Huge tree in neighbours garden putting our garden in shade

[LillyLeaf]

Just wandering people's thoughts on this. We recently moved and have a lovely garden which is mostly in shade from about 1pm onwards due to the neighbours enormous tree that is right next to our wall, if it wasn't so big we would have sun for the rest of the day. The tree overhangs our garden a lot which doesn't help either. I'm all for trees in the garden but this one is massive, bigger than a house. I'm hoping to grow fruit and veg next year but not sure I can with it being so shaded. We had big trees in our previous garden that we got a tree surgeon to prune so they never got too big.

My question is would it be rude to ask them to cut it back a bit (quite a bit actually) or even pay halves for a tree surgeon. Is this rude? They are not next door neighbours but their garden is at the end of ours.

What would you do?

OP I'm on your side as vitamin d from sunshine for good health is a must for us hoomans and for the growth of plants

You can get that from a stroll to the park, and there are plenty of plants that thrive in the shade.

the tree was there when we viewed the house in November when it was completely bare and we didn’t quite apricate how the over hang would cast so much shade

Did you not realise trees grow leaves in summer?

The tree was there when you moved in; this is a sure fire way to get your relationship with your new neighbours off to a bad start. If you do ask them, I'd expect to pay the full cost, not half.

@Ratatattatpat

Cut back the bits that are over your boundary. They should keep their things in their own garden. They have no right to use yours.

AND make sure they don't look at your bit of sky!

Fair point. Mind you, unless people are keen gardeners, they may not notice which way the garden faces when they view a property, especially during winter when the sky is cloudy and it's not always easy to see which way is south
You're probably right for some people. Not everyone considers the garden direction, but those who plan to use their garden a lot and/or are keen gardeners probably would.
I'd have thought that people who consider an established tree and shade ruins their garden would fall into that category.It's not rocket science to see an established tree and think "that might cause my garden to be shady, depending on the time of day... if I want sun all day that could be problematic". If they didn't see a tree and think "might cause shade" then garden use wasn't a big priority at the time of buying.

Perhaps - if it's not beyond the bounds of comtemplation for you - some people may have smaller gardens than we do and therefore a particularly large tree might plunge their entire garden into shade for most of the day, and prevent them from successfully growing many things in a garden that otherwise has a good aspect.

What a nasty sarcastic tone.
Of course I understand that. But then I also understand that trees don’t vanish on completion of a house sale and that the grow leaves in the summer.
The bottom of my garden backs onto the small wooded area in a park. The trees there are easily 60ft high. They belong to the council. I knew they were there when I bought the house.

I have been pointing out that shade from trees isn’t the complete disaster that some people have been making out.

We have this. Three now-massive trees blocking out all evening sun which is all we get on a work day. They were small when we moved in. Neighbour is elderly, I've asked but she isn't willing to chop them down even at our cost . Any tips gratefully received !

coronafiona
When did you move in and what type of trees are they?

You are quite within your rights to cut back any overhanging branches as long as you don’t endanger the tre or it has a tpo however I wouldn’t do it, your best option is to go around and discuss with the neighbours and formulate a plan of how and who will do this and maybe offer to pay half as you are the one requesting, that way you can get a professional on the job rather than hacking at it yourself, if they turn around and say no then you can advise them you’ll be employing a professional to advise/ do the work on your side of the boundary

@EastWestWhosBest

I’m guessing it didn’t spring up between you viewing the house and buying it. The tree and the neighbour were there first.

My garden has lots of trees. If a neighbour asked then I’d consider cutting it back if they paid something towards it. Last time I had the trees done it cost £1k.

The size of a tree in leaf can be massively different to how it appears in winter.

🙄 it's perfectly reasonable to want to prune a bloody tree. Trees NEED maintenance. I don't know why people get so bloody hysterical about trees. We had a 60ft lime tree that completely filled our garden with leaves - owned by the neighbour. Never maintained. It collapsed a few weeks ago and was lucky not to kill anyone.

