Better start raking your neighbor's leaves too...
Wow, the guy is stupid. "If you aren't going to rake up the leaves that have fallen, then get up in the tree and remove them BEFORE they fall. Or cut down the nuisance tree and replace it with an evergreen."
Keep in mind that the caller is talking about "nuisance" trees like a Japanese Maple. I bet this same guy loves looking at the different leave colors every fall up until they "puke" (his words) all over his yard.
Besides, I thought that all Canadians LOVED Maple trees... Or at least their leaves.
OK. I do understand his point. If you have no leaves in your yard, then why should you have to rake up the leaves from your neighbor's tree. But wow. I wonder what he thinks when his neighbor's grass clippings drift into his yard. I think that he is one of "those" neighbors.
My neighbor has a row of these tall evergreen trees (not pine trees, but the ones that are like 30 foot tall "bushes" right along their fence between our yards. Now, I WAS ducking under the branches to mow my grass for the past 2 years that we lived here. I am 6'1" tall and these branches were coming over the top of the approximate 4' tall fence. It was uncomfortable to say the least. So did I go and complain to the city, or leave a nasty note on the neighbor's door? Heck no. We all have to live together. So I waited until they were outside walking their dog and just started talking to them. Near the end, I mentioned if they were OK with me trimming the tree branches on my side of the fence. They had no problem with it at all and apologized for the inconvenience. They even offered to have someone come out and do it (they are an older couple). I told them that it was not a problem.
So I spend about an hour trimming and then a little more time cleaning up the branches and disposing of them. Was this *my* responsibility? No, but I wasn't going to be a jerk to my neighbor about it. Now, I am set for a couple of years until I need to trim them again, but they won't be allowed to get as bad as they were, so it will be easier to handle next time.
I understand that the guy's point is a little different because it can take some time to rake leaves each year, but he seems obsessed with a particular neighbor's Japanese Maple that typically grows to about 25 feet when fully grown and is considered a "small tree." We have a variety of trees in our yard, as do our neighbors. One of my trees DUMPS a lot of leaves, but it is a lot bigger than the others. With our fences and such, my leaves stay pretty much contained in my yard, but I am sure that some of my leaves make it over the fences and vice versa. Maybe I should go hunt down my leaves, and save the neighbor's leaves for them to clean up?