Topic: weedkiller - neighbour trying to kill dads trees/ causing mum ill health?

[brownowl23]

Some of you may know my mum has been very ill recently with loads of blood clots all over her body and was critically ill for a while. My father also has a heart attack earlier this year

Ive been to my parents today, and asked how thier beans were doing. My hubby had planted them as my dad was recooperating, and the bean trench spans the width of his garden. Thier garden has two houses/gardens at the back, and dad has some of the dreded leylandi to blow the view of the houses, these are just behind his bean trench. dad has had issues with one of the neighbours trying to cut back the tree his side as far back as the trunk, which means leaning right over the garden.

Now for the main point. The half of the bean trench that is in line with this guys garden has had most of the bean plants die, they were all very healthy plants. The other half of the trench are doing well, as are the excess ones that are now in my allotment. The leylandi on that side too are going very brown from the base to about 6/7 foot heigh, the others behind the other garden are just fine.

dad suspects that the trees are beign sprayed with weedkiller or something like that , which would have of course killed the beans that side. He suspects this was going on last year too. His concern is that of course they have been eating the beans all year, and wonders if this could have caused or be part of the cause of mums illness as she had been very fit until then.

My question is what can dad do about this. do we confront the guy, do we call in the police, or what. dad hasnt been able to catch the guy in action, not that I think the guy  would be stupid enough to do anything at a time that dad could see him.

[rosebud]

 May i suggest that you get in touch with the enviroment office where your parents live ASAP.  They will test the soil for anything that is still there & go from there . I believe the Town Hall & council  will advise you where they are.

I hope it is not the cause of your mothers illness, but this could be investigated.
  Rosebud.
 Do let us know how you get on  ;D.

[cambourne7]

I would also start collecting soil samples maybe a weekday each week so that you can perhaps see if there are any changes in the chemicals in the soil.

I would strongly advise NOT to speak to the neighbour until you have gathered your evidence.

If you have the technical ability i would consider fitting a camera with good night vision or one that will work in the light available at night to monitor what's happening.

Good luck...

[Jeannine]

This is dreadful, get someone involved, these are food crops and some sprays are very toxic, this could be construed at attempted murder..you definatley need to find out.

XX Jeannine

[Alex133]

As there is a strong visual difference in the condition of plants/hedge either side of the dividing line of houses suggest taking photos now as part of evidence.

There are some horrible people around, last thing your parents need now is this sort of stress and nastiness.

[Melbourne12]

Leylandii don't take kindly to being trimmed back hard, even on one side, so they may well be dying simply because of that.

But if the neighbour is indeed spraying them with something, it is exceedingly unlikely that it will have contributed to either of your parents' illnesses.  The obvious things to use are glyphosate, sodium chlorate (now banned, but there's plenty of old stock in people's sheds), or a brushwood killer like triclopyr.

All of these will kill the beans, but none could transfer into the edible beans themselves in any way that would be poisonous.

[sunloving]

I agree with all of the above but just on the outside chance the beans arent in manure are they? As this is what you would expect to see if you had aminopyralid damage to.

Good luck with everything
X sunloving

[brownowl23]

Thanks for all you help folks. I knew that several heads would be better than just mine on this.

Sun Loving - No they arent in manure, just compost from dads heap. So no chance of aminopyralid damage.

Melbourne12 - the guy stopped trimming them back at all once dad pointed out that to lean over the fence that far was not only causing the guy danger ( of falling head first over the fence with a chian saw) but actually trespassing on dads property.

I hadnt thought about the enviromntal office, sensible place to start. Now if I had been in my old job (from way back) I could have go hold of survellance gear like cameras, sadly I dont work in that field anymore.
Will definately get dad to take soil samples and start gathering evidence. Meanwhile look slike my beans are now feeding 6 instead of 4!!

[ipt8]

It is possible that the beans are suffering because the Leylandii are drawing all the moisture from the soil they are in.
If the Leylandii have been trimmed hard beyond the green growth they will be brown and not grow again where trimmed. Are the Leylandii looking healthy in the tops of the trees, if treated with weedkiller I would not expect the tops of the trees to look at all healthy.

[Ellen K]

My neighbour has a Leylandii hedge and it is sheding dead material from the lower half of the trees from drought,  And my plants underneath it are not looking so good.

I would talk to your neighbour personally.  But do not assume he is spraying weedkiller unless you have seen him do it or have some other evidence.

