Gardening ettiquete

D3PO

Looking for opinions on something that occured last week.

Basically after a lot of procrastion (6 years) I finally got my backside in gear to start tidying up the back garden. Initially just wanted to clear out some bushes plants I didnt like and also to cut back a horrible creeper that was taking over the end of the garden having grown over the neightbour from behinds garden.

I cut said creeper back only on my side of the wall right to the top of it. Anyway on being out in the garden the other day the neighbour approached the back wall and called me over. She was really upset at the fact the creeper was cut back. Essentially having cut it back from my side of the wall it appears to have collapsed in a heap in their garden. The weight of it clearly too much for the support it was getting just from their side of the wall.

She said she was going to have to get rid of it now and plant a new one and not to cut it back again.

Honestly I felt like telling her to f off and that if it encroches on my back garden again I will do the same thing (it wasnt what she said it was the way she said it). I held my tongue though and polietly said that I will happily leave it be and inform them of when its encroching so they can maintain it themselves.

What is the right thing here ? Was I in the wrong for curring it back. It was all the way down my back wall and about 3 foot along the ground in my back garden. Aswell as this it had collapsed 3 blocks off the top of the wall, and strangled itself around a silver birch I had to the point it killed it.

Im not a garden expert but googling it this would seem to be the creeper in question :- Winter Creeper (Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’)

curiousb

I think you are perfectly in your rights to have cut it back, but possibly you could have informed her of your intentions beforehand.

I have an agreement with my neighbours to cut back anything of theirs which grows over my side of the boundary and likewise they can do the same with anything of mine.

beer enigma

In fairness you weren't to know that it would collapse & maybe they should have approached you over the fact that it was growing into your garden.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it personally

kylith

I think you did right. You are well within your rights to not only cut back anything that overhangs your property, but to put all the refuse in a big sack and give it back to them. I regularly scalp my neighbour's ivy, I only wish it'd collapse.

Hopefully your neighbours will think again before planting something they don't intend to maintain.

looksee

Agree with the others. You were well within your rights to cut it back, and strictly speaking you should have given her all the debris back too!

She did not have to get rid of it, she could have pinned it up and it would have been fine, though you would have been cutting it back again in due course. To rely on a creeper staying up by hanging into someone else's garden is careless and inconsiderate.

I have just spoken to my neighbour about my crab apple which has branches going over her garden (it faces south so everything grows into their garden!) It is very pretty in flower, but when the crab apples and leaves fall they make a bit of a mess of their patio area, so when I offered she said she would like me to cut it back. So that's ok, even though it makes the tree a bit lop-sided, its their garden and their choice.

Wyldwood

I would approach the neighbour and explain that you don't wish to play host to her climber & that if she wants to have it on her side she should attach trellis or the like to support it.
I'm demented by the trees & shrubs going wild in the gardens on both sides of me, not to mention the problem of leaves bunging up the gutters & shores. Neither neighbour is interested in gardening (both lone women) & I just cut back to the boundary where possible & return the cuttings.

bmaxi

Next time spray it with Roundup, same effect, no evidence.