You can ask OP but given how much it costs to do anything to trees, your neighbour may not be willing to do anything unless you are prepared to pay.

I don’t get the hysteria about having leaves in you garden. Why is this such a massive issue?

@EastWestWhosBest

I don’t get the hysteria about having leaves in you garden. Why is this such a massive issue?

Hmmm well, they need to be cleaned up and a 60ft high tree drops a lot of leaves. Also the branches touched the building, the roots the garden wall and now it has collapsed, we have structural engineers trying to make sure the building will stay safe as the roots may be around the foundations. But hey, it'a a tree and anyone who wants to prune them just hate trees!

Leaves don’t need to be cleared up that much. I rake them off the lawn about 3 times in autumn. That’s all.

@EastWestWhosBest

Perhaps - if it's not beyond the bounds of comtemplation for you - some people may have smaller gardens than we do and therefore a particularly large tree might plunge their entire garden into shade for most of the day, and prevent them from successfully growing many things in a garden that otherwise has a good aspect.

What a nasty sarcastic tone.
Of course I understand that. But then I also understand that trees don’t vanish on completion of a house sale and that the grow leaves in the summer.
The bottom of my garden backs onto the small wooded area in a park. The trees there are easily 60ft high. They belong to the council. I knew they were there when I bought the house.

I have been pointing out that shade from trees isn’t the complete disaster that some people have been making out.

Apologies, it was not meant to be so rude. It was late and I was grumpy. I meant just to point out that a single tree can really limit the use of a small garden. You may not mind shade but many people enjoy sunshine and also have far greater options with a decent amount of sunlight to grow a much wider variety of plants successfully.

Your garden looks very lovely. I would not be happy with the lack of sunshine personally, but can see the appeal for someone who doesn't mind that.

@EastWestWhosBest

Leaves don’t need to be cleared up that much. I rake them off the lawn about 3 times in autumn. That’s all.

Good for you. I have a 100ft garden surrounded by 12 nature lime trees in neighbouring gardens and it takes a hell of a lot longer.

Raking up leaves is the worst garden job. It's a massive pain.

Good for you. I have a 100ft garden surrounded by 12 nature lime trees in neighbouring gardens and it takes a hell of a lot longer.

I have a 100 ft garden. I have a plum, rowan, maple, pear, apple, weeping willows and two lilacs in my garden.
Behind my garden is a small woodland with a huge number of trees.

It really isn’t that much of a problem.

@EastWestWhosBest

Good for you. I have a 100ft garden surrounded by 12 nature lime trees in neighbouring gardens and it takes a hell of a lot longer.

I have a 100 ft garden. I have a plum, rowan, maple, pear, apple, weeping willows and two lilacs in my garden.
Behind my garden is a small woodland with a huge number of trees.

It really isn’t that much of a problem.

You wouldn't say that if you lived in a street that has 100 year old lime trees in front of every other house. Not only are they huge,they are a complete pain from their constant sticky sap all summer to the billions of leaves deposited in every drive and garden throughout autumn. They don't even belong to me but I spend ridiculous amounts of time raking them up. The council have an official policy of only touching the trees if they appear dangerous and certainly don't collect the leaves.

Most of my neighbours use leaf blowers and shunt them into the road from where they blow down my sloping drive! I hate leaf blowers.
TPOs are usually only for trees which provide a public amenity so a tree at the back of a suburban garden will be unlikely to have one.

We have a fair number of trees in our back garden but we manage them properly.

I completely sympathise OP and hope you can come to an amicable arrangement.

Assuming an otherwise good relationship an offer to cover the cost if it would suit them wouldn’t be problematic.

One of our neighbours often hints that our trees are blocking his (fantastic) views, and we would probably have had them reduced were it not for his track record of trying to obstruct planning for anything in his view. As such any tree work will be after the loft conversion which given another years growth will be entirely out of his sight.