"Helpful" neighbours

[FB.]

WTF = Why The Fruit-tree?

[mrbadexample]

I'm also in the "send an invoice" brigade. Make sure you factor in all the time you've spent on it as well as the cost of an equivalent replacement. I can imagine how upset you must be.

[boundtothesoil]

it is possible that maybe their kids damaged it.

Commiserations. Unfortunately, it does sound rather like the typical 'joke' a bunch of kids might play on a gardener. Did he/she/they leave the prunings on the ground or remove them?

[FB.]

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.

The problem with a replacement is that the chances of finding a semi-mature Barnack Beauty grown on MM111 or M25 as a three-quarter or full-standard are effectively nil.
I am rather fussy about which varieties I'll grow - the usual offerings are not robust enough for growing in my soil.

The fortunate thing is that I had a ready-grown Ashmead's Kernel in my stock of spares which will be its replacement (I keep several spares because they can be difficult to establish in the shallow, dry, low-fertility soil and because even vigorous ones grow quite slowly here).
AK is tough as old boots and quite vigorous (something for discussing on another topic, I think), so clings onto life very well in my location, just like the BB.
The AK was in need of a home, and I had been thinking of offering it on here as it was getting too big to not plant it out within a year. It now will have a home, at the expense of the BB.

[VirginVegGrower]

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.

Never mind a gooseberry hedge, build a bl00dy eight foot wall and padlock any gates! Swines! I'd ask for the price of a new tree

[FB.]

factor in all the time you've spent on it as well as the cost of an equivalent replacement. I can imagine how upset you must be.

Yes, fruit trees grow very slowly here even when on vigorous rootstocks. It takes a long time to get them up to size.
I think I "shocked" Orangepippin recently when I told him in an email that I can bring seedling-rootstocked pears into cropping the year after planting and they crop well and "only" grow about 1ft per year even when quite young, so remain quite manageable.

The trouble with a replacement is that it wouldn't be a variety or rootstock that I wanted.
Or if it was a variety and rootstock which I find acceptable, it'd be so small (a one-year maiden) that I'd have to grow it on in a big barrel for a couple of seasons before planting out.

Basically the Barnack Beauty is irreplaceable on a like-for-like basis.

[VirginVegGrower]

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).

When I'm in the garden and I see the Sunday walkers (odd occasion) take a wrong turn up towards the woodland, I tell them the farmer shoots at anyone on his land with his shotgun. They do move quite quickly afterwards. It's become a hobby of mine frightening the natives!

[FB.]

Commiserations. Unfortunately, it does sound rather like the typical 'joke' a bunch of kids might play on a gardener. Did he/she/they leave the prunings on the ground or remove them?

No sign of any prunings. But that doesn't mean the kids didn't whip each other with the branches and make off with them, or that the parents perhaps came out and tidied-up the mess their kids had made of it.

[Darwin.]

I'd be furious if it were me and I'd probably do something stupid.

Ask them if they did it when you're nice and calm or even better ask if they saw anyone do it and they might own up. If it was them you can decide what action to take but you certainly don't want to accuse them of it.

[WendyC]

I am so sorry to hear what has happened, as you say it is irreplaceable. On a lighter note we have "open plan" front gardens on this estate, no hedges or fences allowed and my previous neighbour used to cut my grass. When I say "cut" it this they went to the same training school as yours as every time the lawn was scalped, bare patches everywhere. I'm not a great one to fuss about the lawn but green is a bare minimum. Anyway I would mumble and grumble to the family that she had wrecked the grass again until one time I came home to see she had definitely only cut her side. Turns out my son who was only 3 or 4 at the time told her she wasn't to cut the grass as she made such as mess of it! She never cut it again.
Sadly however grass grows back unlike your poor tree. What were they thinking of? I'd love to know.

[SarzWix]

Or you could call the police and they can ask the neighbour 'if they saw anything'. You should at least get a PCSO sent round...

[Glutton4...]

That's really sad. As suggested, it may have been damaged by kids, and 'damage limitation' carried out by a parent. They may not see it as serious. Trouble is, not everyone appreciates Trees. 'Don't get so het-up, it's only a ruddy Tree ffs!' is a phrase I've heard many a time.

I'd be furious!

[Feral007]

Wow I'd be totally gobsmacked if our neighbours even thought of doing something like that!

[alldigging]

I'd be tempted to report it to the police as vandalism and get a reference number for it. If anything else happens report that too.

[FB.]

If anything else happens report that too.

If anything else happens, there will be a Cambridge chainsaw massacre!