A bit late now, (and this thought has only occurred to me after finding dead fledglings from the sparrow's nests under the eaves at work) I just hope that any birds that might have been nesting in the varied hedgerow trees at the bottom of R's garden had successfully fledged. 
phoenix If it'd been me, I'd have stayed in the toilet with the door locked! It sounds a safer place to be 
. x
You could even plant two of them 
Loopylou I was just looking at the lovely rose but that fence faces Northwest and does not get much direct sun. The RHS says it really needs to be in good sun East-facing or South-facing or West-facing.
I was getting all excited just then.
Arboreal Chainsaw Massacre
What is it about blokes (especially middle-aged and older) and their notoriety with chainsaws or machinery?
Thankfully we no longer have a functioning chainsaw (and if DH ever mentions digging it out from under all his junk in the shed I'll beat him to it) or my shrubs would be bonsai'd in seconds.
That and their inability to gauge length without gross exaggeration 
I remember asking for a small vegetable patch (and marked out a 12' x 15' area) to be dug out of our large walled back garden.... I returned from shopping as he was driving the tractor and rotavator back into the barn. He'd decimated the lawn with a patch 45' x90', enough to feed the whole ruddy village 
Needless to say I had to reseed 90% of it.
Bless them!
I am upstairs in the home office, which looks out over the back garden & fields.
I suppose I really should take some photos to show what I mean, but the light is starting to fade a bit, so perhaps I will leave it until another day.
Suffice to say, as I look to the left, apart from the ragged point of what is left of the beech tree, I can see for a fair distance across the fields to a line of oaks a few hundred metres away (I'm not much good at distance, so please make allowances). To the right, there is not much left of the ash tree, it was multi-stemmed and currently there are 3 cut off stumps left, around 7 metres, 3 metres and 5 metres. If I look absolutely straight ahead, (i.e just at the bottom of our garden), I can see hawthorn, holly and some of those willows that are not weeping willows, but the ones that have all that fluffy seed stuff that blows everywhere when they are producing the fluffy seed stuff that blows everywhere....................
All of these (except the hawthorn) are huge as in really, really tall!
It does look a bit odd.
Ahem! We have cleared a nearly 90ft long section of the overhanging branches on our side of the Leylandii at the bottom of our garden. These were planted wby the older houses along the bottom were that the land had been developed. It has cost us quite a lot of money having it trimmed our side, over nearly 30yrs.
It started when we had to replace a lot of the very old fence panels in our garden and we needed to cut away some of the overhanging branches to get the old fence panels out.
Then I decided I was fed up of nothing growing properly under the four foot wide overhang of the B leylandii. It looks pretty dreadful at present and will not grow back but I have plans.
There is already an existing clematis montana growing up and now benefitting from the improved light and I bought another similar one to go in further along.
I have plans for a vigorous rambling rose, (Not the notorious Kiftsgate), a Virginia creeper which was in a corner and not doing well has given me several rooted cuttings to go in and I am intending to move another clematis which is in the "wrong place" at present.
It's a bit scary but I am not really regretting it. It will probably take a couple of years to get better but all the climbers are vigorous growers.
here is two portions of the mess. It is not quite finished as a broken lopper and holidays have interrupted the work.
On the subject of trees, the S.O. is selling his late mum's house. In amongst the hedge surrounding the back garden is a beautiful tree with red leaves [don't know what it is]. Since the house has been on the market the neighbour ACROSS the road has complained and said it needs cutting back as it takes light away from their kitchen. Their house is surrounded by trees and their kitchen has a very tall hedge growing close to it. Not only have they complained to the S.O, but they've phoned the estate agent. We're completely flummoxed by it and are worried that they're going to accost potential purchasers when they view the house. If I could put photos up here I'd show how far away it is from their house. When I was first married we pulled out of buying a new house when the builders pulled down some trees at the end of the garden. However, one of the straws that broke the wotsits back when I was still married was when my ex did some 'pruning' and the bushes that he 'pruned' were cut back to nothingness . However, it is easy to get carried away when pruning I find and something does seem to take over when I hold a pair of secateurs so dread to think what damage I'd cause with a chainsaw .
Oh dear. We have a canal at the back of our house and there is a beautiful (huge) willow tree on the bank. It has been there since we moved here almost 35 years ago. There are houses on the other side of the canal but due to trees and this lovely willow in particular, we are not overlooked. Last year the council decided to cut this tree back. (Yes I know all the problems willows can cause). They took every single branch and leaf off it, leaving this huge ugly stump towering into the sky. It looked like something out of a creepy horror movie. Our lovely view was ruined. I could have cried. Our GDG came and said 'oh nan, that is scarey'. It's grown back now thankfully 
PS And then, just to round things off, I ended up locked in the downstairs toilet/lavatory/loo (take your pick) for half an hour and had to climb on the seat and shout for help out of the window to neighbours having a barbecue over the way.
If they have pollarded them to 10' you should get re-growth next spring. We regularly pollard our poplar trees and they soon grow back. It would have been better if they had waited until after leaf fall though.
Hello all,
A while back I posted about the problems with my car roof, and how my two petrol head gadget mad rather gung ho lovely neighbours helped. In the OP I also included this:
"Feeling guilty, I went out with cans of beer to refresh the troops. By now they were running out of ideas, but they did all come up with a plan for removing the damn ash trees that blight our gardens. It involved a chainsaw (of course) and some sort of bosun's chair slung between the trees. I didn't ask HOW they intended to sling it, but no doubt all will become clear next weekend. I may well go out that day"
Well, that day was yesterday.
I have always let R store his open trailer thing down the side of our house, we have more room and it is no trouble to have it there.
Yesterday, S, the neighbour from the other side and R's chief egger-on helper with car and other "boys" type stuff, asked if I could move my car so that they could get the trailer out, no problem. I moved car, S moved trailer, all done.
Mr P and I went off to meet chums for Racing Club, our usual Saturday event and in fact the only social outing that we have, due to him being away all week.
We got back to find an almost indescribable scene. Imagine if you will some sort of devastation brought about by the use of a chainsaw combined with Napalm or Agent Orange.
Our gardens back onto farmland, and apart from the aforementioned ash tree, there are a variety of trees that, although could no longer be described as a "hedgerow", it being way too tall to fall into that category, are native species. Next door to the left now seem to have no trees AT ALL between the end of their garden and the field. The ditch that also marks the boundary is still there, albeit currently filled with branches etc.
The beech tree that was in their garden and overhung into mine, did need a bit of cutting back. It doesn't now, because it has ceased to exist beyond a 10ft high trunk. No branches, just a chewed off looking top.
Our garden is full of branches, leaves etc. In all fairness, they have spent a lot of time going to and fro to clear it. I feel that we should be out there helping, but tbh I still can't decide how I feel about it.
Yes, some bits are great, but other things that they have done I'm not sure about.
BUT in the great scheme of things it's not worth getting upset about, and let's face it, it can't be undone, can it?
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