regards, mudlark

So far I'm coping with single motherhood - got all the Chrissy lights up (with help of 12yo son), fixed up all the ones that didn't work (all on my own), have got repair men in to fix fridge AND clothes dryer, have coped with flat battery at 5pm peak hour in the middle of a thunderstorm with 4 tired cranky kids, have used hammer to fix storm damaged gate (great therapy that one), and thats all just in the last 2 weeks....... just haven't come to grips with the logistics of poisoning neighbours tree yet. How do you drill the holes without them hearing?

So I'm tossing up whether to get a lawyer to write to them with copies of letters from local nurseries identifying plant as ficus benjamina, and what the roots are capable of (and then wait 2-3 years, get plumber to put camera up pipes to get evidence before it gets to foundations etc, and then sue neighbour, and have to have 3m deep trench dug straight through middle of front yard to dig up and repair pipes) OR take matters into my own hands.

A half inch bit will leave a whopping great hole - at this point the tree has only been in the ground about 6-8 months, so the base of the drunk is probably only 4" in diameter. Even tosser neighbour might notice a hole that big!

can I get some of those application forms to dob my neighbour into your hit squad? I'm in the same boat as you - neighbour and I already aren't talking because of his retaining wall/fence, so if I go talk to him about the ficus, I know he'll just ignore it. And then it will be suspicious if it dies. I think I'm just better off poisoning it. The council planted two Golden Pendas on my front footpath - one of which is now dead because when tosser heighbour had his pool dug, his bobcat backed into my tree (2m tall it was). I also have a paw paw tree that is suspiciously dead in the backyard, near this neighbours fence. I think I'll just leave the 2 dead trees in the ground for the next 6 months, and see if I can poison his ficus. Then it wont look so suspicious, if I have dead trees too.

*oops, I'm very clumsy lately - must be all the stress*

how is your neighbours avocado going?

jbrules, you must understand that I, personally, have no knowledge of what may or may not have happened to my neighbours tree. However, did I mention I am very concerned that all the stress of recent months (separated from husband, father in hospital, brother attempted suicide again) may be getting to me? I work shift work, and get home after midnight. I have, on the odd occasion, at about 2am, noticed that all of a sudden I have 'lost' 5 minutes - I just can't account for the missing time. Strange. Also strange is that, while I am a totally organic gardener, and have no pesticides, weedkillers etc - I don't even have fly spray for indoors because one of my children is allergic to it - BUT the other day I did find a spray bottle of Roundup in the back of the laundry cupboard. Very strange, because I'm sure I haven't bought anything like that in over 10 years.

Whatever, the ficus next door only has a few yellow brown leaves left. :)

of course, if they planted another ficus........

50% sulphuric acid and 50% water? does it have to be diluted?

The neighbour has a few options to help you out - drastic pruning of the branches - will reduce how much water he needs to use plus pruning of the roots - - dig a trench on your side of the fence and cut all of the main roots ON YOUR SIDE and then line the trench with an impervious material - root inhibiting fabric is available from many nurseries.

OR

move your tomatoes.

We are all neighbours with someone and we have to live next door to them for quite a long time.

Don't start a neighbourhood war - communicate - you may even get a share of the crop of avacados.

I had to trim the roots as best I could - some are over 30cm thick and I had to move my tomatoes - I get too many problems from the plague grasshoppers breeding in the bush block.

The way the thread was going shocked me that gardners would consider poisoning a neighbours gaden just to benefit my own.

che sera

ciao

tony

don't know you might have to dig a bit deeper but your neighbour has a duty of care to his neighbours, those tall gum trees are an ever present danger whether tampered with or not. and heavy lopping done badly could cause lots of new growth that will be even more unstable than the original. here in rural if a property owner has a tree that could cause damage to anyone on a public thoroughfare or on the their private property you have the responsibilty to remove that/those trees.

the safety margin for having those large particularly gum trees is 50% more than their maximum height, that is a 60 foot tree (just using the size mentioned) would have to be 90 foot away from buildings and over head utilities etc.,. and you can't tamper with the trees or you take the responsibility of any damage they could cause away from the current owner if tampering can be proved.

and as hard as what it can be mediation is the best way stay away from litigation or the legal fraternity.

len

mail len

lens garden page

yes, I can understand paradisi being offended by me blithely killing my neighbours tree.

but - 3 notable nurseries in my area positively identified this tree as a ficus benjamina from photos and a 20cm twig I took in. They recommended that this tree not be planted within 20m of pipes, foundations etc. This tree was planted within 2m of my water and sewage pipes, and within 4m of my house (concrete slab).

