Hi Laburnum and welcome to GoY. If the branches are over your neighbour's garden they don't need your permission to prune them back to just their side of the fence line. Not sure how you would 'restrain' branches at that height, did you have something specific in mind?

Do you have a long lopper.....if so just nip it back level or a bit behind the fence?. We try to be proactive in such matters and keep our Hawthorn and Laburnum inside our boundary. Clipping a bit off a mature tree will not do it any harm. A decent relationship with the neighbour is better than bad feeling. Some may be worried about poisonous seeds too, if children are in the garden.

Although the modern varieties set little or no seed, the leaves and branches are also poisonous.

Mind you so are a lot of plants in our garden - want to kill someone off, use a daffodil bulb instead of an onion!

You have obviously given this some thought, MG. Is there anything you want to confess......?

Not a thing Gattina... Bulba is still alive and well. Back to the actual question I regularly prune branches of a Cotoneaster that sprawls over our side of the boundary as it is on our south side and creates more shade than we need. Not sure Ann & Stuart even notice!

Hello! As all above say, your neighbours can snip back anything overhanging their garden without permission, but as they asked, and you suggested restraining, the only thing I can think of is roping and tying back to the main trunk so that all over-hanging branches come back to your side, at least temporarily as this will be an on going problem, especially as the tree branches get thicker and higher. The simple solution is to trim it back to your fence/border with clean sharp cuts, ie no ragged sawing off! Laburnum don't 'bleed' like birch at this time of year, so should be okay. Give it a good water after pruning.

i would do it yourself as the neighbers wont be thinking of how nice there cuts are or arnt is all . as it goes avkq47 you mite havesomething there . my bonzei friend bends his trees and if done for long enough they hold the shape . i dont know how realistic it would be to have a large plant/tree bent into your own garden for a few years would be thow realy . id cut the branches back to wear it joins the next bigger branch your side of the garden as apposed to cutting it level with the fence . it will look more natural hopefully .