My overgrown hedge and who has cut it?

If this was a job you were going to have to do I think it’s good that someone has helped you although it’s a bit unsettling to not know who ? Perhaps they thought you’d have a nice surprise or perhaps they thought you’d say no if they said anything
Have they actually been onto your property to do it or is it all outside your perimeters ?if they have been on your private property that’s not right but if it’s all overhanging etc and not on your property it should be a help to you
I think if that was the case I d just employ someone to remove the cut stuff and be happy(ish) I m sure you can find an odd job man to cut it up and remove it, you don’t really need a gardener if it’s already been cut
Rather cheeky but if it saves you a job ….

Perhaps it was just someone doing you a kindness. I’d find someone who removes garden waste for a price. It will be a weight off your mind.

It is my understanding that boundary hedges, ie. between people's properties can be cut down by another person if branches are overhanging and causing problems. Any branches should be placed on your property. None of this is illegal although I always think it is polite to mention it to the other person.
If the local council have cleared it due to it being overgrown then I would expect them to remove all the vegetation they cut down.
You say you were reported recently over a supposed water leak and now if you are making parking difficult with neglected brambles perhaps someone, not necessarily the same person, has taken it upon themselves to do something about it. You don't have the right to make parking difficult for others and people can get very wound up about parking issues. If drivers are trespassing on your property, then that would be a different matter but a public highway is for anyone to park there whether we like it or not.
I would have a look at your local Facebook pages for someone willing to remove the rubbish always making sure they are reputable and won't fly tip. Perhaps you might be able to find a local person happy to do some gardening for you as well.

I think that someone took the time to cut your hedge, perhaps they feared being told to mind their own business, Half of it has been done now so find someone to take away the clippings and perhaps say thank you through the parish magazine. Also ask for a gardener to help you monthly.
Perhaps contact Age Concern for their advice re a gardener. Re the 'water leak' perhaps put an article in the parish magazine to say it is a spring.
Perhaps contact Carers Support for advice. Also if you live in a village do they have coffee mornings etc, you say you can't leave your husband which I really understand but you could make a cake for the coffee morning. Just to break the ice with the newcomers to the village. I hope that I have not offended you.
Sometimes we all feel flustered by what we can't do but usually there is a solution, it is just looking for it.

I understood aprilrose to sat that where people were parking was on her land, if so, theyhave no right to do that.

It doesn't seem very kind to me to clear brambles, pampas grass, etc from someone's front garden then dump them back on her garden.

Presumably people in the village.age know your situation, aprilrose and could either offer to help or suggest someone who could, even if you have to pay.

Whatever happened to community spirit?

Is there a local Facebook page? Could you ask on there, say thank you for clearing the brambles but you can't possibly remove them, could they come and help?

Perhaps contact Age Concern for their advice re a gardener

Good idea, sue421

It's slightly difficult to visualise the front wall and the brambles and how far they lean out into the lane but could it be that someone wants to park there and cut the brambles so they could? i.e. is anyone now parking there.

Car drivers now have the most awful attitude of complete entitlement to driver at speed and park anywhere - certainly in Gloucestershire and I suspect the rest of the UK.

Yes, I do need a plan view!!

I couldn’t visualise it either it sounded quite complicated

We have problems here too with a couple of neighbours' gardens growing over the road but what to do?
We don't want to upset them as we all get on well (at the moment!).

BlueBelle

I couldn’t visualise it either it sounded quite complicated

I might have to sketch it.

BlueBelle

My thoughts exactly!
.

aprilrose, your life sounds very stressful. Having a husband suffering the after effects of a stroke plus suffering from dementia is a severe stressor in itself. Do you have aany help and assistance lookibg after your DH? Have you spoken to the Alzheimers Society about your problems and asked whether you can get any help of any kind. Their national answerphone helpline number is 0333 150 3456 . They are a voice to talk to and also a fund of useful information to help you reduce your mental and probably physical load.

As for the brambles why not put a note on the village website or local Facebook page expressing thanks for someone for clearing the brambles aand saying while you understand why the prunings were left in your graden you are - roughly what you age is - 80+ for example - and your DH has dementia so it not possible for you to clear the prunings yourself, could someone do this for you.

Two things struck me:

(b) the brambles actually stop anyone parking on my front/ bank because they have to park out further into the lane which means they would obstruct it. In the past people have tried to park there , especially on my slope/ bank.

(c) its a busy lane and dangerous to actually stand and pull anything off unless you have help with someone in the road/ cones or similar to stop yourself being run over.

People will park on aprilrose's front garden if the brambles are not there.

There is a lot of traffic on the lane so they want to park on her front garden because otherwise their cars might get bumped.

If this is correct, then they have darned cheek!
I'd be arranging for someone to come and put those small stone pillars along the front of my garden to stop them parking there.

I might have misunderstood, of course.

Perhaps arrange for small stone bollards or rocks along the edge of the garden?

tanith

Perhaps it was just someone doing you a kindness. I’d find someone who removes garden waste for a price. It will be a weight off your mind.

Agreed. I'd regard it as someone having been kind.

Maybe the best way to approach this is to put up a notice on the local Facebook page (without mentioning you are "local" - as that is not relevant and might annoy some people).

Just put something along the lines of "Thank you very much to whoever it was that kindly cut back the brambles etc at my house. They need to be disposed of appropriately now - eg taken to the tip - and so is there anyone that could dispose of them for me please. Reasonable costs and charge per hour paid for this".

It can't do any harm. In fact you should land up with a few suggestions as to who could do this for you and you might even get lucky and have someone offer to do this for you for nothing.

I did suggest that but I think there's more to it than an act of 'kindness'.

