May I ask you about how your garden is planned?

I'm sure I told him whst I'd planned but perhaps he didn't have his hearing aid in!

Never mind, what's done is done and no doubt they'll grow again.

Allira

I'd planned to have a small wild garden at the front in an awkward little border. There were already self-set cornflowers, aquilegia, oxalis and coltsfoot in there, along with a few others which needed removing eg groundsel.

DH told me he'd weeded 'that mess at the front' this afternoon. All gone. 🤔

Brings a whole new slant on "Whoops - butterfingers....".

That's him in the "Dunce Corner" at the moment and not going to get his favourite dinner etc for a while.

I'd be most annoyed at the lack of consultation/discussion with me on that. Sounds like it's up to him to pay for packets of wildflower seeds to replace it...

My first words would be "It's my garden too......."

I'd planned to have a small wild garden at the front in an awkward little border. There were already self-set cornflowers, aquilegia, oxalis and coltsfoot in there, along with a few others which needed removing eg groundsel.

DH told me he'd weeded 'that mess at the front' this afternoon. All gone. 🤔

Madmeg

Hello folks. Like us, the neighbours are now elderly. They used to trim as best they could (as did we) but neither of us can do it now. The majority are the dreaded Leylandii which were cheap and relatively popular in he 1970s. They are all on our land. He is having his side done separately by the same man, so paying that himself. £800 was the lowest quote we got. The chap says he will keep them in check annually for a much smaller fee. They now take off about 10 feet of the width of our garden and will probably be pretty bald. However they are good neighbours overall so we don't want an argument - and it IS all our fault.

It just shows how expensive sorting out years of neglect can cost - and we haven't started on the old shed and moss-covered uneven paths.
And the choice of homes in a village is limited, I wish DH would agree to move, but not a chance!

I can sympathise on that. I know I was looking for a house in a small town when I came here (not like my - smaller than many - home city. There I could look in any given price bracket and there would be loads and absolutely spoilt for choice and could be extremely particular. Here I was pushing it to try and have a reasonable choice on a single persons money and would still be pushing it - in whatever price bracket I'd been looking.

Where I am now it didn't take me that long to realise after I'd moved here that, I would say, about half the houses here don't make it onto the market in the normal way (ie pop up on RightMove etc). I estimate about half of them are sold "under the counter" as I call it. I've heard people will even say at someone's funeral "Now about their house........I want it" and buy it. Wouldnt work with me - as I'd slap someone's face (probably verbally - but VERY firmly - for showing such a lack of manners and consideration) - but people do do it here sometimes to my shock. I can't say as much as I'd like about "unofficial" ways of getting houses - as I was getting nowhere with the estate agents when I was looking for my starter house. So I decided to try it "my way" and chose the dearest 5 streets I could afford and decided to walk up them, choose the ones that looked potentially okay from the outside and wait for someone to tell me there was a house for sale and that is how I got my starter (ie I was walking up street no. 3, had come to a house I was peering at and assessing closely from outside - which had no sign of being for sale). I'd just clocked it from outside as a "potential" and heard the words "Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?" from the next door neighbour - and they informed me that house details were being sent out in two days time...as it was about to be for sale. Hence me having to be a bit more "reserved" about odd ways some people sell houses...LOL

Tell me about it re the "years of neglect". It was one of those gardens that sometimes euphemistically get called "easy maintenance" = which, by now, I've learnt to interpret as meaning "Nowt like our gardens then....oh DEAR DEAR = loadsa money/loadsa work to turn the poor little plot into a proper garden".

I stopped calculating just how much putting things right was costing me re that garden when I got to about £20,000!!!! I'd hazard a guess rewilding my garden/making it more like a proper garden will have probably cost me upwards of £30,000 - out of one income and one persons savings!!!!! and that on top of having to gut the tatty old-fashioned bodgers paradise little house. People like the house and garden now - apart from my neighbours that is - and the neighbourhood is going up...up! But it was Heartsink Territory to start with for sure...horrible little house that didnt even function properly in tired old-fashioned little area.

