A Chainsaw Massacre

These plants used to create a screen between
our yards that was roughly three feet deep.

A couple of weekends ago I heard the persistent sound of a chainsaw. I decided to investigate.

Although I have a "not great" view of some of my neighbors' yards, the neighbors next door on the side where my kitchen is have a bunch of plants along our fence line. The plants had become rather overgrown and I guess that particular weekend they decided to have someone come thin out the mini-forest.

Now, I've wished in the past that they would do a little more maintenance along the fence line, but this is not what I expected.

The new view into my neighbors yard.

You can get an idea of what it used to look like in the picture to the right. To be honest I'm undecided on the change. I'm definitely not a fan of the new view, but the brush needed to be cleaned out. There was all sorts of trash and even an old football hiding in there (visible to my side of the fence) and several of the plants were dead. The live plants were starting to grow through the fence which I was afraid would damage the chain link.

I'm sure like every other bush in the yard that these will soon be thriving and will once again provide more of a screen. But maybe I'll actually be able to get some grass to grow in that corner of the yard now that there is some sun. I might even attempt to seed the area this fall.

Has anyone else been surprised by some changes that your neighbors suddenly make? Anyone love/hate the view of their neighbors yards?