man.. you ought to move.. between the guy who drives over the conifers every morning.. and the one who pulls them all out.. when the trees havent even fully leafed out ...

crikey.. where do you live.. metro detroit.. lol ...

you note the difference between named varietals of arbs ... across the 'hood'

over my 5 acres.. and can show you damage on some, but not others.. of the same plant ... within feet of each other . .... microclimate rules ...

ken

ps: your neighbors are idiots... as far as conifers go.. find some better friends... though i am sure.. they have other defining qualities ... lol .. like maybe drinking and driving.. and shovel sharpening... or did he pull them out by chaining them to his truck??? .. these detroit auto peeps find all kinds of uses for their vehicles ... lol .. i never thought of shearing shrubs with one though.... i might have to rethink this... lol ..

pps: it was worth a few bad jokes ....

Hi ken_adrian. The guy that runs over my grey owl is a jerk. The guy that pulled out his arborvitae too early isn't a jerk but just didn't know better. None of my neighbors understand my "natural look". They're more the monoculture grass, lots of chemicals and weed killers, and dead trees types. Maybe a few yews or privets shaped into boxes and balls. A neighbor with the dead crabapple killed it with his lawn chemicals but he said it was a nuisance anyway cause he had to mow around it. He just leaves it there though, maybe as a sculpture .

Yes, I live in a suburb of Detroit. No crack houses but I'd like some more land. There are a few people who have lots of plants in our subdivision but we all have to deal with our neighbors calling the city anonymously to report that our shrubs are over 5' tall. Another neighbor has her landscapers prune her lilac into a round ball every fall and wonders why she only has flowers on the side that hangs over my yard. I told her to tell them to prune in the spring right after the blooms. I tell her every year because she's 85.

Neighbors reported me because my grey owl juniper extended into my driveway and scraped their cars when they turned around. The city let me keep it as is when they saw what a beautiful monster specimen it is. It doesn't even scratch, it's pretty soft.

*Sigh* neighbors can be a nuisance sometimes. I had a bed of wildflowers that they thought were weeds. They weren't. I named all the species for the city inspector and they said, "fine". I didn't have to change my yard at all but the neighbors call every year.

My white pine has branches and needles all the way down to the trunk. It extends over the road only at camper level though. Neighbors wanted it cut cause it scratched but I showed city inspector how soft it is and that it would have to be a camper or a UPS truck to touch it and she let it go. Another neighbor backs into it but not the trunk, just the branches.