Wow! What a drag, Sandra. Rather than smaller trees, you should have planted the fast growing columnar poplars along your fenceline. These grow really fast and quite tall 30–40 feet.

We actually planted a large type of maple tree in the back adjacent to our back yard fences. It is small now (20 feet) but grows 2–3 feet per year and soon, will be providing some of the lost shade for us, and less sun for his frickin’ veg garden.

One of the two new smaller trees that we planted in the front garden, will impact his sun in the front.

He is so stupid and clued out and is always trying to do stuff which contravenes the local bylaws. He has learned that I am well versed in both the local bylaws and in his culture and can be very passive aggressive.

As far as I understand and in my experience all Dogwoods — flowering and regular - prefer a moister environment and do better where they can easily access moisture.

Ha ha — the wild asters are just naturally really tall. Left uncontrolled, they can be very invasive. I usually cull most of the seedlings in the spring, so that I have three or four large lumps only.