"Helpful" neighbours

[FB.]

Having been very busy with various things this weekend, I hadn't noticed that my neighbour had been out gardening - and no doubt they were trying to help by doing "a bit of late-winter tidying-up" on my Barnack Beauty.

Unfortunately, their idea of good pruning and good pruning technique doesn't resemble any technique that I'd consider good. They evidently decided that a 5ft trunk was too tall, so cut it back to some short lower side branches which I had retained for vigour-boosting purposes, and the trunk is now about 3ft - ideal for a bush, and ideal to block my line of sight out of the front window and for the branches to get in the way of my front path.

So now my young three-quarter-standard Barnack Beauty "front lawn ornamental specimen tree" appears to have little chance of ever becoming a nice shape unless I want a bush.

Good job that I have a three-quarter-standard Ashmead's Kernel with a two-inch thick trunk and a "head" of branches about 5ft from the ground, which I'll use to replace it.

Now to sit down, have a cold drink and contemplate what to say to the neighbour.

[veggiechicken]

Oh, FB, that's dreadful. Do they realise how much you care about your trees?
Can you do any grafting - perhaps with some very obvious bright yellow grafting tape - just so that they notice!

[rustylady]

I would hate neighbours like that. What on earth were they doing on your land, never mind cutting your tree?

[FB.]

Oh, FB, that's dreadful. Do they realise how much you care about your trees?
Can you do any grafting - perhaps with some very obvious bright yellow grafting tape - just so that they notice!

The tree is unsalvageable - it has been pruned-back to 3ft (ish) and the side buds had already grown out horizontally into short shoots (as they do when suppressed by upper branches).
So if I want to keep the tree, I will have to accept a right-angle bend in the trunk and try to train one of those shoots upwards.

Alternatively, I'll have to cleft-graft some scionwood onto what remains of the trunk - except that the multi-year age difference of the joined pieces will be very noticeable in terms of trunk thickness and will probably never look quite right.

[FB.]

I would hate neighbours like that. What on earth were they doing on your land, never mind cutting your tree?

Yes, I'm puzzled what they were doing on my garden - the tree is/was beyond reaching distance from their boundary and was not causing them any trouble. Time for a gooseberry hedge?
As I didn't actually see them do it (and haven't yet spoken to them), it is possible that maybe their kids damaged it.
But the current "wounds" are definitely from a blade; clean, slightly angled cut with no splintering.

[yummersetter]

Will they live?

[FB.]

Will they live?

Well, I expect the Barnack Beauty will survive the loss of its upper limbs.
I'll let you know next winter whether the neighbours survived me pruning-off their upper limbs.

[FB.]

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The Cambridge chainsaw massacre.
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[SarzWix]

How? Why? What on earth...?! That's into unforgivable territory!! I'd be posting them an invoice for an already trained specimen, which would probably run into hundreds, if not thousands. Also maybe a police visit; that would certainly count as criminal damage Not that it would restore the tree

[sugar]

Perhaps it wasn't your neighbour but someone else?
20 miles from here, vandals have cut back 700 young cherry trees just above the graftpoint, their idea of fun...

[Seahorse]

That's dreadful. Just a thought but are your neighbours (or their relatives) elderly? Could dementia be a factor? I'm finding it hard to see why anyone in their right mind would come into someone else's garden and do what they probably thought was technically a good job, at least without asking!

[Linzy]

Oh i wouldnt stand for that dig your tree up and go in there garden dig a whooping great big hole in the middle of there lawn and plant it in there. Thats what i would do.

My mum and dad have a little farm with no public rights of way on it but the amount of times someone would just stroll across a field was unbelivable. I was frequently dispatch by my dad to tell them to bugger off when i lived at home (apparently being an argumentative teenager has its perks).

[out in the cold]

KCN just read your op out to me.

My response would be far less calm than yours has been and would probably end with me pinning my neighbour to the wall... Using a hilti gun

[FB.]

That's dreadful. Just a thought but are your neighbours (or their relatives) elderly?

No, they are middle-aged (in their 40's or 50's) and mentally competent the last time I spoke to them.

Perhaps it wasn't your neighbour but someone else?

Unlikely because it's a quiet cul-de-sac with only one way in and one way out, it isn't visible from a main road and any strangers would not find it easy to do it un-noticted.
But I suppose someone might have done it during the night. I'm not sure how they would have known the tree was there, nor why they'd bear a grudge.

My response would be far less calm than yours has been and would probably end with me pinning my neighbour to the wall... Using a hilti gun

I knocked on their door when I first noticed it several hours ago, but nobody answered (probably at work). That was probably a good thing because I was really angry at the time; I had the intention of getting them to come and take a look and ask if they could explain WTF had happened.

[Nicos]

If it was them- then I'd also suggest quoting for a replacement.
You don't want to alienate them- but they need to be aware that what they did wasn't acceptable ( trespassing too! ) and they need to put things right.