What grows on your side, or hangs over, is yours, and the same for your neighbor. He can do what he wants with the part of your tree that hangs over his yard - except he's not allowed to do anything that would kill the tree. He can plant what he wants, as can you. You may be able to convince him to stop chopping your tree if YOU will keep it trimmed from your side so there isn't a lot of hang-over. I wouldn't worry about the Palo verde. He'll probably keep it shaped into a ball and it won't interfere with your tree. gag. All-in-all the situation is one of the joys of having neighbors. ;-(

Which is why I'd really like to be in the middle of five acres somewhere! :-)

BTW, it has nothing to do with being from the midwest; he's just a compulsive control freak.

OK, I'm on the other side on this one. My situation is a little different, though. Our neighbor has a tree that we just HATE and it's leaning at something like a 60 degree angle into our yard. It's the messiest thing, he could care less about trimming it, and just happens to be the messiest during pool season. We trim it when ever we get the whim. He really should remove it and plant something in an upright position a little more into his own yard.

My mother had a pine tree that was heaving up the common wall between her house and the neighbors, and the neighbor threatened to sue if the wall sustained any more damage, so my mother had it chopped down. Terrible shame, and not very neighborly on either party's part, but you may want to put a bug in his ear about property damage that he'd be liable for if the tree should fall into your yard...

I found out, after one of our infamous Eucs dropped a limb on our neighbor's boat, that liability for what trees do is a tenuous thing. You might be liable in some situations, but not in others. It might be wise to find out in advance.

Having the same issue with my neighbor who says the leaves from my pecan trees are ruining her roof. Hmmm.

Perhaps more seriously, I have a huge limb that hangs over her yard and she thinks it's going to crash down on her roof - it would have to swing quiiiittte a ways in order to have that happen, but I think I'll just get it cut off so she can have neither the pecans, shade or the reason to b**ch. Of course, I'm sure she'll find something else, she's pretty practiced at it.

*sigh*

Can't we all just get along? Evidently not.

My tree isn't threatening anything. No where near any structure, car, driveway or anything of his! If it fell(which I don't think it will, it's quite healthy), it wouldn't take out anything except maybe his palo verde (now trimmed perfectly into a weird shape for a palo verde) that was planted years after my tree and possibly the corner of MY house. This is the same guy who asked me to dig out my bougainvilla becasue its leaves blow into his pool (all the neighbbors have bougies, how does he know it is MY bougie putting leaves in his pool?)
No, my yard is no where near perfect and manicured, but it is healthy!

If only we knew more when we move into our first house and landscaped the front yard! To get along with him, I would have had to leave it bare rock! :)

I need to get out there and take a picture of what he has done to these trees so you can see! Funny how something as simple as a tree can cause such grief for both sides of the fence! But you hurt my tree and you hurt me!
I'm TRYING to let it go......

desertSol

I've seen a couple of tree shows on Judge Judy. (My husband watched it back when he was layed off.) People get pretty upset. She said just what somebody said here, he can cut what's on his side of the line, as long as it doesn't kill the tree. You did not have to cut down your bougenvilla, if you did. Stuff blows around. That's part of life. He'll get over it, or you'll always think he should have. Maybe, you should just plant something really messy... (evil grin.)

Really messy? He should have my neighbor's oleanders next to his fence. Then he could *really* complain! I can't complain because I owned those danged things till I sold the house. How I wish I had cut them down when I had the opportunity; they have ruined my plans for a potting table and garden storage back there. Everything - and I mean *everything* - is constantly covered in oleander mess. The droppings have even stained the cement patio. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna cut those things straight up my fence line and do my best to keep the new growth from intruding again. What a PITA they are! DesertSol, wish I had your mesquite hanging over my fence. I'd love that!

The rental house next door to us has an African Sumac planted inbetween our respective houses. It hangs over our side of the wall and over our roof quite a bit. That thing is so messy and all its leaves end up piling up in our yard and blowing into our pool. So we ended up doing the straight-up-from-the-fence-line trim. Looks terrible, but those people are so annoying. Their palm tree never gets trimmed either and every time there's wind, all its skin falls into our pool. And they throw their trash bags over the wall into the alley instead of opening their gate, and placing them in the dumpster. Grrr...

If only we had some real gardeners with nice plants and trees that are well kept living next to us.

Hey Sheryl- go get one of those huge gas-powered blowers and a ladder and blow those leaves off her roof every Saturday morning just before dawn. Wouldn't want her roof to be damaged, would you?

Just be sure you crank that thing up and get blowing while it's still dark so she won't see any pesky leaves on her roof when the sun comes up!!!

I have a neighbor with a tall size tree on the side yard. The tree makes a mess too. The tree roots has three large (5X5) cement aggregate coming up in the corners. Now anyone can trip.

I asked then to cut down etc. They said there is no law for anything. I live in CA.

Can I get them to fix my cement, cut down tree, etc

our neighbor has cut a lot of branches of 4 of our 15 year old bradford pear trees. can she ruin the shape of the trees by doing that, is she aloud to ruin the shape of the tree, and what could the trees by worth if they die from her cutting them like she did,

I contacted the city regarding cutting trees that overhang on other people's property and they gave me a letter that said it is advisable to get permission from the owner of the tree first before cutting anything. That is only logical and it should be law, but they omit that and it causes all these problems. What if there was anything in the trees like wires or anything where someone could get hurt - you would have liability problems. I also had a problem with a neighbor who cut five or six, three foot shrubs on my property and also went twenty feet on my property and trimmed the whole tree. Some people just like to cause problems. If they got along all you have to do is ask. That is the considerate, neighborly thing to do. Where I live, the workers can be careless and you have to keep an eye on them, so it would be advisable also to be present when they trim trees. That is what I say regarding my property. Otherwise, you can have people at any time trimming your trees when you are not home. Once the damage is done and they - say - make the tree look bad, someone will have to fix it, repair it or replace it. There are certain ways to cut/prune trees of various types especially fruit trees so they grow properly and in the case of fruit trees produce more fruit. Some places and in homeowners associations you may have to get a permission or a permit to cut the whole tree down, if it is a large tree.

Here is a site regarding trimming pear trees. Someone who cuts a fruit tree and is not knowledgeable in it could damage the tree. There is also a video on YouTube on how to trim a pear tree. http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/pear/pear-tree-pruning.htm