Neighbour etiquette...

[wysiwyg]

I would speak to them, and let them know you are happy to trim them if they let you know or if they want to do it can they let you know or agree somewhere where more convenient for them to leave the branches. Without speaking to them they have no way to know that they are not doing you a favor, and you have no way of knowing whether they are annoyed or not about having to do it. Personally I think so many misunderstandings in life these days are caused by people not communicating because they are concerned about what people might be thinking, much better to know what they are actually thinking and I think people are in general more reasonable than many people expect (also when they are unreasonable at least you can be justified in seeing them as unreasonable :-)).

[briggsy's girl]

I would speak to them, and let them know you are happy to trim them if they let you know or if they want to do it can they let you know or agree somewhere where more convenient for them to leave the branches. Without speaking to them they have no way to know that they are not doing you a favor, and you have no way of knowing whether they are annoyed or not about having to do it. Personally I think so many misunderstandings in life these days are caused by people not communicating because they are concerned about what people might be thinking, much better to know what they are actually thinking and I think people are in general more reasonable than many people expect (also when they are unreasonable at least you can be justified in seeing them as unreasonable :-)).

this is what i'd be doing

as has been mentioned, they are legally allowed to (and there are a few people that would turn around and have a go about theft if they weren't returned their branches) - we used to just get rid of overhanging branches until our neighbour turned narky and tried to forbid us trimming any of her tree hanging over the fence. she was asked three times to clean it up, then we did it (was hanging on our garage and preventing us opening the door properly) and put it back over the fence. we did make sure it didn't land on anything important. we would have continued getting rid of it (we had our own garden waste so no drama) but she became a cow lol

have a quick chat - let them know you weren't aware it was hanging over so badly, and next time, could they drop you a note if it's becoming a problem so that you can arrange the gardener to come in and clean it up, and get rid of the mess all at the same time rather than them having to do it. mention you're a bit worried about the kids safety as your primary reason if you need to

[~ Mylitta ~]

You girls are probably right that both parties are possibly misunderstanding each other. It's certainly possible that they think they are helping us. At the end of the day it actually is helpful, but I just want to know when they are going to do it. I would never expect them to dispose of the branches because I know the trees are our responsibility. Our side neighbor is a perfect example though, because a few days ago he let us know that a tree on his fence was starting to grow over. So we were already getting the gardener out shortly lol.

I think I'll just pop around to our back neighbors and let them know that if they let us know when they are overhanging we'll take care of them. Or if they prefer to do it themselves to just let us know so I can remove the debris before DS goes out to play.

This is the first time I've had a real garden and while it's very pretty it can certainly be hard work lol