We have some trees that grow close to our fence line. Unfortunately that means that occasionally they start to grow over the fence into our neighbour's yard. I'm just wondering what people think the neighbourly etiquette is in this case. We're not green thumbs by nature, so our garden is mostly left to it's own devices until we get a gardener in. I do the general weeding most of the time, but we rarely even notice if the trees have started growing over the fence. If our neighbour ever came to us and let us know they are going over, we would straight away call in our gardener to trim them back (and do the rest of the garden at the same time!).

But instead of coming to us, our neighbours take things into their own hands. This has happened twice now... Sometime between yesterday morning and late this morning, the neighbours have cut the branches right off that overhang into their own yard. Now I have no problem with that. In fact, if that was all they did then it would simply save us trouble. BUT, when they do it they throw all the branches over into our yard! Is this normal?! There's now two huge piles of branches along our back fence which I luckily noticed not long after DS went outside to play today. I know our backyard is generally safe for him, but two piles of sharp cut branches is NOT what I want him playing in. Also, one of the piles was thrown half onto my vegie patch and broke the little fence that I had around it. Granted, the fence was just made out of wooden stakes and string, but it was functioning fine to keep the dog out of it. Luckily it didn't damage any of the vegies that are almost ready to pick.

I'm just not sure whether I should go around and say something to them. I appreciate that it's our responsibility to keep the trees trimmed to stop them going over their fence, but a simple comment from them to let us know they want them trimmed is all it would have taken for us to get it done. Is it normal for neighbours to do this?