I do know leylandii aren't what I personally think of as "trees" - though they are and do hate them. The house with the stinking loo that I viewed also had a second problem (ie a row of leylandii along a border - and I couldnt be sure whether they belonged to that property or a neighbours). If they'd belonged to that property = they'd have come straight down and removed....

My garden plans itself and I love to let it

No plan, we spent 2 years adding to what was already there- whilst visiting before moving here permanently. I move things around, and some things I had origianlly have just disappeared (wrong conditions). We live in a 16C house, and I just love our English cottage garden- a semi tamed cottage style wilderness- mainly roses and perennials. It changes all the time, from april until mid november- then it rests for our cold winters. Just love it.

Hello folks. Like us, the neighbours are now elderly. They used to trim as best they could (as did we) but neither of us can do it now. The majority are the dreaded Leylandii which were cheap and relatively popular in he 1970s. They are all on our land. He is having his side done separately by the same man, so paying that himself. £800 was the lowest quote we got. The chap says he will keep them in check annually for a much smaller fee. They now take off about 10 feet of the width of our garden and will probably be pretty bald. However they are good neighbours overall so we don't want an argument - and it IS all our fault.

It just shows how expensive sorting out years of neglect can cost - and we haven't started on the old shed and moss-covered uneven paths.
And the choice of homes in a village is limited, I wish DH would agree to move, but not a chance!

Whew! As I thought - and it took me precisely one minute to find an article on this confirming one can't charge the tree-owner neighbour.

www.beechwoodtrees.co.uk/blog/can-i-force-a-neighbour-to-cut-back-their-trees-or-hedges

and the article confirms that "You have a common law right to prune etc etc but YOU CANNOT COMPEL THE OWNER OF THE TREES OR HEDGE TO CARRY OUT THIS WORK OR PAY FOR IT".

So the tree-hater can't do that at any rate to the tree-lover....

M0nica

CariadAgain

Madmeg

Very badly. We moved here with two toddlers, the priorities were a swing, climbing frame and sandpit. The garden was stocked with unknow-to-us shrubs and soon become overgrown. It still is, despite attempts to chop things down. I hate what it has become but DH was brought up in a messy (giant) garden so likes it like that. I don,t know how to dissuade him.

We can't now manage the trimming or any changes so it stays as it is. One pair of neighbours has complained and found us a tree-trimmer so he is coming next week. £800 and it will need doing every year!

Are the complainer neighbours going to pay that bill - ie the £800 pa? After all - they seem to be the ones basically bothered by it....

If trees or shrubs in your garden are overhanging into someone elses garden and you do not cut them back when they complain then they can commission the work and send the bill to you.

Our next door neghbour has a garden that is uncultivated and his neighbour the other side, has his trees trimmed back from her garden each autumn and sends him the bill, and he pays it. Fortunately all that creeps into our garden is ivy and ground elder, and secateurs and a hoe deal with that.

I know that the law in this country allows a tree-hater neighbour to cut back to the boundary and then says to them "Btw - you have to hand over the cuttings to the tree owner".

Not heard of tree-hater neighbours being able to forward the bill for their work to the tree-owner though!!! Off for a quick google....

To date the thing that astonishes me about British law in that respect is the tree-hater neighbour can hack back someone else's trees against their will - but still allows them to hack away even if the trees and treelover were both there first by years (ie the tree-hater knew at the outset that they were taking on a house with overhanging trees - and so why did they do so if they don't like that?). That feels so wierd for that to be possible - as if one doesnt like something about a house, then one goes and finds another house instead (in same price bracket etc). I know when I came viewing this area of the country that I duly rejected:
- the house very close to the river and with a hefty natural stone from the landscape wall going up the tiny back garden
- the house that would have been okay if the owners hadnt been sluts (ie the whole ground floor absolutely reeked of the ground floor toilet)
- the overpriced one near a road that was busier than I'd take and wondering if half the back garden might fall down a hill at the back one of these days
- the one that needed even more renovation work than mine did (ie LOADS).
- the one where the tenant lied and said they'd get out whenever the buyer wanted
etc etc

etc etc. So rejecting overhanging trees one was going to decide to dislike = that's their personal preference = move on...as it's rather more than a personal preference thing that goes "Why on earth have they painted half the walls purple?" and one can change that and no harm done to anyone or anything else.

