Marie Staunton

second-hand homes or new homes first of all you'll be introduced the neighbor and then the neighbor will probably say to you i hope you're not going to put up loads of trees or loads of you know um leyland cypress or that sort of thing and it's a good idea to have a mix of kind of hedging if that's what you're going to to put up don't put up a block of something you know put up a mixture of hedging and native hedging and that will help a the environment and b to be on very good terms with your neighbors because they're a lot easier to control

Blocking light is a huge problem in housing estates now.

It can shadow out a garden really quickly.

And there are a lot of trees that drop their leaves.

I remember I got a phone call from somebody living in an estate near us and she said, you know, what's with all the trees losing their leaves?

And I said, well, some trees lose their leaves because they're not evergreen.

You know, that's what they do per year.

and then they get new leaves in the spring.

And she was appalled, actually, that this would happen and all the leaves are coming into the garden.

So I just thought, yeah, I mean, nature is nature.

You decide what you want to put in your garden, but you also have to be mindful of next door and, you know, that you're not creating, I suppose, a garden that all the leaves are going to blow into their garden.

Because I've seen it in the States where you plant a tree

The leaves divest themselves because you're maybe on a hill, the wind blows the leaves of your tree down further.

So you're not getting them in your garden when they come off, they're down in the neighbours.

So you have to be very mindful and careful when you are putting plants into your own garden and just be, you know, be honest with doing your research.

And don't rely particularly on people saying, oh no, that's a grand one there.

You know, just look it up.

That's the big thing, you know.

Exactly.

And that's the bigger thing.