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Hack, slash, strim, chop, strim and burn

WaysideWayside Posts: 845
edited May 2020 in Tools and techniques
Since the lockdown pretty much everyone on our road has been using their gardens.  Which is nice to see, but...

For the first week or so a few people just burnt every day.  The weather was nice so it was a nuisance.  Our local council put out a message to address this, as the people were getting vocal and tired in the village.  And currently fires can upset those suffering with the virus/breathing issues.

This is just an observation really, but I've a couple of neighbours that just obliterate everything!  And think that that is what gardening is all about.   Another personal annoyance is neighbours that cut everything back to their boundary.  I mean everything!  I know technically that's their right, but it's very testing in small narrow gardens with shrubs and trees.

So they basically strim and trim and burn everything.  Then sit down and pat themselves on the back for their efforts.

Moan over!


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Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    There's a thread for this😉
    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/comment/2189113comment_2189113
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    edited May 2020
    If we don't cut back the rubbish the neighbours let grow up within two foot our garage, it gets in the guttering.

    The leaves block the drains and I get poked in the eye by climbing roses that should have been cut back early spring.

    Just saying, it is not a bad thing that people can cut vegetation that overhangs their property. Especially if the neighbours have no consideration when it comes to planting positions and have no idea how a plant ought to be maintained.


  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    My neighbour is burning a whole shed, piece by piece in her chiminea. The treated wood is sending up plumes of horrible smoke from the narrow terraced garden for weeks. Most neighbours here haven't batted an eyelid at Covid and have been having more or less continuous house parties since mid-March, with the nice weather. Distancing?  Stay home? No. They've invited hoards of friends to stay. It's been like Clapham Junction. Our street is a national disease vector in itself and will appear on emmissions satellite maps, no doubt.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I agree that people shouldn't be having regular bonfires, but if somebody is trying to get a garden back under control at a time when garden waste isn't being collected and tips are closed, their options are limited.
    Regarding cutting back plants, that is entirely the right of the property owner.  Just because the neighbour thinks a plant is lovely doesn't automatically mean they agree.  Particularly in narrow gardens they may want space not overgrown plants.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    edited May 2020
    @KT53 I did acknowledge that is within their right.  It's dressing up destruction as gardening that bugs me!  I have two neighbours, both have no planting pretty much whatsoever.  But are happy to tell me not to chop down my trees as they like them!  However, if those trees dare stretch a limb over the boundary - they be gone!

    One of them has privacy concerns, moaned when I pulled out a shrub or two, but don't plant their own.  If you have a narrow garden, and you plant both sides there isn't much room left!  If on the other hand planting is scattered through all your gardens, it can feel more comfortable, from a privacy standpoint at least.  Tall fencing can be oppressive in narrow gardens.

    But hey, they can cartwheel in the nude in their own gardens for all I care.
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    edited May 2020
    @Fire my partner has most likely had Covid, and one hint of smoke even with the house sealed is triggering terrible coughing.  For some that get this, it may result in irrepairable lung damage.  That is why fires should not be permitted at the moment.  And I'd go further and ban all wood burning stoves and BBQs.  It's horrible watching a loved one suffer.

    Everyone I speak to seems to have one neighbour like that!  I think people are particularly unaware of how they affect other people.  Two neighbours burnt every day for the first week or so of lockdown.  In between, they were sun lounging.  Which is something I'd have liked to have done.  And my partner would have liked to have gotten out the house to breath some fresh air when self-isolating due to illness.

    It's one of those things, that until you have it, or see it, you don't really register the seriousness.  It just goes over people's heads.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    edited May 2020
    I don't agree with the burning. It is a bit of an unwritten rule locally that we burn off diseased stuff on overcast days in Autumn. Nobody has windows open, nobody is out in the gardens and it is not too difficult to pick a day when the wind is blowing away from houses. Still it is different circumstances as I have a chipper and compost an awful lot of waste from the neighbours overhanging garbage each year.

    Having said that, we always get one who decides to have a huge open bonfire in their tiny garden on a hot summers day. 
  • WaysideWayside Posts: 845
    @GemmaJF what's the chipper?  A few neighbours have shredders, but they are noisy, and laborious, and choke on anything that you can't really deal with by hand/in time.  1/2 inch diameter and up, seems to be a problem size.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    Wayside, a decent shredder / chipper shouldn't jam up on anything above 1/2" diameter.  Mine copes happily with anything up to about 1 1/2" diameter.  The main causes of jamming tend to be forcing too much through or putting too much soft, green growth through without anything harder.  I always mix green and brown growth and rarely have any jams.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    edited May 2020
    Wayside said:
    @GemmaJF what's the chipper?  A few neighbours have shredders, but they are noisy, and laborious, and choke on anything that you can't really deal with by hand/in time.  1/2 inch diameter and up, seems to be a problem size.
    Eliet Maestro, it handles most things from a garden. 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq0HyOkpu5E

    Funnily enough spent most of the day working on it, been in storage for a couple of years and needed the carb cleaning out. 

    PS exactly as KT53 says regarding jamming, they don't like wet green waste, better to mix it in with drier browns or dry out greens before trying to putting it through.
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