On a wednesday afternoon I came home from an out of town trip. The next day when my yard men came to do my lawn they told me they picked up the "brush". I knew nothing about brush in my yard. They told me it was from the shrubbery having been trimmed. If I were to have shrubbery trimmed they would have been the ones to do it
I assured them I knew nothing as I had been gone for several days. I went outside to look and my Nandina had been lopped off even with the fence. This is a short area across my sideyard and is the only section of chain link fence that I have. For six years I have had this growing to block the view of my back yard.
There was no doubt my neighbor had something to do with this. I waited a few days and went over to ask about it.She moved in before Christmas and at that time I went over with a small gift and introduced myseld.The only other time I have seen her was at a neighborhood Christmas party.
When i asked, she said she was out pruning and didit. She asked "Did you not want it prunned?".I tried to bevery pleasant and told her no I did not and had waited six years for it to get that height.I left on a pleasant note.
Am I being unreasonable thinking she did the wrong thing? My sister and my good friend think I am correct in being bothered by her actions. I wonder what some of you might think as well.
By the way, in no way was my shrubbery of any bother to her in any way.
advice please
From what you've said, sounds like she was out of line. What I don't understand is why, being as hot as it is, she'd be doing other people's hard labor, lol.
Since nandina sends out runners, I can see a neighbor being aggravated by them (if they happen to dislike nandina). However, that still doesn't explain or justify her action. Hmmmm. You say you've made it clear that your goal is a tall nandina, so hopefully she won't mess with it again.
The good news is that nandina grows unbelieavably fast, in fact, too fast for some people's taste. Hopefully, your shrub will be nice and tall soon enough.
I'm always leary of planting stuff on "shared fences". Invariably creates problems. Like one of my neighbors. He spent mucho dinero planting spirea along a shared fence. The other neighbor was tired of weedeating under his side of the fence so he proceeds to "roundoup" the fence line. You guessed right: the spirea died and quickly. Neighbor #2 is nice and I don't think he meant to kill the spirea, he just meant to clean up HIS side of the fence. However, you know how roundup can sort of spread. In any case, they haven't spoken in 2 years because of this.
This message was edited Jul 11, 2007 10:36 PM
I think I might have to hurt nice neighbor #2. And it is only common sense that you do not lop off plants in someone else's yard! Now she could cut straight up from the fence line - that is her right if she doesn't like it hanging over the fence - but not top it. Personally, I would be very angry, but you have probably taken the right approach since there isn't anything else you could do about it anyway.
Sometimes people with big hearts try to do something good and inevitably mess up. She might have thought she was doing you a big favor. Since you talked to her, I doubt you will have the problem again.
I have a problem with my (really wonderful) neighbor who planted wisteria on her side of the fence that backs up to mine. It grows so fast that I'm out there all the time chopping off the runners that get to my roof (it's a very small side yard in that area) and they make it impossible to walk in that narrow strip of my yard. It's also gotten so big that the trunks have grown through our fence in many areas. Looks really unsightly on my side and it's caused serious damage to the fence. The biggest problem is that I have a dog who is big and aggressive with other dogs. She has little dogs. I'm afraid that the fence is going to break and my dog might get over there. I have to be constantly vigilant about not letting my dog out in my own backyard when hers are out. She's as sweet as pie but this wisteria thing has me a little perplexed on how to handle. I also have shoots popping up all over my backyard. I've brought her in the back and shown her what it looks like but it just desn't seem to 'click'. I dunno.
I have a next door neighbor that let a chinaberry grow up in their yard, next to the fence line. A branch broke out of it and killed a well established loquat tree in my yard.
Next the neighbor, after finally felling the chinaberry, let a hackberry grow up in that spot. When he fell it finally he dropped it into a well established, rather expensive hibiscus. It has never come back. (Did I mention all the bugs in his hackberry that got into all the plants in my front yard that day and stayed...)
Next he let a hackberry grow up into my chainlink fence. I asked him several times if he wouldn't rather let the oak in my yard have that (my) space (hint hint hint); he said, ''Nooo." The tree bent my fence and mangled the chainlink.
He's since put up a privacy fence leaving about 10" in between the 2 fences. Guess who gets to look at the weeds that grow in that area.
Then when the city told them they had to do something about the weeds I found her in my yard spraying a soil sterilant along the fence line and well into my yard...over by the hibiscus that won't come back out....
I think you did right. I wish I had said more starting years earlier.
Next door neighbors here are grand ~ far enough away I only have to hear them now and again.
When you have a yard service, your neighbor knew full well what she was doing ~ but why? is the question!
Many thanks for the comments. I don't think my being miffed is unreasonable. I might not have made it clear that this was not a shared fence, but is only on my property running across from my house and meeting her side fence. She clipped her fence line and never stopped. In the process destroying my Nandina.
My feeling is that your neighbor meant well ... but she clearly should have talked to you beforehand. Your going over and talking to her about the Nadina was absolutely the right thing to do. It allowed you to make it clear to her that you want the plant to grow tall. She will leave it alone in future.
Several years ago my neighbor planted a vine along our shared fence. And promptly ignored it. I simply don't care for the look of a non-flowering, unkept vine growing along my cyclone fence; that area always looked scraggly and unkept. So after a couple of years I finally talked to her about the situation and we agreed that I could yank out that vine and plant a Rose of Sharon and a few Salvia greggiis in that corner of her yard instead. It was definitely a win-win situation for the both of us. But I never would have touched that vine without talking to her first.
Carla
Isn't there always a problem with shared fences (well, maybe not always). My neighbors behind us don't ever do anything to their yard. Theirs stands out from the rest of the entire subdivision. Everyone calls them the Clampitts. They have a dead tree with limbs broken and hanging down. Part of their trees overhang our pool and constantly drop debris into the pool. Anything that comes up along the fence line, they leave it. I've now got crepe myrtles and chinaberry going crazy. That sould make pool cleanup wonderful!
I think you definitely didn't over react by being miffed. You also did the right thing by talking to her. If she does it again though, you still don't have much you can do about it without starting a war with the next door neighbor. What's a nice person to do????