Cutting down one of my trees

We’ve got a fussy,whiny neighbour too. Always looking for something to whinge about. All I can say is they must have unhappy lives, though it is sometimes hard to feel sorry for them.

My neighbours are quite noisy too. I have to put up with it. Luckily they go away a lot so that's very considerate of them and affords me some peace.

It's just a fact of life that we have to compromise in order to live side by side with other humans...

keepingquiet some neighbours are never quiet. There will always be something wrong.

Unless it was dangerous, I'd only remove it for them if they were paying.

Why not plant a replacement tree? Although it may take a while to grow, birds will nest elsewhere if the conifer goes.

You can plant any kind of tree to attract wildlife and plant it where it won't disturb the neighbours.

Most birds love shrubs and hedgerow plants more than conifers anyway.

If it was me I would replace the offending conifer and create a different kind of wildlife haven... and keep the neighbours happy.

A neighbour of ours has complained bitterly about a mature beech tree in the corner of our very small garden - it does partly overhang his even smaller one. However it’s protected, so even to get it thinned a bit we need permission. We offered to do it if he’d go halves (it’s a lot of £££) but he didn’t want to pay, so that’s it.
It was there when they bought the house, decades after we bought ours - maybe they didn’t understand that trees shed leaves, and beech trees attract squirrels, who will be busy scoffing the nuts and dropping the shells in autumn!

My daughter has a garden with conifers on all the borders. The previous owner made a Japanese garden. She’s gradually going to replace most of the conifers with native trees. She’s already bought a rowan, hawthorn and hazel. She’ll do it gradually.

Oh dear .... neighbours! Have just finished watching The Feud on Channel 5. Don't be bullied by her.

4allweknow

I thought legislation was passed a few years ago that restricted the height of conifers in gardens to something like 2 mtrs. Think it came to the fore due to issues with hedges blocking light.

Only applies to hedges

Hellos no help to you now but I believe they broke the law
Criminal damage?

We had someone (behind) chop off a massive branch of next-door's ancient sycamore and chuck it over into ^our garden.
Presumably they thought the tree was ours.
Or they just don't care.

It squashed the seedlings in our raised bed.

This has happened twice now.

How very rude

I had a beautiful silver birch, tall but slender, which only cast a shadow on our own garden but my new neighbours continually moaned about it because apparently it interfered with their Sky tv reception.Eventually they offered to pay to have it removed and for a quiet life,I agreed-they admitted it didn't improve their Tv though. Recently they asked to trim some branches growing near, but not over, the border fence on our smallish Rowan tree ,and pop round to clear any mess. We were out and on returning found they had cut it right down, just a stump left. I'm so angry, it was lovely when laden with berries and now its butchered. They also removed a winter flowering jasmine growing beside the fence.

Our house was built in 1800s there are some very old trees in the garden that require fairly regular attention including some gorgeous huge horse chestnuts. Our last bill from the tree surgeon was over £2k.
We can't do the work ourselves because some of the trees require someone working from a harness or cherry picker.
I love our mature trees but they're not on anyone's boundary! When the house was built the driveway was used by coach and horses not the horse lorry that I drove down to stables. Times change. We've had to remove the odd tree but we've planted more than we've removed!

We were lucky to have 3 Eucalyptus trees cut down , free of charge by the electricity board as they were near to overhead lines which would be damaged if the trees were to be blown over in storm. Plenty of logs and chopped barks for mulch
DD had a substantial garden shed badly damaged by a row of conifers in a neighbour's garden which were blown over in a winter storm.
Due to different root formation some trees are more prone to being blown over. RHS is a useful source if such information

I thought legislation was passed a few years ago that restricted the height of conifers in gardens to something like 2 mtrs. Think it came to the fore due to issues with hedges blocking light.

I photographed my garden before and after. One issue, as well as the bliddy leylandi, was the Ivy destroying my new fence. I pointed out in a non confrontational way (I hope) that they were legally responsible for the expensive damage. The Ivy was gone in a week. They agreed my Gardner could reduce the leylandi to a level we both agreed at my expense . Phew

Suburban gardens can be pretty large - I'm a suburban semi with a 100m back garden & 50m front garden , pretty wide too - OK it would only be a tiny field, but a Leylandi or conifer would be a drop in the ocean in mine.
We did have the leylandi hedge at the bottom taken out when we moved here, mainly cos we don't particularly like them.

I think the birds will come back - as long as no cats start to frequent your garden.

Neighbours and trees! The person whose house we bought, and who planted all the trees/hedging in the garden, moved next door. She often complained that the trees were shading her new garden but when we offered to fell/cut them back said NO! Unfortunately she has recently passed away, should we sort the trees/hedging now before the property is sold or wait and see what the new neighbours are like? (We did get on well with our old neighbour apart from the tree/hedge issue!).

SparklyGrandma

Coal tits live on conifer trees. My neighbour cut down their 50’ conifer and the coal tits have all disappeared (died.)
Ask your councils wild life officer about the birds and can you cut it down Furret?

"Coal tits typically nest in tree hollows or small holes in trees, walls, or banks, and may also nest in the ground"

sarahcyn

@Furret surely all you need is to take the crown down a bit?

Furret said earlier that she did this last year.

Further to my previous post, I just add on a couple of other ideas that come to mind.
1. You might take pictures as it is now, for both future reference, and also it might be worth your talking to a local gardening club, who might have good information as to the best tree people around and also ideas of what might be grown in shade.
2. If you dont think it would stir up a hornets nest, you could speak to your council and check out the situation as far as they are concerned. I know there have been changes about very high hedges but it doesnt seem to apply in your case. However it might be useful to check how the local bylaws might affect it now or in the future. Then knowing you are not doing anything against the law, you can relax and enjoy your garden.
3. If your neighbour doesnt like it ,then you can either just ignore her where possible, or tell her what the council etc have said and offer her ideas for plants for the shade. Then go back to enjoying your own garden and let her get someone else to look after her hens. Oh by the way if she has a cockerel you can also mention that that is quite disturbing for you too, so that problems are not one way only, but that you try to live in harmony as you obviously have done until she came along. (Oh it might be quite useful for a little while to have ear phones in when in the garden. She doesnt need to know whether you actually have any music on or not!! )

Can you put up nesting boxes well within your own garden, and then either fell the tree, or trim it even more drastically, and perhaps plant something that grows quickly as far away from this "sun is more important than wild-life" neighbour?

You won't change her views, unfortunately.

Coal tits live on conifer trees. My neighbour cut down their 50’ conifer and the coal tits have all disappeared (died.)
Ask your councils wild life officer about the birds and can you cut it down Furret?

@Furret surely all you need is to take the crown down a bit?

was the tree there when she moved in?, i would trim it back but not take it away when she has plenty of sunshine in other parts of her garden, some people just need to complain about something.