CariadAgain

Madmeg

Very badly. We moved here with two toddlers, the priorities were a swing, climbing frame and sandpit. The garden was stocked with unknow-to-us shrubs and soon become overgrown. It still is, despite attempts to chop things down. I hate what it has become but DH was brought up in a messy (giant) garden so likes it like that. I don,t know how to dissuade him.

We can't now manage the trimming or any changes so it stays as it is. One pair of neighbours has complained and found us a tree-trimmer so he is coming next week. £800 and it will need doing every year!

Are the complainer neighbours going to pay that bill - ie the £800 pa? After all - they seem to be the ones basically bothered by it....

If trees or shrubs in your garden are overhanging into someone elses garden and you do not cut them back when they complain then they can commission the work and send the bill to you.

Our next door neghbour has a garden that is uncultivated and his neighbour the other side, has his trees trimmed back from her garden each autumn and sends him the bill, and he pays it. Fortunately all that creeps into our garden is ivy and ground elder, and secateurs and a hoe deal with that.

Madmeg

Very badly. We moved here with two toddlers, the priorities were a swing, climbing frame and sandpit. The garden was stocked with unknow-to-us shrubs and soon become overgrown. It still is, despite attempts to chop things down. I hate what it has become but DH was brought up in a messy (giant) garden so likes it like that. I don,t know how to dissuade him.

We can't now manage the trimming or any changes so it stays as it is. One pair of neighbours has complained and found us a tree-trimmer so he is coming next week. £800 and it will need doing every year!

Are the complainer neighbours going to pay that bill - ie the £800 pa? After all - they seem to be the ones basically bothered by it....

Very badly. We moved here with two toddlers, the priorities were a swing, climbing frame and sandpit. The garden was stocked with unknow-to-us shrubs and soon become overgrown. It still is, despite attempts to chop things down. I hate what it has become but DH was brought up in a messy (giant) garden so likes it like that. I don,t know how to dissuade him.

We can't now manage the trimming or any changes so it stays as it is. One pair of neighbours has complained and found us a tree-trimmer so he is coming next week. £800 and it will need doing every year!

I’ve gradually.put my garden together ish. I love it so that’s what matters

CariadAgain

Shinamae

My offering….

A different style to mine personally - but I'm envious of the fact you look like you've got bordering trees giving you privacy just beyond it.

Privacy is indeed a problem in many British gardens - and, as for those new estates, the mere thought of window after window after window looking down into one's private space = eeek! Don't these developers know that back gardens are private by definition - of course?

Yes, there are mature trees at the back of my house, I actually had to get the council to cut them down a year ago because they were encroaching and would’ve damaged my shed roof
The only downside is we’ve got magpies nesting there and they have been since the 22 years I’ve been in this house…
My daughter has just bought a house in St Albans. She can’t afford to buy it outright so it’s part rent part buy It’s costing her 650,000 thousand pound and like you say she is looking into houses on the front of our house and house,s
overlooking her at the back
It’s a three bed mid terrace nothing special…🤷‍♀️

Shinamae

My offering….

A different style to mine personally - but I'm envious of the fact you look like you've got bordering trees giving you privacy just beyond it.

Privacy is indeed a problem in many British gardens - and, as for those new estates, the mere thought of window after window after window looking down into one's private space = eeek! Don't these developers know that back gardens are private by definition - of course?

I have a pretty small garden in front and mostly paved at the back.
The previous owners loved their garden and spent all day everyday in it. I have therefore inherited a high maintenance piece.
I am not a gardener, so I had most of the front paved for a drive for 4/5 cars. So, I have a pretty front garden. Back garden is also low maintenance (hopefully), just spent roughly £200 on bark and a couple of plants etc for the borders
Loopuloo your garden sounds very exotic !!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202506/medium-f355f9-img-7591.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202506/medium-lcrwm-img-7590.jpeg

My offering….

