Cutting down one of my trees

I am pleased to know you have decided to cut the tree down . I fully understand it can't be done in the nesting season . I love my birds but your birds will be ok!
Personally I detest conifers!! I hope your neighbours are able to pay half the cost, if I were in their situation I would happily do that. Asking your neighbour round for coffee is a sound idea - not to discuss why the tree should stay but to tell her your decision about felling the tree. Good luck !

NotSpaghetti

Nobody said it was a leylandi as far as I can see.

"I'm not a fan of leylandii conifers, if that's what it is. "

I introduced the thought that it might be a leylandii, however even if it's a native conifer like a Scot's Pine, they still grow quickly and reach a great height.

Nobody said it was a leylandi as far as I can see.

I was house-hunting in 2018/19 and turned down several houses because of what I saw growing close to the boundary, mature trees, it was not yet spring so there was no heavy leaf canopy. I had my wits about me, could work out sun/shade/subsequent root spread and damage

Small newly planted leylandii, right up against a fence 1 metre away from the lovely new bungalow. It could have been mine, I was first viewer. No, I stood on tiptoe after seeing what looked like whispy fronds. I viewed and said no way

None of my fruit trees, all with carefully chosen M26 rootstocks will ever impinge onto my neighbours gardens, nor they onto mine. We are all considerate neighbours

I could be your neighbour, furret. When we moved in 35 years ago, the area behind our house was a woodland. A large house was built there and the owner/builder planted conifers around the border.
I dislike leylandi, they’re unsuitable for suburban gardens. They grow so quickly, make it difficult to grow things near them and throw shadow. The ones at the bottom of my garden grew taller than my house. My garden was in shade, plants and shrubs in my border didn’t survive.
That house has changed hands three times so I’ve been negotiating and paying to keep these ugly things cut back. I’ve managed to avoid rows but it’s an irritant that I’m the one funding and trying to avoid letting these things take over

I'm not a fan of leylandii conifers, if that's what it is. Tbh I don't think they're suitable for smaller suburban gardens, they can grow up to 100 feet with their shallow roots meaning it's impossible to grow much near them so I'm sympathetic to your neighbour, I'm afraid. Personally I'd get rid and replace with something more suitable and beautiful. You'll keep your neighbour happy and remove a tree that will always present you with a problem as they grow quickly and is not native. If you're using it to screen your view of your neighbour's house it's probably casting rather a lot of shadow in their garden!

Your neighbour should pay the cost of removing the tree if it is only for her benefit. Would she do that?

Whilst I definitely would try to live in harmony with my neighbours, I also think that sometimes people do not use common sense or think into the future. If your neighbour came to live there after you, she would have seen your garden at the time and could have thought what it may look like in the future.
If you have large gardens she has other places where she will get more sun and could actually use the shade area to be able to plant different varieties of plants .
You have done your best to be a reasonable neighbour, but she seems to think she has the right to tell other people what they can and cant do in their own garden, so she may then decide something else she doesnt like and it could be neverending. You have tried to be accommodating but it is your place, so perhaps you could talk to a gardening club or friend who might have good ideas that you may not have considered. I would just look out a couple of photos of your garden from about the time she came to live there, so that if there is any further problems you can use it to point out the situation as it was in the beginning.

I think in general there seems to be a quite selfish attitude now, where people think that once they have moved somewhere then they expect things to change to suit them. You see this especially in the countryside where people long to come and live in a village or out in the dales or wherever and then complain that animals keep them awake, or move slowly on the road or tractors get in their way etc. Of course estate agents are there to extol the virtues of places but sometimes I think there should be somewhere people could go to check up on the possible downsides that they have not yet thought of.!!

I hope you can come to a good resolution and we all need to help our wildlife as we are losing so many these days.

The neighbour at the bottom of our garden has an enormous conifer that not only shades a good portion of our garden but drops so much debris and the bird droppings are horrendous. It hasn’t been cut back for years and the council have now got involved and issued him a remedial order that it be reduced to 5 metres for the life of the tree. Our neighbour has ignored this, it is now nesting time but our local council is taking him to Court to enforce the order!! We have a Shoo bird scarer pointing at the tree in desperation. It is only really pidgeons, crows there they have scared the pretty little birds away. It is awful a complete eyesore. Causing so much mess. Nothing will grow at that end of our garden.