As neighbour won't speak to me, it is unlikely that if I showed him written letters confirming above info, he would remove tree. I contacted Brisbane City Council, who came out and inspected the tree, confirmed it was a ficus benjamina and confirmed that it was not planted in a 'suitable' position..... but also said that as it was on private property, there was nothing they could do about it (until it had interferred with the sewage and water pipes laid under the footpath). I COULD have inserted a root barrier - but I would have had to dig down at least 3m, and the trench would have had to be at least 15m long - this would have required me hiring men and bobcats, and would have been totally outside my budget. The only action I could take was AFTER the tree roots had damaged my pipes and/or home. Which is stupid in the extreme.

So, no - I don't feel guilty about spraying roundup on my neighbours tree. The tree has been bare of leaves now for 4-5 months. They haven't removed/replaced it - yet. Now it is spring, I am carefully watching it to see if new leaf buds form (none yet!). I will have no hesitation in spraying roundup again if they do.

These neighbours are definitely a fly short of a dungheap - they have planted another 10 ficus benjamina's across the front of their house - atractively pruned into 2m high balls. I just hope that the roots damage THEIR foundations, pipes, and double concrete driveway, BEFORE they do any damage on my property.

I am sorry I have offended paradisi and others - and yes, I fully agree that my actions were not nice, not polite, and definitely not neighbourly. If I had any other options, I would have tried them But - I am not sorry about what I have done, and will do it again if the plant shows signs of green, or they replace it with another the same.

But some people............arrgh! Not that it is a defence - but these people started it - there was a very long story involving retaining walls and fences from when we built - basically, these people put their retaining wall on MY property (because they moved the original survey pegs, and knew they were doing the wrong thing) and then, because they were too scabby to do it properly, they only built a 1m retaining wall, when they had made a 1.4m cut. Consequently, the 1.8m paling fence that sits on top of the retaining wall is retaining 40cm of my block. I got the council out to inspect it - they said it was illegal, and needed to be rebuilt - but because there were no survey pegs, they couldn't issue the order. So... neighbours are shitty that I refused to pay half the retaining wall AND fence - even though I had told them I couldn't and wouldn't agree to what they were doing, had my lawyer write to them to tell them they were not allowed to build retaining wall on my property, AND that I had no obligation for any retaining wall as it was their cut, not mine - I only had to pay half a fence - and half a fence that I agreed to, not half a fence that is part of a structure that is illegal, not well built (only has posts sunk 60cm deep, should be twice that, they used untreated pine as posts in the ground, posts are 2.4m apart, and for the eight of the structure should be about half that etc)

so - yeah, I haven't done the right thing - but in the greater scheme of what has happened along this boundary fence - I do still sleep well at night.

If I grew an Avocado for 40 years on my fenceline and my neighbour killed my tree I'd blow up his house :D but before I did that I'd plant 50 unkillable massive Ficus all along the fence and some pine trees to drop poison needles all over his vege garden :D. That's how it would go down if we were neighbours :). I might also grow a mountain ash out to 150 feet and hope for a big wind storm

As for the avocado tree - please read the whole thread before going off on a rant; the neighbour doesn't particularly want the tree, has previously had it routed out, and it hasn't produced anything anyway!

Personally, my answer to the whole problem is to move to the bush; 40 acres just waiting for us, as soon as our house sells. I've got an orchard already started, and can't wait to get to the vegies.

Hi middlejane, enjoy your acreage.