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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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Original poster

I'm so sad - our neighbours have cut down all the trees at the bottom of our garden

36 replies

tortoiseshell · 12/09/2006 22:13

What can we grow to replace them? THere was a wonderful screen of conifers, which aren't the most interesting of trees, but our garden was so secluded, and today without telling us they were going to, they chopped the whole lot down so our garden is totally overlooked by their horrible house now. I cried, I was so sad! It's ruined our garden for the moment.

What is a good screening plant?

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NomDePlume · 12/09/2006 22:16

Bamboo. Fast growing, looks fab and is very tactile. Be careful of spreading though -buy a bamboo of 'clumping habit' rather than 'spreading habit', or alternatively use soemthing called a root barrier (you'll have to ask Hub2Dee about that one, he taught me all i know about bamboos )

MoreTeaAnyone · 12/09/2006 22:16

I can't help but I'd love to know the suggestions. We really need/want to put quick and easily maintained screening plants round the front garden.

sorrell · 12/09/2006 22:16

Buy some really big, fast-growing trees - quite expensive but worth it (think Eucalyptus grows like the clappers and is beautiful and semi-evergreen) and in the meantime put up some trellis with Russian Vine or something fast growing. I woudl have cried too.

NomDePlume · 12/09/2006 22:17

Or just plant another row of conifers (leylandii or however you spell it !)

Kelly1978 · 12/09/2006 22:18

put up soem conifers on your side of the fence?

Californifrau · 12/09/2006 22:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nearlythree · 12/09/2006 22:19

We took down a leylandii hedge and replaced it with a mixed native. It doesn't take too long to grow and is much more interesting. Maybe your neighbours are going to plant something different?

riddleywalker · 12/09/2006 22:20

You could also plant some quick growing conifers on your side...? And put some screening up like the willow roll stuff you can get from B&Q etc. until the new plants grow up. If you don't want a really high hedge, pyracanthus is lovely & has beautiful berries this time of year - you can buy plants of it that are 1-2 meteres high & it grows quite fast. Very prickly too so keeps out burglars (and tree loppers!).

Our neighbour cut down a row of conifers last year and put up a horrible fence between our two gardens. It does mean we get more light but I need to get stuff growing up the fence sharpish. Have got a pyracanthus there now, honeysuckle and a mock orange.

Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 00:17

Thank you for the responses! How long would a native hedge take to grow, and how tall could it get? (The taller the better as far as I am concerned).

One funny side effect is that ds1 instantly shot to the top of his climbing frame when he got home from school to peer into their garden, so I think they may feel the lack of privacy more than us. They'll be pretty sick of ds1 by the weekend. Not that I'm encouraging him to practise his climbing skills...

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Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 08:28

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SherlockLGJ · 13/09/2006 08:37

I would move the frame, down as close to the boundary as is decent, thus breaking up your "View" and by default giving DS a wonderful one and them plenty of time to regret.

In fact did you say DS had 5, count 'em five friends coming over after school for the next few weeks to play on his frame and to make the most of what is left of the bright evenings ???

Bozza · 13/09/2006 08:38

Although not native I would be very tempted by eucalyptus. That is what I have put in to hide the pub toilets window over our back.

Eeek · 13/09/2006 08:47

DON'T GROW EUCALYPTUS! My neighbour has one and we hate it with a passion. In 5 years it has grown about 20ft to its current 40ft - it's a good bit taller than my house. It drops leaves and bits of bark all over the place, all year long, and it can't be cut down because it's too light for anyone to climb. It gives no privacy because all the leaves are at the top so we can see underneath. Don't get one!

Bozza · 13/09/2006 08:57

My established eucalyptus I lop the top off every year so it stays at about 15 feet. A height that I can manage to maintain with my longhandled pruners and step ladders. And I think it is lovely.

Might be worth bearing in mind that there are lots of different varieties and some are very vigorous. I don't really care about the pub seen as how they have a tall ash tree sandwiched right between our boundaries and their back wall which is significantly higher than the pub and probably wreaking havoc with their foundations. And to top it all I spend all my time digging up little ash seedlings from all my borders.

Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 13:10

Ha ha , the climbing frame is right next to the fence, in fact if he jumped ds could probably get into their garden. Only 5 friends - I was thinking more like an impromptu class party .

We do have a eucalyptus down that end of the garden, but it shouldn't go too mad I don't think, it's a smaller variety and only grows to about 20ft.

Does anyone know anything about native hedges? I like the idea of doing something eco, (am trying to be positive here).

I liked the bamboo idea too - will look into that too - thanks!

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Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 13:27

bump

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Bramshott · 13/09/2006 13:53

Most garden centres will sell bare-rooted hedging plants at this time of year. We're thinking of putting a hawthorn hedge at the end of our garden, but I guess that doesn't grow too high. Beech is lovely, but a bit more expensive. You have to ask in our garden centre and they'll give you a list with prices.

Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 15:03

I fancy a mixed hedge with some hawthorn, beech but other things like holly in there as well. It ideally needs to be about 10-15 feet high.

Does anyone know the rules about hedge heights? I know if it's evergreen then neighbours can demand it's cut down to 2m, but I think this would be ok.

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Tickle · 13/09/2006 15:57

if you add hazel into the mix you might get nuts

Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 16:00

Yes, hazel was definitely on my list! I'd really like to encourage a bit of wildlife into the garden (other than my wild children - still working on the class party on the climbing frame....)

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KathyMCMLXXII · 13/09/2006 16:01

Can I second NdP's suggestion of bamboo, if only because it sounds so lovely when it whispers in the wind.

Tinker · 13/09/2006 16:01

A japonica shrub grows pretty quickly.

My lovely neighbours chopped off all the overhanging bits of my shrubs and just threw them back over my fence - no discussion (know they can do this, but nice people usually would do it in a polite way) They were the only bits in their garden that looked nice. So glad I have a nice eucalpytus at teh bottom now !

Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 16:08

Tinker, that is almost what has upset me the most - I always knew they COULD do this, but didn't expect our first knowledge of it to be the whirr of the chain saw. Will look at japonicas too.

I'm going to the garden centre tomorrow to look at all these things in the flesh - we are going to start immediately, because the garden looks SO horrible now. I had a big cry last night and then woke up feeling more positive and ready for action!

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Tinker · 13/09/2006 16:09

tortoiseshell - were they your trees, in your garden?

Original poster

tortoiseshell · 13/09/2006 16:11

no, just over the fence, so they were their trees, hence why they could just chop them down. I'm going to check on the deeds that they were allowed to, because the trees went all up our road, and it's just possible that there was some sort of covenant to stop this, when the houses were built (they are modern, ours are 1930s), so they must have been put in when the estate was built, presumably to avoid the goldfish bowl that is our house and garden.

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