It is extremely selfish not to cut back a large conifer tree. A professional can check whether birds are indeed nesting and they may not be and in that case it can be cut back now.

Relations sound good with your neighbour so don’t let a tree feud develop that we now have!

We asked a neighbour if we could remove a large conifer in his garden he was happy for us to go ahead at our cost.

We paid ALL the costs as it was to our benefit.

If you are happy with the tree and they want it removed why should you pay?

They might rethink on the patch of shade if they had to pay.

Furret you seem like a very good neighbour. I'm sorry your neighbour is less so. A good idea to ask for half the cost of felling the tree.
Let us know what happens when you suggest this to your neighbour.

Parsley3 it’s lovely that your neighbours cooperate in this way. I know where the shade hits her garden as I feed her animals (inside and out) when she goes away - often for weeks at a time. The shade moves around depending on the time of day. Because our garden as so big there’s always plenty of unshaded areas.

In the spirit of cooperation I’m going to tell her we will fell it in the autumn but as NotSpaghetti suggests I’m going to suggest she pays half the £800 it will cost.

I think if you are prepared to see it cut down then your neighbour should pay for it as it does not benefit you.

She may not want it down so badly as to pay for it!

Living in Scotland, I chase every ray of sun. Over the years trees in my garden and in neighbours' gardens have grown so large that they cast shade on our patios. We have clubbed together to have them cut down and so far everyone has cooperated and it has made a huge difference to all of us. If your tree is shading a patio area, then it may be making a difference to your neighbour, Furret. Perhaps you could ask her to show you what she is talking about so you can judge if her complaint is real or not. You are right about not disturbing birds in the nesting season.

Thanks for your views. I do object to being called selfish especially as I’ve bent over backwards to accommodate this particular neighbour.

I’ve asked her to come across for a coffee so we can discuss this.
She needs to understand that it is illegal to cut this tree down in the nesting season, so any decision cannot be acted upon until October.

Unfortunately our garden birds are struggling nowadays. I’m a keen believer in ‘give nature a home’. We have destroyed so many habitat of our native species, poisoned them with pesticides, and hunted them to extinction. And we call ourselves a nation of animal lovers!

Why do people buy houses next to mature trees if it bothers them.

My in-laws did this years ago and it was a constant stress.
My parents built on the edge of a mature copse - and just got on with it!

I find the whole mature tree thing very odd.

Neighbours who let trees get so high it effects neighbours either side are just selfish. Why do people think it’s their divine right to plant what they want regardless of others it affects. It has caused me so much distress and spoilt my garden, apart from my awful hayfever, they block my light, are messy always something falling off them including branches. t. There should be a limit on height of all hedges and trees, they should not be planted on borders. If there was such a ruling, and people breach it there should be high fines, on going until they comply.

It’s always a shame to cut a tree down, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Birds nest in shrubs, Ivy and old buildings so the loss of a tree is not always a disaster.
You do not say what type of fir it is. This year we’ve cut down an old larch, it was very spindly on the top, about 40ft high and not very deep rooted. Fortunately that was before the very high wind that brought down many sturdier trees.

affect. I do know the difference 😬

I suppose really you need to try to be dispassionate and try to judge how much your tree is shading her garden as if you were living in her house.

Then act accordingly as to who is being unreasonable.

People always seem to plant trees at their boundaries where it’s inevitable that they will effect neighbours and then wonder problems arise.

I asked our neighbour if I could pay to have his tree trimmed because of the shade it cast on my garden.

He not only agreed but sampson d he would have it taken down. That really he thought it had grown too large for our suburban gardens.

I was very relieved because I was also worried about the root system and the drains.

I would do almost anything for my neighbour if he ever needed help.

I would say you have done your bit to compromise!
Remind her you did exactly what was agreed.

She has sun in the rest of the garden.

There's no pleasing some people!

woodenspoon

We had 30 conifers in our garden when we moved in here. The vast majority have been taken out and replaced with pretty flowers shrubs. So much nicer than dreary conifers.

Not sure the birds would agree...

We had 30 conifers in our garden when we moved in here. The vast majority have been taken out and replaced with pretty flowers shrubs. So much nicer than dreary conifers.

I have many, many sparrows living in the Winter Jasmine at the end of my garden. I would be very sad for them to lose their safe, sheltered home.