Hello fellow gardeners, sorry for the long winded post!
We bought a house last year (haven’t moved in yet), mainly because of the large plot it came with and they’re hard to come by in this area. Previous owners were gardeners many, many moons ago so I thought I’d leave it till spring to see what plants/flowers may spring up if any. Sadly not many, however it’s massively overgrown with ivy and brambles, they’ve taken over everything even the beautiful willow and robin tree at the back. I’ve started cutting it back so our 3 kids can actually get out there and play (checked everywhere for nests first).
I started right at the back where there’s roughly 4 meters covered in vines. I’d cleared a fair bit when the neighbour to the back of us popped their head through it all and asked am I moving in, to which I replied hello yes, then they immediately said we don’t want any gaps, we don’t want to be able to see. I said I’m cutting it back so the kids can play and tried to make conversation about how overgrown it is and they repeated they don’t want any gaps and walked off. Roughly an hour later I was trimming again- about 3 meters away from the back of their garden and I could see them stood at the boundary watching me.😶
The issue I have is, all of the greenery, trees and shrubs etc is all from our land that have grown towards the source of light( towards the back). They can’t stop me cutting it back can they? My other issue is, my 5 year old is on the pathway for suspected asd and he WILL climb through the back onto their property, he’s no sense whatsoever. My main priority is a safe, secure garden. He absolutely loves the outdoors, so the plan is to fence it off anyway but I fear there’ll be a boundary dispute now. It seems they kept it all nice and trim their side to stop it taking over their garden, but they’re quite happy to have our side completely inaccessible. I should note my oh did knock on to introduce us and express the plans for our garden but they didn’t answer. I have stopped for now because I feel quite uncomfortable but would you carry on cutting it back? Thank you x