Post by whollygoats on Nov 14, 2017 0:35:20 GMT
My neighbors to the east fled the country.
Literally. They sold their house and moved to Mexico before the last presidential campaign even began.
In the wake of their departure, they left a fairly miffed neighbor. Yours truly.
Years before, a huge cherry tree had grown on their property and overarched my roof. Another stood directly south of that near their back property line near my property. In both cases the limbs of the large cherry trees overarched my property. Age, as it will do, finally took down both trees....or, to be more accurate, caused them to take down those trees. Anyway, in the wake of the loss of the back tree, they had gone visiting his (of their) homeland and they had strolled the gardens at Kew. From that, they had come home with acorns in their pockets from the huge English oaks there in the Royal Gardens at Kew.
Well, my former neighbor decided to plant, in to pots, the acorns he had illicitly secreted back from his homeland. They sprouted. I had hoped for poor germination, but was roundly disappointed and what I feared came to pass. The neighbor decided to plant his potted seedling in his back yard, roughly where a prior cherry tree had been. An English oak. I squealed. I beseeched them to NOT plant the damned tree. I seethed when they did.
An English oak is a slow maturing tree which, none the less, tops out at 120 feet to 160 feet tall and has mature lower limbs that span a radius of some 50 to 60 feet. They had planted the damned thing five feet from my property line and thirty feet from my back balcony. It has been in the ground about ten years now and it is a good 60 feet tall. It blocks out the sun in my back yard from midmorning to midday. It will only grow larger.
Then, these twits decide to sell up and flee the country. (And, in the interim, planted bamboo on their property, too.) I asked them to cut down the tree. They refused; said a huge oak tree in the back yard was a selling point. I pointed out it was a future legal problem for the owner; why was that a selling point? They rolled their eyes and ignored me.
When the property sold, I tried to track down the new owner(s). They were shielded by a 'property manager'. So be it. I posed the problem of the 'back yard tree'.
Then I found out that my back neighbor was unhappy because the tree was depositing schmutz on the roof and the branches were sweeping back and forth on the composition shingling. She had hired a professional arborist to come out and prune the tree up off of her garage roof. She thought it was my tree, but I had to point out that it was not mine and that I was not happy with it as well.
I hired an arborist last year to take out a camellia bush in the back. I asked his assessment of the offending tree. He looked at it and told me to recommend removal because the trunk of the tree would eventually damage the back of the back neighbors' garage structure....not to mention cast enough shade to keep the neighbors pasty for years to come.
So, last year I took it up with the 'property manager' and posed to him that it was in his, and his property owners', interests to remove the tree. I even suggested replacing it with a smaller tree, more fitting to the lot and their garden. I suggested that it was a problem to my future solar access and a potential damage threat to the structure to which it had been placed too close. I noted that the tree was not going to get any smaller over time and that consequently, the earlier removal was indicated in order to save on the cost of removal.
I was promised that the 'property manager' would take it up with the property owners. I let it set. I worked with the 'property manager' when we were both cited by the city for sidewalk repairs. We shared a contractor who cut us a discount. Then, last week, I asked what the deal was with the tree and my request. He jumped. He told me he'd have an arborist out to assess the tree that week. It came and went and today I got the notice....the tree will be removed.
Literally. They sold their house and moved to Mexico before the last presidential campaign even began.
In the wake of their departure, they left a fairly miffed neighbor. Yours truly.
Years before, a huge cherry tree had grown on their property and overarched my roof. Another stood directly south of that near their back property line near my property. In both cases the limbs of the large cherry trees overarched my property. Age, as it will do, finally took down both trees....or, to be more accurate, caused them to take down those trees. Anyway, in the wake of the loss of the back tree, they had gone visiting his (of their) homeland and they had strolled the gardens at Kew. From that, they had come home with acorns in their pockets from the huge English oaks there in the Royal Gardens at Kew.
Well, my former neighbor decided to plant, in to pots, the acorns he had illicitly secreted back from his homeland. They sprouted. I had hoped for poor germination, but was roundly disappointed and what I feared came to pass. The neighbor decided to plant his potted seedling in his back yard, roughly where a prior cherry tree had been. An English oak. I squealed. I beseeched them to NOT plant the damned tree. I seethed when they did.
An English oak is a slow maturing tree which, none the less, tops out at 120 feet to 160 feet tall and has mature lower limbs that span a radius of some 50 to 60 feet. They had planted the damned thing five feet from my property line and thirty feet from my back balcony. It has been in the ground about ten years now and it is a good 60 feet tall. It blocks out the sun in my back yard from midmorning to midday. It will only grow larger.
Then, these twits decide to sell up and flee the country. (And, in the interim, planted bamboo on their property, too.) I asked them to cut down the tree. They refused; said a huge oak tree in the back yard was a selling point. I pointed out it was a future legal problem for the owner; why was that a selling point? They rolled their eyes and ignored me.
When the property sold, I tried to track down the new owner(s). They were shielded by a 'property manager'. So be it. I posed the problem of the 'back yard tree'.
Then I found out that my back neighbor was unhappy because the tree was depositing schmutz on the roof and the branches were sweeping back and forth on the composition shingling. She had hired a professional arborist to come out and prune the tree up off of her garage roof. She thought it was my tree, but I had to point out that it was not mine and that I was not happy with it as well.
I hired an arborist last year to take out a camellia bush in the back. I asked his assessment of the offending tree. He looked at it and told me to recommend removal because the trunk of the tree would eventually damage the back of the back neighbors' garage structure....not to mention cast enough shade to keep the neighbors pasty for years to come.
So, last year I took it up with the 'property manager' and posed to him that it was in his, and his property owners', interests to remove the tree. I even suggested replacing it with a smaller tree, more fitting to the lot and their garden. I suggested that it was a problem to my future solar access and a potential damage threat to the structure to which it had been placed too close. I noted that the tree was not going to get any smaller over time and that consequently, the earlier removal was indicated in order to save on the cost of removal.
I was promised that the 'property manager' would take it up with the property owners. I let it set. I worked with the 'property manager' when we were both cited by the city for sidewalk repairs. We shared a contractor who cut us a discount. Then, last week, I asked what the deal was with the tree and my request. He jumped. He told me he'd have an arborist out to assess the tree that week. It came and went and today I got the notice....the tree will be removed.