The 4 unknown laws you need to know if your neighbour's tree hangs over your garden & the weird ‘branch' rule
But before you start chopping off branches, there are four little-known rules you must follow.
2
2
Taking to Instagram, gardening pro Michael Griffiths explained all you need to know, including a bizarre branch rule you've probably never heard of.
In the viral video the gardening whizz suggested that your first port of call should always be talking to your neighbour about the issue.
You never know, they might be reasonable and sort it out themselves.
"Ultimately, everyone is responsible for the trees on their land, but that doesn't mean they need to cut it back," he added.
If your neighbour doesn't want to deal with it, you can cut back the tree your self, but Michael warned to always check if the tree is protected first.
This is because it could be in conservation area or have a tree preservation order on it, meaning you can't touch it.
Once you've double checked that, you should be in the clear to cut back anything that's hanging over your side, but only up to the boundry.
"You can't jump the fence and cut it at the trunk," Michael warned.
Finally, the gardening whizz shared a little-known rule about what you need to do with any branches you do cut down.
According to Michael, you can't simply throw the cuttings back over the fence, or even dispose of them straight away.
Alan Titchmarsh's top 7 plants that 'transform ugly fences with gorgeous flowers & fragrance' & they grow for years
That's because you need to offer the branches to you neighbour first.
Of course, they most likely won't want to them, so you'll be safe to chuck them out then. But you must ask first.
After sharing the rules on Instagram, not everyone thought they were fair and some fumed that they need to be changed.
One commented: "How fair is it that your neighbours can plant trees that over shadow your garden, depriving it of light?
"The rules need updating to consider everyone's quality of life."
And another said: "My neighbour removed all the beautiful lilac trees that formed a barrier between our gardens without consulting and killed the baby birds nesting in them.
"The trees were on my land, I was furious and heartbroken."
And another chimed in: "Everyone moans about trees hanging over their garden but trees are natural, they like to grow.
"I absolutely love my neighbour's tress hanging over my fence."
Top gardening trends of 2025
Gardening experts at Barnsdale Gardens has shared the top gardening trends of 2025.
Matrix planting
It seems that a top planting trend for this year is going to be Matrix Planting.
In essence, planting in groups or blocks to give an effect of being wild whilst actually being carefully managed.
Selection of the plants is essential, to give year-round interest either with flowers, seed heads or frosted/snowy spent flower heads. Some recommend using plants that seed around, but this could make managing your matrix planting harder to keep under control.
Chrysanthemum comeback
I hope that the humble Chrysanthemum makes as much of a comeback this year as Dahlias have over recent years, because the simple single flowered types, such as 'Innocence' and 'Cottage Apricot' would be spectacular within a matrix scheme.
The hardy varieties are so easy to grow in a sunny spot and give such a valuable burst of late summer and autumn colour that would lift any dull- looking border.
Blended borders
For some time now we have been promoting the growing of veg within ornamental borders and I think this could really take off this year.
The choice of ornamental-looking varieties available in seed catalogues is phenomenal and, if managed correctly, visitors to your garden will not even realise that you have veg growing!
Must-have tool
My secret is out. I discovered the Hori Hori a couple of years ago and now it seems so is everyone else.
It is such a well-made, adaptable tool that can be used as a trowel or weeding tool in the garden that and everyone I speak to who have used it absolutely would not now be without it. Enough said!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
15 minutes ago
- BBC News
Wiltshire's 'most depressing' park given £50k makeover
A park described as the most "depressing" play area in Wiltshire has been given a makeover after a five-year community park in The Close, Redlynch, is estimated to have been built in the 1970s and had fallen into a state of disrepair."I've been all over the county and frankly I hadn't seen one more dilapidated or depressing," said Wiltshire councillor Zoe Clewer. "This really took the biscuit by a country mile."Mrs Clewer began a campaign to replace the park in 2020 and it has now reopened after having £50,000 spent on it. Wiltshire Council funded the project as part of a county-wide park improvement programme after Redlynch Parish Council agreed to take over responsibility for its work included installing a new climbing frame, slide, swings and monkey bars. Mrs Clewer said how little had been done at the park became apparent when she spoke to one young girl in The Close."She showed me graffiti that had been done by her mum years and years ago, clearly a generation ago - and what that told me was this place had not had a lick of paint in 20 years," Mrs Clewer added: "The household incomes here [in The Close, Redlynch], are a good deal lower than just a couple of streets away."This area has been neglected a little bit. We need to look after these areas and we need to include people." The running of the park has now been handed to the parish Ian Harvey said the area had been a hotspot for anti-social behaviour."It didn't help with the play area how it was," he said. "At least people here now see that both the parish council and Wiltshire Council care about them and are willing to spend some money on trying to do something." Clarissa Cranmer is part of the parish council and works at the local primary described the project as a "huge community effort", adding children said it was "not fair" that the park was in such poor state. Children were asked what they wanted in the park, and Ms Cranmer said they requested monkey bars and mini trampoline. The work was done as part of a £603,000 project to upgrade play areas in Wiltshire if parish councils agree to take them far nine play areas have been upgraded with nine more projects in progress. Councillor Martin Smith, Wiltshire Council's cabinet member for street scenes, said: "These improvements will make a lasting difference in rural communities, enabling more children to stay active and have fun."We look forward to continuing to support communities in creating vibrant, inclusive spaces for play and recreation."