I have been told in the past that if hedges etc are sticking out onto a public path that it is a legal obligation to trim them back to the property line.One of the reasons was to protect blind /partially sighted people from injury.Also so that people wouldn't need to step into the roadway to avoid them.

There may - or may not - be more to it than as an "act of kindness".

Whatever is the case though - I think it's politic to act like one thinks it is just a case of kindness and say thank you (even if really there might have been other aspects - like ensuring OP's brambles can't put someone's eyes out by them having walked into them).

There is a house I walk past often near me and they often carelessly leave brambles poking out over the pavement from their hedge and I can look out for them - but I do wonder how anyone partially sighted is supposed to do so and the next thing OP knows is she could get a solicitors letter saying "Your brambles harmed my client - as they came right at their eye level". So she has been done a kindness whichever way you look at it - even if it's being saved from a solicitor letter about damage to someone.

I guess it's obvious why I said - "don't mention you're a local". It's not relevant and some people dislike anyone saying that - as it sounds as if they're after better treatment than everyone else (in my experience where I am now - they often are and it's been mentioned deliberately by them to try and get that better treatment...).

Avitor1 might well be right about a legal obligation to trim them back too. It would fit in with the way that, when I swopped the windows of my last house (which was straight on the street - with no front garden whatsoever) I was told they couldnt open outwards from the front sitting room window - in case someone walked into them and hurt themselves and I had to change the style I had in mind accordingly.

People will park on aprilrose's front garden if the brambles are not there.

There is a lot of traffic on the lane so they want to park on her front garden because otherwise their cars might get bumped.

If this is correct, then they have darned cheek!
I'd be arranging for someone to come and put those small stone pillars along the front of my garden to stop them parking there.

Thats pretty well it. My bank at the front is a result of the garden sloping down a hill ( we are halfway up a valley). Fencing it isnt an option but I have thought several times of putting some sort of chain link out there ( others in the lane have done it but their fronts are flatter than mine. Part of it is hedged with a box hedging but the lower ( bit flatter part) is just planted .

I know the brambles might have got a bit thick and out of hand but no more so than any overgrown lane wall that divides off the fields further up. They farmer didnt cut his for a long time, maybe for the same reason?

Thank you all for input.

No one is parking on it at the moment they have parked in front of my neighbour where his garden comes straight down onto the lane. . Cutting back my brambles was only yesterday morning or the afternoon before, so time yet to move in. Last year a camper van was almost permanently parked on my front. I didnt say anything because I didnt know who it was. I was told the owner of the van lived right down at the bottom of the village in some new houses there and I guess he/she didnt have enough room for the camper van - but it was a long way from his house to my garden - a good five minute walk. I decided it probably wasnt the person they said on those grounds.

I have looked around for someone to come and remove the brambles because I need to retrieve my plants under them. I have a couple of names to try. I just hope I do not suddenly get landed with a clearance bill I am not expecting.

Half of me thinks that it was rather rude of them to do it because they want to park there and the other half thinks that maybe they were being kind.
If only they'd cleared away the debris!
But perhaps they didn't have time.

As it's far to much for you to do as you have a great deal of work caring for your husband-perhaps it would be best to get someone to clear away the garden waste .
Please contact ageconcern or get a recommended gardener.Finding someone isn't that easy.
If some heavy duty black plastic sacks were put down the regrowth would be controlled .
If you don't want people parking in your space then re -establish a boundary with stones .

aprilrose

People will park on aprilrose's front garden if the brambles are not there.

There is a lot of traffic on the lane so they want to park on her front garden because otherwise their cars might get bumped.

If this is correct, then they have darned cheek!
I'd be arranging for someone to come and put those small stone pillars along the front of my garden to stop them parking there.

Thats pretty well it. My bank at the front is a result of the garden sloping down a hill ( we are halfway up a valley). Fencing it isnt an option but I have thought several times of putting some sort of chain link out there ( others in the lane have done it but their fronts are flatter than mine. Part of it is hedged with a box hedging but the lower ( bit flatter part) is just planted .

I know the brambles might have got a bit thick and out of hand but no more so than any overgrown lane wall that divides off the fields further up. They farmer didnt cut his for a long time, maybe for the same reason?

Chain link fences can be deliberately broken - ask me how I know.....as my own was quite deliberately broken and I know exactly who is responsible for that and they refused to put matters right and go round mouthing off about me for having dared to protect my property from their incursions they wished to make.

I put up a different type of barrier - one she can't possibly pretend not to see - as it's very big and very clearly visible.

Another possibility I had in mind was lockable bollards - so they could be lowered when I require that and would form a barrier otherwise. Amazon even sells them these days - so they can be checked out. Huge boulders are a possibility too if OP doesn't require them moved for own access.

Some people can act extremely "entitled" if they want to park on one's property illicitly - I know that personally.

I think the parking troublemakers (my neighbours) eventually clicked too that I'd even block my own parking off from my own visitors too if I had to to stop the trespassing neighbours - and then my visitors would be competing with them for communal parking spaces.

I've also put up security cameras too - though that one was mainly because I kept catching neighbours trespassing in my garden on foot.

One way or another - I've stopped the "parking in my garden" problem I found my house had when I bought it.

If your garden is a slope how can they park on it I still can’t see the mental picture ? (I’ve now got a camper van in my head with two wheels a couple of feet higher than the other two) Either way you surely can’t have your garden hanging over onto the lane or walkway ? So they ve done you a favour once you get rid of the brambles which to me denotes anger and at leaving them there (to teach you a lesson) check your deeds as to where your garden ends and get a boundary wall /fence/or something established once and for all