The day I wrangled with the decision of taking Butterscotch to Moira was a really horrible day. Dealing with Butterscotch’s story was enough to post that day so I put the other matter aside for another day.
I had come to the certain conclusion that Butterscotch was being plucked and felt the sooner I acted the better and I decided to call Moira in the afternoon after our deliveries were done.
We delivered our lunches and arrived back home at lunch time. To our surprise our neighbours had devastated our rose along the fence line while we were out.
When we moved in nine years ago the gardens were very open and overlooked. Because our path runs alongside the boundary fence we couldn’t grow anything against the fence.
My husband came up with the idea of putting up arches and growing roses and honeysuckle over them. The neighbours we had at the time said they loved seeing the rose growing over the fence as their garden didn’t have much planting and they got the flowers before we did because of the direction of the sun.
Of course we told them to feel free to cut anything that encroached too much on their side and they used to give the rose a gentle prune at the end of each summer.
We had new neighbours move in at the end of last year and of course we said to them too that they should feel free to prune anything that came too far over the fence.
What we hadn’t expected was that they would cut it back completely without talking to us first. Had we have known they were thinking of getting rid of everything on their side we would have pulled as much of the rose as we could back over to our side.
They had reached through the trellis and cut through thick branches that had growth going along the entire length of the fence. This killed lots of the growth that we had tied along the fence over the past nine years giving both us and them a screen between the gardens for some privacy.
Our rose on our boundary fence
Our rose is at it’s best in June
The rose is trashed
We have lost our screen
The rose is no longer over the fence
The gardens are as open as they were nine years ago when we moved here
We now looked straight into their garden and also straight into their kitchen (the white extension). My husband was absolutely furious. He couldn’t understand why they didn’t talk to us first so that we could have managed the rose between us instead of just killing huge swathes of it.
In the mean time I had called Moira and she had agreed to take Butterscotch but it needed to be right away as she was going out later and was busy the next day.
The journey over was awful as I was upset to be taking her and my husband was so angry about the rose. This was turning out to be a really horrible day.
At the end of the day my husband asked the neighbours not to cut any more and said that we would make sure the next day that it was all on our side. He let them know he was upset by this and I stayed indoors as I didn’t feel up to confrontation and I didn’t want to fall out with the neighbours.
The next day I had a lunch for fifty with lots of extras ordered so I had to plod on with the work while my husband set about repairing the damage. He decided to put up some boards to keep the rose on our side.
I went out to help at moments when he needed another pair of hands. I saw our neighbour sitting on her patio and felt that I must say something as I didn’t want there to be bad feeling between us. I said that I didn’t want us to fall out over a fence and explained that we were putting solid panels up instead of just trellis to keep the rose to our side.
She said that they were putting a bamboo screen up on their side as they wanted more privacy. She said she was happy for us to put what we wanted on our side and then they would add the bamboo to their side.
I can understand that they probably thought that the way to go was to cut everything level with the fence so that they could then put up some bamboo screening but I still think they could have talked to us and we could have done it between us without so much damage.
It isn’t like a hedge that can just be cut smoothly, some branches are long reaching. They know the hours we are at home and they didn’t need to do it while we were out but I just don’t want bad feeling between us.
My husband put some boards on to the top of the fence
View from the other direction
We then attached some trellis
View from the other direction
We put up the boards then some trellis then tied any remaining bits of the rose to the trellis making sure it was all on our side. This cost us just over a hundred pounds plus an afternoons work.
In the early evening our neighbours put up the bamboo screen on their side.
Our neighbours have now put up a bamboo screen on their side of the fence
View from the other direction
Had we not have put the panels on our side they wouldn’t have had any more privacy than through the rose. I took a photo to show that you can actually see straight through the bamboo.
Close up of bamboo as a screen!
We have actually done them a favour by putting solid panels on our side. It doesn’t look so bad from our side now but it will take a few years for the rose to grow back over the empty panels.
I think they may be intending to do the same throughout the length of the garden so we will have to do this on our side over the rest of the garden to keep the rest of our roses. This will be more awkward to do behind the chicken run but we will tackle that another day.
Any one who reads my blog regularly will know that not only am I passionate about chickens but we are passionate about our garden too so this was a pretty stressful few days.
I don’t think our neighbours are going to be good friends of ours in the future but as my husband says we won’t have to see them through the fence any more.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I know how much you loved that rose and having seen it , I thought it was stunning .
It will grow back and it could be better than ever . It’s the principal of it all. They certainly would not be friends of mine .
Apparently they hired an electric hedge cutter for the day which was way over the top and they waited until we had gone out.
I am sure the rose is much nicer to look at than the bamboo screen but that’s up to them. As you say they are not going to be friends in the future but the rose will recover.
f their Bamboo grows like ours did that was in the garden when we moved in, It was nothing but trouble, It grew all across our lawn, through the beds,All into next doors garden, We had so much trouble getting rid of it, Bob broke his fork , my fork, and had to buy a pitchfork to get rid of it, and still it is comming back.Hope it dont happen to you.How any one could choose that, to having your rose ,Idont know, But I am sure one day they will regret it.I am really sorry to hear this, Bamboo is nothing but trouble.
It was a bad day but not that bad. It’s bamboo screen not the plant, which as you say is a nightmare. It comes in a roll and is cheap. You cut it to size and they have attached it on their side which is what you can see sticking up over the top of the fence. It’s like matting. I still don’t know how they can choose that over a rose though. I bet it looks awful on their side.
Wow, that’s rough. I’m so sorry. Gosh, I really feel for you and what a day you had. Your rose was beautiful. I’m so sorry that happened.
It was the most horrible day and my husband commented today that our neighbours have no idea what a stressful couple of days they put us through.
Never mind though, the rose will eventually recover and as they say “nobody died”! I just didn’t need that on that day in particular but life goes on and the girls are fine.
A sorry tale: you’ll certainly never be passing surplus eggs, in season, over the fence! Makes me think how lucky we are (at present!) with our neighbours.
It’s funny you should say that because I just had that thought yesterday. We don’t get that many surplus eggs and I thought that they are no longer ever going that way but just to our lovely neighbours the other side.