Homeowner left with butchered landscaping after neighbor's yard maintenance: 'Time for a real fence between you and your neighbors'

Neighbors are like the in-laws of homebuying. You fall in love with a home, make a long-term commitment to stay with that home, and then you realize that the home comes with a bunch of people who are now a part of your life. 

One homeowner took to Reddit to vent about their home's "in-laws" and share the path of destruction their neighbor's son (nephew-in-law?) left on the boundary between their properties. 

"Neighbour did this to our hedge," they wrote in the caption of a post to the r/gardening subreddit. The picture showed the hacked-down hedge, which was acting as a natural fence between the two backyards. 

"Time for a real fence between you and your neighbors," one Redditor commented. 

The OP commented that the hedge was there when they bought the house and had not been a problem until now. 

"The neighbour is elderly and his garden was massively overgrown and impenetrable. His son has come round and appears to have cut huge a load back," they wrote. 

While this incident doesn't appear malicious like some neighbor conflicts involving the destruction of property, this type of careless behavior is a common occurrence — and it's still upsetting to see. 

That hedge was a great barrier between the two yards that actively pulled carbon dioxide out of the air. Now, it seems as though the homeowner may need to build a fence, which requires energy and materials and produces more carbon pollution.

In the photo, you can see that the neighbor's son didn't stop at the hedges. Multiple trees were hacked off just above the trunks, leaving a few branch stumps. So not only did the son destroy some of the OP's property, but he also brought down the value of his dad's property. 

Trees can increase the value of a property and provide shade, keeping the home and property cool. That can reduce AC use in the summer and lessen energy bills. 

"Horrible what they did to the trees. Might be best to install a tall fence," another user mentioned. 

The OP wasn't concerned about the fence. They wanted to know about the hedge. "Will it survive or grow back over summer?" they asked. They also mentioned that it was a privet hedge, according to a plant ID app. 

"Try killing privet. I dare you," one person said. 

Another added, "Privet hedge is one of the more abused and neglected hedges as far as shearing is concerned. You could have mallet head landscapers run it over with tractors and cut it with chainsaws blindfolded and it will recover."

It seems as though the OP's hedge will recover. However, it's unclear if the same can be said of the relationship with their home's "in-laws."

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