Who "owns" hedgerows?

I have 2 neighbors that prefer overgrown, wild hedgerows. My property is surrounded on 3 sides by theirs..one neighbor owns the left and the back, the other owns the right. I have completely lost all gardening uses within 3 to 4 feet of each property line. That doesnt quite seem fair to me.
Trying to talk them in to opening them is a joke. I understand the privacy issue...but do it on YOUR side.
How do i go about reclaiming MY property? I'm to the point where i'm ready to have it resurvey and put up a privacy fence all the way around, just so i can have the use. I love to garden, and it is so annoying to see wisteria (theirs) choking out a 100 yr old camellia (sp)
I'm hesitant to put up a privacy fence because i love the open look, but because of the shrubbery, its not really open. Just looks overgrown and unkept. I also think putting up a fence would just give the wisteria and other vines something to grow up..
I'm at my wits end..any help would be appreciated. I get along with every one around here, i just have issues (love that word) about their privacy rights invading my space. '
thanks yall

you're much nicer than me. I wouldn't even think about it. I'd get a survey if I HAD to, but I'd get my land back!!!

I'm with tiG. If the stuff is on my property, it's fair game for me. It's as simple as that.

Dont know if the law operates the same way in the US, but in the UK, anything that grows over your boundary from another property, you are entitled to cut back (to the boundary line). Of course it is courtesey to ask first, but if you dont get a response you are within your rights to take appropriate pruning action. Oh, by the way, as a cute bite of anachronism, English law says you cannot keep the bits you cut off - they must be returned to the "owner" or in your case a disfunctional neighbour.

Hope that helps (or stirs a US legal mind).

El Tel

In Canada anything that hangs over or grows onto your side of the property line you may trim or cut back as well. I'm not sure if you have to return the clippings.

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I don't think that just running out and cutting down a neighbor's plantings is a good idea. You still have to live next to this person, and it sounds like you live quite close to each other.
Be it the law or not, it seems to me to be good policy to AT THE VERY LEAST ask them if they would be alright with you trimming their hedges a bit so that your flowers can get more sunlight. Your neighbors may not know how to effectively trim their hedges and may welcome your help.
If they say no, then get a fence or learn to find the beauty in the overgrown nature. It doesn't seem to me worth losing a relationship over.

color=green>-plant girl :)

If its on your property you have the right to cut it back.
I would discuss it with your neighbor give them a deadline and if they don't comply I would cut it back to the property line.

I had just the opposite when I lived in town! My side of the hedgerow was wild looking and the neighbors side was neatly trimmed They slanted the top up to higher on my side. The hedge did not seem to mind and we were all happy with our areas and our privacy.

I would get out my hedge trimmers and put whatever is on my side to rights. How could they possibly mind since they can't see on your side anyway? By law you have the right to trim or cut back whatever is on your side. Surveying is very expensive.

I just cut back my neighbors big Pfitzer bushes this spring. They hung over about four feet into my yard, and completely covered the sidewalk along the street. I took a chain saw to them and cut them back to the property line, and while I was out cutting, the woman sent her son out to trim back the bushes along the sidewalk (none of it had even been trimmed in the 15 years I've lived here!!) I guess she got the hint!!

to clarify a little...this is not a "planted" hedgerow. The majority of the stuff growing are scrub oaks (not really oak trees..just extremely invasive bushes that grow in to trees, wisteria, wild scupanogs, wild honeysuckle..stuff like that.
I dont mind the privacy..im willing to put up a fence to get it, but i do mind the invasiveness of his weeds and vines interferring with the actual plants i have. it is extremely irritating to have to cut the honeysuckle from the brugs i have planted ne
nearby.
I know i have the right to cut the stuff that hangs over, but
hub leaves friday to go out of town for work...someone want to tell me how to start a chain saw, lol.
I will conquer this.

you go girl!!! Do you actually know where the line is? Has there ever been any dispute? Tell your neighbor how lovely you're going to make his view:)

MsJen-The chain saw is started VERY CAREFULLY. By the way I didn't know we are neighbors. LOL

well, then, Jim, you go clean up that mess and don't make her start that chainsaw!!! LOL!!!!

Chainsaw...gas driven...fill er up and pull the cord! URRg UHHG POWER! Do not let the chain touch dirt....hold spinning chain end to the offernder and enjoy the power! Very liberating feeling comes with the power tools....No wonder men have so long enjoyed them! Now it is our turn to power up and destroy...errr... trim the offenders! At our house DH has his tool and I have mine. His chainsaw is a huge thing with a long chain. mine is a more discrete little number with a 14 inch chain....His may be better for cutting down forests but mine gets mor work around the place for certain!

Zany- Hubby planned it that way. Jim

ROFLMAO! You know it, I know it, He knows I know it and just to get even I bought him his very own vacum cleaner and mop! :P

we have the same problems here in the UK especially with hedging conifers called Leyland Cyprus. unattended they grow into trees but properly naintained they make excellent hedges and wind breaks.

everything Eltel said is 100% correct. we are having a law passed soon that will limit what height neighbors hedging can grow to.

Mark