a few years ago when they reduced it's height by around 4', we were amazed at what we could see, and couldn't wait for it to grow back!.

They choose leylandii as the original line of Elms tress became diseased, and twice, when they planted something else, all plants were dug up & stolen overnight

We have laurel growing very fast as our front hedge, as the OAP home opposite is being extended and we don't want to see the new buildings.

Bare in mind that yew is extremely poisonous, of course.

I wouldn't keep a hedge I didn't like just to please the neighbours. I would TELL THEM I was planning to cut it down and replace it. I like mixed deciduous hedges, better for wildlife and berries but they do take 5 years or so to get to a decent height if you buy them at the young cheap stage.
We told our neighbour we were replacing the mix of privet and leylandii with a mixed hedge. He watched our new hedge for a few months decided it didn't give him enough privacy so stuck up a fence on his side which was fine by us.
If you don't have a gigantic garden why have any plants you don't like?

I can understand the 'shock' aspect - but don't think that there's any obligation to even mention their plans in advance.

Where I lived previously, the chap to the rear had some very tall pines. When I moved in they were at about 20 feet, when they reached 30 feet (so could be seen way above the roof of my house, instead of just visible down the side, I did ask if he planned to let them continue growing.

I felt rather annoyed when (because he lives on the main road) his tree cutters parked in front of my house and after cutting his trees, my garden had the remnants they didn't take away. Wish I'd had an electric fence or a gate at the very least, but got over it.

My neighbours to one side were 'slightly shocked' the afternoon when they were eating Sunday lunch with their 2 daughters and the chap was up a ladder and then walking across the tops of his 'flattened' trees to give them a trim with a chainsaw.

I was a little more shocked at the noise (I had had a late night on the computer, so he woke me up) and getting out of bed there were perhaps 20 - 25 feet between my (nude) self and him and his chainsaw. I think it was the fact he was disturbing a Sunday that was the worst bit, not the fact he could look straight into my bedroom while wandering about that annoyed me.

Now there's a field behind me, a little more cheerful than the cemetery behind us when I was under 20yo, and I'm glad not to have a neighbour directly behind to 'look into' my home, or for me to see in theirs (though a neighbour in her shower, with sun shining in on her, was a pleasant sight for me one Saturday morning).

wingandprayer - no we don't live in town starting with "m" but village "CM"...

For the record, they have not "cut it back" but totally removed it - nothing left - only a pile of wood-chippings and some nice fire wood.

Sods law it's not sunny for the first time in weeks and I might actually want to go into the garden!

Have taken to keeping bedroom curtains closed and might invest in some "office syle" blinds.

Lol at naked volleyball, had also thought about naked sunbathing (I am no size 10!).

We will as many ppl have said eventually have to put a higher fence up, but as our garden is huge has a very long fence all around (quite new as well) it will cost quite a lot me thinks. We border 5 people's gardens (yes ours is very long and wraps around the whole house but not that wide).

Oh well, c'est la vie but WHAT a pain in the arse.

It would have been nice and polite of them to mention it, but not essential if it is their hedge.