How difficult to take out these junipers? (Zone 7B, Birmingham, AL)
We had these junipers planted 10 years ago as the slope was too hard to mow (wrong kind: I had asked for Pacific blue). They have spread onto our neighbor's property, but they probably have appreciated them as well since they don't have to mow that area, either. However, the woman has found vines to be her solution to everything, and it's a nonstop battle keeping them from taking over our yard from front to back.
A landscaping company was going to remove the junipers and plant some shrubs there instead, but long story short, they didn't. And they didn't even clear out the vines as they had promised: they said they never go on a neighbor's property.
So how big of a job do you think it would be to have someone else come out, dig those up, and plant something else there? You can see the utility boxes in there.
My plan is that if we have small shrubs or perhaps dwarf tea olives planted (we have one in front of the house), she couldn't let her vines just take over because the vines would be more obviously out of place--and she does have a lawn crew come every week to mow and trim who could maintain them.
How much obligation to we have to her in doing this? I would of course tell her what the plan is, but do we need to replace sod where it would have stopped growing with all the vines and junipers? Being Bermuda, it will certainly come back in time.
In the photos below, all the new growth sticking out to the left and up in the air are from the vines on her masonry wall.
Those are Miss Huff lantanas around our junipers which the landscaping company told me will grow up high enough to cover the junipers and look very nice. I love Miss Huffs, but this just looks messy to me.
Comments (6)
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Wayne, I had one company here who said the least they would charge to take them out would be $1000 (he usually charges ($1500 minimum per landscape job). Then I called a tree service that asked me to have the area marked for utilities. The owner left a note in my mail box that this is not something he would want to take out--because utilities appear to run right underneath them. I don't know how you can tell what utility is what color, but it's mostly orange which I am guessing is cable.
I don't know what to do now. Don't want to spend $1000 but certainly want them out of here. Was just about to start a new thread when I saw your reply. What I want to know is: what's the worst that could happen? If we knock out cable, Charter has to come fix it, right? Just want to make sure there's no gas lines underneath.
EDIT: Wayne, I just added a bunch of photos to my "Junipers" idea book--are you able to view them? I think I know why they don't want to touch it: the marks are yellow and orange which is gas and cable. I called 811 to ask what we can possibly do with gas lines under there and the woman told me to call the gas co (Trussville Utilities) to see what they suggest.
Junipers · More Info
Junipers · More Info
There are a bunch more photos. It was sunny and I could barely tell what I taking photos of with the glare. Our house is the red brick above. This last photo is standing in the neighbor's yard. She doesn't care about our taking them out. - 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
Copying my reply from a different thread:
Hey all, we got it done last week. Took a LOT longer than we expected it to take, but it looks great--except for the neighbor who wouldn't let us take up the rest of her vines on her side. We would have planted sod for her to make it look better, but she was really stinky about the whole thing. (I learned that when a Southern woman starts out with "I don't want to be ugly..." she's going to be.)And there's NO WAY these could have been taken out with a truck and a rope as one suggested above. No landscaper/tree service wanted this job at all, and we did indeed encounter cable lines. It was the neighbor's vines all wound up among the junipers that made this so hard.
Before
During:Once we finally cut all the shrubbery out--and to show how our neighbor didn't want us to touch her side. Didn't intend to use those edgers but we just happened to have them--and just enough!--to show our neighbor our intention. She was sure we were going to leave it and let it erode into her lawn. Why would we want to do that, for Pete's sake? But there was just no talking to her.
We were joking with the nurseryman from whom we purchased our plants that, this being Halloween, it DID have a bit of a coffin shape, and we could plant flowers like companies and colleges do so her name would be displayed. Like purple pansies on a field of white ones. ;-)
AfterOnce we planted the Miss Lemon Abelia. We were going to add sod at the bottom but figure that next Spring the bermuda grass will fill in. And we are NOT letting her vines take over again.
Had to go with 1 gallon abelias because of cable lines and the stumps of the junipers. They should spread out well next Spring and Summer.
waynealabama