idk about the shrub.. but the laundry basket folding clothes was hilarious ... no wonder you decided to go walk around the yard ... lol ...

welcome to the forums ...

ken

to be honest.. i thought the same ... even to the point of walking out and comparing to mine ... but the leaves are so much smaller.. probably due to the shade issue ...

i even noted the usual powdery mildew on the leaves ... which again ... would possibly increased with too much shade ...

for sure it has the common form of L ... but its so sparse.. for the same reason ...

i bet it was planted in sun.. when the surrounding trees were smaller.. and as those grew larger.. they shaded it out ...

ken

That would explain a lot if it was a lilac! The garden seems to have been mostly planted by the owner before the person we bought it from. It was insanely overgrown when we got it - knotweed, buckthorn, etc. It's surrounded by taller trees even now. What do you think my chances are of transplanting it someplace sunnier?

It looks like a Serviceberry to me.

Serviceberry doesn't have opposite foliage.

It would make me terribly happy if it was a serviceberry, but aren't they supposed to have at least nice autumn color?

Colour aside, if, as appears, the foliage is opposite it can't be Serviceberry.

So far in these shots it's definitely of the lilac or privet persuasion, with lilac seeming most likely. A funny thing is that as far as I can see it shows no sign of having produced either the lingering, woody seed capsules of a lilac or the berries of a privet.

It's very likely a Ligustrum ovalifolium (privet) or one of the other Ligustrums. I've got a hedge of it in my back yard I've trimmed for years. It may not look like it with the long branches of yours, but when you cut it, it grows back with very dense branching, but I'm constantly fighting its tendency to send out long shoots. It likes full sun - areas in shade will not grow well and often don't even bloom.

It definitely doesn't look like a Lilac.

Update: It was a lilac! It flowered this spring, although in a very spindly way. I should have known, the person who planted the garden was mad about lilacs. We have six or seven of them. It's just that this one was so thin and sparse compared to the others that it didn't look much alike.

What colour were the flowers? If they were white has it now produced berries or seed pods shaped like tiny green bananas?

Floral_uk, they were purple-lavender and lilac-like in cluster. The bush has not produced any berries or seeds since (that I know of). But I'm very curious, what tree would produce tiny green banana seed pods?

Lilacs produce those seed pods. They eventually turn brown/black then crack open. The colour confirms Lilac rather than Privet. I just wondered when you said the flowers were spindly. Privet flowers could be described as like spindly lilac. But they’re never lavender. The two are closely related.