[brownowl23]

Denby and ipt8 - my fathers garden is big and long (roughly 300ft) and used to back on to the fields fo a childrens home, it now back on two 2 houses. The part that backs on to one house is fine both the trees and the beans are growing well, the part that backs on to the suspected neighbour has brown trees and only 3 bean plants. Even from the kitchen window you can see the distinct difference and the obvious boundary of which house each part backs on to because of the brown trees.

Therefore if it was drought or lack of moisture it would affect all the trees and beans not just the half backing on to the one house. hence the suspicion that said neighbour is trying to poison the trees and the ohter neighbour is not.

We wont speak to the guy direct but I guess I shall involve the enviroment office for firstly advice and dependant on what they say possibly action guided by them.

The biggest question I guesss would be if it is weedkiller (and of course this is assumption until proven otherwise)  and the spray was landing on beans that my dad picked later that day/next day, would this have had effect on thier health. Its not going to make the beans loook poorly and if its only a fine mistt may not make the plants die. But what effect would it have on a person eating them. Beans just get topped tailed, sliced and put in water to be cooked and served. Oh and in mums house bean water is used in gravy.

[raisedbedted]

We once had a similar problem, we planted a leylandii to block being overlooked from a window that the nighbour installed that actually opened out and into our garden.  We wondered why it just 'wasnt taking', the neighbours wall was against it and there was a window above.  One day when it rained I could see the ground foaming around the conifer.

Believing that the neighbours were pouring something nasty from above onto the plant I put a couple of washing up bowls around the base of the conifer to trap anything that was poured.  Within a few months the conifer was back to normal and a few months later the neighbours moved.

[Alex133]

Suggest you also ask environment office if spray could potentially have affected the beans your parent ate.

[Ellen K]

Be aware that, if you plant a row of leylandii against a neighbours house, you would be liable for any damage the trees did to the house.  My neighbours with the leylandii (which forms 3 walls of their garden) have already faced one such suit from their other neighbour.

I would have thought that a new window as described by RBT would require planning permission and at a minimum would have to be obscure glass with any opening panes at least 1.7m above floor level.  I would have taken it up with the council, leylandii would be Plan B.

[lewic]

Could you not persuade your Dad to get the Leylandii cut down? Personally I think they should be banned in gardens which border other peoples, and I wouldnt blame anyone for taking drastic action to try to kill the evil things.

Their neighbour is probably at their wits end but completely unaware of the dangers of spraying the trees (if that is what they are doing). Surely your parents health and good neighbour relationships are more important than maintaining a row of antisocial trees?

[brownowl23]

I have to say if I thought I could even try to persuade him to cut the tops offf I would have done it a long time ago. I too hate  leylandii.

Dads 77 and I can still vividly 20 + years ago remember the conversations we had when he first decided that they were to be put in. Went something along the lined of "if they are going to put houses on those playing fields then im going to d**n well put in fast growing tall trees so that we keep our privacy.
Now in part I can see his point as the only fencing that was put up between the houses was metal fencing thta you can see through. If it had been me, I would have put up a high wooden fence or even a wall and grown something up it. Guess a few leylandiii trees were cheaper than my options.

I can see once I have found out whats going on, with help  that I then become a friendly mediator, just hope the guy is willing to talk.

[chriscross1966]

I'm kind of with lewic on this, whilst I sympathise with yuour parents plight currently, I'd have made it a criminal offence to even keep a leylandii (let alone plant one) years ago

[Ellen K]

Yikes! 20 years and no trim?   :o

Well, it is sad when you have had a view across fields and then a housing estate gets built on the land.  But he shouldn't punish the people who move in.  The people who profitted from the sale of the land are the ones to blame and sounds as if that was the Council.

I would tell your Dad it's time to get over it and cut the trees down and chill.  Then focus on what's important: his health and your Mum's.  Very sorry to hear about them, but the last thing they need is a war with the neighbours.

[brownowl23]

Denby - No trim!  :o OMG no, they get a regular haircut courtesy of my cousin who is a tree surgeon. Oh my if they hadnt been trimmed in that long i'd say the neighbours would be entitled to set a  flame thrower on them!!

Dads gonna take some persuading to part with them. I might suicceed with lopping the tops of to make a hedge as a compromise, if that will appease the neighbour.

Its a really difficult one when you are dealing with upset neighbours and parents in their 70's and 80's who are stubborn as mules!!
Everyone has permission to shoot me if I get stubborn over something like that, or in fact if I turn into my parents in any way!!  :)

[grannyjanny]

Brown Owl have no fear we all turn into our parents ;D ;D ;D. Our eldest laughs about it but we are in our 60s she might not laugh as we get dottier ::).