Before we moved, weplanned a lawn with an herbaceous border and a small rockery at the bottom.
What came with the house, was thick clay soil and a tortoise that considered any herbaceous plants as his next meal.

Consequently, what we decided on was a lawn and a paved patio and border that the children and eventually, grandchildren could ride or scoot up and down.
We added pots for the flowers, tomatoes and salads - and left the dandelions and buttercups for the bees and the tortoise. He also benefits from the salad and carrots, but we give him those.

Wish we were able to amend our posts on here....

The culprit firm is 3fatpigs that sometimes sends out different trees to what one has actually ordered from them.

Wyllow3

I'm aware that the garden I designed 4/5 years ago was beautiful to me.... It's a big garden with a lovely windy path and different areas, woodland, Japanese, stone garden, rockery, colour balance of the different plantings and so on.

but... I wish I had thought a bit more about future proofing. More shrubs, ie more ground covered to needing care, than plants that need a lot of constant care. I need a gardener now because of this.

I also didn't think of incorporating more drought proof plants, although it was mooted 4/5 years a go as something maybe to take on board.

I've far too many pots but thats relatively easy to deal with..except someone else has to heave the heavier ones around now.

It sounds nice!

Future-proofing is the thing. I think we all make mistakes as we go - and probably one of them is not taking account of what plants will be okay for the soil we have in our garden and the weather we have in our area. But I still think it's worth it personally to try any plant that will do okay in a British climate and confess I totally ignore the sort of soil my garden has (clay!). Though I have put better soil in my raised beds - so there's no problems from that direction there in growing whatever I've decided to.

I'm learning too that it helps to keep young baby plants in a greenhouse (in my case - make that conservatory) until they've got to a passable size and strength and are better able to stand up against slugs/snails.

The mistake I think a lot of gardeners probably make is not allowing for what size the plant might get to - and shrubs are very much a culprit in that respect. Best to be a little more thoughtful about where one buys things like that and fruit trees from - yep...I've learnt not to buy fruit trees from one company that comes up a lot on Amazon. I bought a miniature cherry tree from them with red cherries - and I've found it may not have been a miniature and the cherries are not red in colour. Think the firm is called "Three Fat Pigs" or some such similar type name from memory and I've realised since re that - when I ordered 2 plum trees from them last year and the fruit is starting to come out on them and it's apples (not plums)!!!!!

My garden just evolved. I don’t grow fruit or veg at mo it is flowers and bee friendly lots of hydrangeas and roses and shrubs. It is a bit chaotic but I love it. Lovely seating areas to enjoy it

I'm aware that the garden I designed 4/5 years ago was beautiful to me.... It's a big garden with a lovely windy path and different areas, woodland, Japanese, stone garden, rockery, colour balance of the different plantings and so on.

but... I wish I had thought a bit more about future proofing. More shrubs, ie more ground covered to needing care, than plants that need a lot of constant care. I need a gardener now because of this.

I also didn't think of incorporating more drought proof plants, although it was mooted 4/5 years a go as something maybe to take on board.

I've far too many pots but thats relatively easy to deal with..except someone else has to heave the heavier ones around now.

Obviously I will have a lot of imput, but I do not intend to lift a finger until it is complete.

Oh, that sounds like bliss 😀

We are moving house. I am going from a fifth of an acre to a very small town garden that runs three sides of the house, 20/30 feet each side and 10 foot at the back.

Currently the garden is totally derelict, we are downsizing, substantially, price wise so I am going to employ a garden designer and landscape contractor to design and set the garden up for me. Obviously I will have a lot of imput, but I do not intend to lift a finger until it is complete.

My OH planned our garden in all our homes and always loved having a pond. As soon as our first child was born I made him fill it in for safety reasons. In our current home we have a lawn in the front garden with flower borders, and several pots on the front terrace which is slabbed. The back garden has a shelter with a sink and running water to wash the dogs. It's terraced in 4 layers with numerous pots containing flowers and a small herb garden. It's a steep slope so slabs and steps was the best option. He has far too many pots and seems obsessed with adding more. I don't mind as I don't do gardening so it's his domain.