JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
Messages
1,216
Reactions
881
Moved in this neighborhood about 2 months ago and noticed that both my neighbors trees make a lot of mess. My question is can I just take a blower and blow the leaves onto the street? Also one of them has landscapers that come and cut their grass and blow the leaves away from their house that ends up in front of my house.

Any solutions without confronting the neighbors?
 
I have to say, there are so many trees around here, I don't worry much about whose trees are dumping stuff all over my yard, rooftop and cars. I think my own trees are balancing things out nicely.

I only hate it cause it's pine needles. It clogs my gutters and it can cause damage to my vechicles not to mention its a fire hazard.
 
Fire hazard? Really? Never heard of a pine needle caused house fire

if the neighbor's landscapers are blowing his crap into your yard,blow it back to his.

Now if the trees are "encroaching" your property,(hanging over the property line to your property) you can cut the branches off at the property line
Kinda like the power companies do.
 
Pine sap makes incredibly quick igniting firestarters. I usually have a few good resin balls saved up for when we go camping. Once saw a 4th of July accident where a 20m pine tree went up like a Roman candle in about 30 seconds. I'll also never live in a house with pine trees butted up against it for that very reason.
 
you should definitely not have pine branches over your roof... they not only clog your gutters, but collect on the roof and create dams that can cause leaks and prematurely age that spot on the roof.
 
Trees create debris, no doubt about it.

Let's keep some perspective here, though. Everybody raise their hands who lives in the Portland metro area who has had their house burn down from spontaneously combusting pine needles...





The very first thing you should do is go talk to your neighbor. He may not know that his landscaping service is blowing debris into the street or adjacent yards. he may be under the impression that he is paying to have debris collected and disposed of. If the trees have branches and limbs that extend over the property line, he may be agreeable to having the limbs removed. (You may be creating a bigger mess by removing the limbs. The limbs need to be cut to, but not into the branch collar. Incorrect pruning will certainly take longer to heal, and may leave a pitchy mess that never heals). Blowing the needles back into the street will get them off your property, but may clog storm drains and cause a big mess when it rains.
 
If the trees have branches and limbs that extend over the property line, he may be agreeable to having the limbs removed. (You may be creating a bigger mess by removing the limbs. The limbs need to be cut to, but not into the branch collar. Incorrect pruning will certainly take longer to heal, and may leave a pitchy mess that never heals).


Not only can it create a bigger mess if done improperly, it can open you up to a lawsuit if it can be shown that the pruning was done improperly and caused a portion or all of the tree to fail and damage property or cause injuries. Depending on the size and species of the tree, the size of the branches pruned and the local conditions it can take years for a pruned tree to fail, in some cases up to 20. In most areas you may certainly cut or prune any of the branches from your neighbor's tree that infringe upon your property, but you owe it to yourself to do it correctly if you choose to do it at all. Consult a Certified Arborist if you feel that you need to have your neighbor's tree pruned. Or, you can just have it done by anyone with a saw and hope for the best, there are very few home owners who know much about how tree damage and liability work together and most people just chalk it up to an act of God. I worked for an institution that had a very large tree fail (just before my employment at said institution) and crush a parked vehicle flat. Certified Arborists on staff had warned the management of the high likelyhood of imminent tree failure and had petitioned to have the tree removed before failure as there was a large risk of injury or damage to many target zones (pedestrians, vehicles, buildings). In the end it was ruled an "act of God".

But first, talk to your neighbor about your concerns.
 
Last winter during one of the big wind storms a branch fell out of my tree and hit my neighbors car port. He came over and asked that I have the trees pruned to prevent further damage and he noted two large branches he was concerned about. Wanting to be a good neighbor I did it. Paid $1500 to have the trees worked on and showed the arborist the branches my neighbor was concerned about.

They came and did the work but left those branches. I asked about it and the arborist said they thinned them but you wanted to leave them in place because they will break the fall of branches that are further up the tree.

Yesterday I'm in the backyard and my wife says the neighbor has a ladder up there and he's cutting on our tree. I go over there and sure enough he's cutting out the big branches. I explained to him why they had been left and he says 'oh, nobody explained it to me'.

I swear on a stack that I did tell his wife but regardless clearly I had pro's out there so they must have been left for a reason and clearly I had been responsive so why not come knock on the door and ask about the big branches?

Ugh.
 
None of the branches hang over to my roof, but it does hang over to my property. I guess the wind just blows the needles over to my place. But like what I said in my op can I just take my blower and just blow the leaves onto the road instead of raking it up?
 
None of the branches hang over to my roof, but it does hang over to my property. I guess the wind just blows the needles over to my place. But like what I said in my op can I just take my blower and just blow the leaves onto the road instead of raking it up?

i'd think you can only do that if your area provides leaf sweep service, and only during the season that they offer the service. i could be totally wrong... i'd suggest calling the city.
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top