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Forget poor ‘Generation Covid' – me and my A-level classmates never had it so bad
'Blood, toil, sweat and tears' is what Winston Churchill most famously offered the British people. Less famously, he also gave us A-levels. If you ask any current school-leaver, that quote just about sums up the ordeal of public examinations. Quite literally, in fact; my friend Ellie distinctly remembers sweat dripping from her brow in the exam hall due to the lack of air-con during this year's 30-degree heatwave, as she tackled a flurry of logarithmic equations. But sweat isn't all we've had to overcome. Today is results day – and my own results are imminent – it is about time we reflected on quite how hard the class of 2025 has had it, having started our GCSEs in the aftermath of the entire exam system being cancelled during the pandemic by former education secretary Gavin Williamson. Public exams were still undertaken throughout the Second World War. It is my cohort that has never had it so tough – harder than those who only sat mock exams during Covid, their real exams having been cancelled in favour of teacher-assessed grading. And yet we embarked on our first year of GCSE learning amid the fallout from Covid disruption, and have now been examined for A-levels by an education system keen to re-establish its rigour and fire-damaged reputation. My sister, three years older, often wistfully contemplates what it would have been like to have sat her GCSEs. She didn't realise then how good she had it. The system – which involved an algorithm determining final results, based on supplied estimated grades and a ranking against every other pupil at the school within that same estimated grade bracket – was imperfect, yes. But despite some grades being dependent on institutional reputation or unfairly weighted mock performances, the numbers speak for themselves. Generation Covid enjoyed an unprecedented boost in results, with the GCSE pass rate jumping by almost 10 per cent from 2019 to its peak in 2021. The number of A-A* grades at A-level also increased by over 12 per cent. In reality, it is my year that has borne the brunt of the pandemic's academic fallout. By the time we took our GCSE exams, grade inflation had ended, with numbers returning to pre-virus years – ignoring the fact that our education had been fundamentally impacted by Covid as well. Data suggests that more than half of us were being taught GCSE content in year 9, all while we endured lockdowns, but with no grade compensation in sight. Again, this year, we are still feeling the effects of the Covid mess: talk is rife of 'grade deflation' to balance out the boom of previous years' high grades. It hardly fills one with confidence. The general stress of revision and the exam period has been clear for years. Every time exam season rolls around, calls to Childline spike, with students buckling under the mental toll. Personally, I have noticed a biennial twitch under my left eye, coinciding with my GCSEs and A-level prep – hardly catastrophic, it remains a minuscule sign of the unparalleled strain exams put on us. My friend and classmate Mads recognises the wider impacts on our specific cohort. 'For our year group, the effects of Covid go beyond just missing in-person lessons. I genuinely don't think that we had the same access to resources for mental and physical health, as well as resources for our learning. It feels disheartening to know that we have to compete at the same level as year groups that were uninhibited by the pandemic; we are being held to a standard that doesn't take into consideration just how deeply Covid has affected us.' This year, the unfairness and confusion of the process has been highlighted. The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) had initially suggested that up to a third of students received 25 per cent extra time, with the rate at independent schools reaching 40 per cent. However, since then Ofqual has retracted the figures, which it now deems as inaccurate. It appears the genuine stats of those with special exam requirements is mired in confusion. At school, rumours swirl of many who have coughed up over £700 for 'private consultations', which almost inevitably result in exam benefits, such as typing or extra time. The system isn't working, and exam boards are only now taking notice. Take psychology A-level – long notorious for its content and complexity. This year, the exam board AQA revealed that at long last it will be slashing next year's content by around a fifth. My friend and psychology survivor remains unimpressed. 'It was clear the course had way too much content, and that hindered the results,' he tells me. 'It's irresponsible that they are so late to change such a clear problem when we've been through it.' Once again, my cohort is one year too late. This results day, A-level grades alone won't tell the story of a cohort that has endured once-in-a-generation disruption, having been judged by rules that were rewritten in real-time. I know that I'm certainly ready for this Churchillian task of stress, grit and endurance to finally reach its conclusion. Wish us luck…
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Campaigner calls for step-free access at more railway stations
A disability rights campaigner has called for more railway stations to have step-free access ahead of planned improvement works at his local one. Nathaniel Yates, who has cerebral palsy, started campaigning in 2018 - a few years after falling on stairs at Reddish North in Stockport, Greater said everyone deserved access to train services, adding: "Transport should be a level playing field."Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) said it was "moving at pace to deliver improvements" as it praised Mr Yates for his "brilliant job raising awareness about the lack of accessible railway stations". 'You'd be stranded' According to research from Transport for the North, less than half of the region's stations have step-free Yates pointed out the example of Woodsmoor, which only has such access from one side."This is the nearest [station] to the local hospital - Stepping Hill in Stockport," he explained."So you could get to Stepping Hill but you can't get back - you'd be stranded."You have to rely on other people rather than you doing things for yourself." Step-free access is set to be installed at Reddish North in 2026 - something Mr Yates said he was looking forward to "immensely".But he has vowed to continue fighting for change across Greater Manchester and beyond. "I would like to introduce step-free access again at all stations," he said."I would like to introduce a sensory room at Stockport station at some point for people that are neurodiverse too."Councillor Grace Baynham, cabinet member for parks, highways and transport services at Stockport Council, said making travel accessible was "so important". "This upgrade means people with limited mobility, parents with prams, and anyone who's ever found it tricky to get around at the station will have a much smoother experience," she said."This is such a big win for our community, thanks in part to the great work of Nathaniel Yates."Work to provide step-free access at Swinton, Hindley, Bryn and Reddish North is scheduled to get under way next year, with accessibility improvements at Flowery Field, Newton for Hyde, Bredbury and Levenshulme set to follow.A spokesperson for TfGM said: "It means that 63% of the city-region's railway stations will be step-free, up from 43% currently."This rolling programme of upgrades also forms part of Greater Manchester's wider plans to bring eight commuter rail lines into the Bee Network by 2028, building a more inclusive and accessible public transport network and delivering major improvements to stations, services and passenger experience." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
