JK Rowling is best known for creating the Harry Potter series, and she’s also been making the waves on social media with her incendiary and hilariously incisive tweets. In real life, JK Rowling has been riling up her Scottish neighbors with her landscaping.
The multi-millionaire author lives in a 17th century Edinburgh mansion, where she erected gigantic, 30-foot tall Leylandii trees to form a hedge around her property despite protestations from her neighbors, who previously objected to her construction of two 40ft-tall Hogwarts-style treehouses. Neighbors lodged complaints against them for being eye-sores and a blight on the surrounding area.
Leyland cypress trees are often used as privacy screens as they don’t take too long to grow tall. They have been described as a “nuisance” by the Royal Horticultural Society, and can grow unruly—and up to heights of 50ft—if left unattended.
A report by the Telegraph states that gardeners have been tending to the trees for the past three days, and erected a makeshift traffic light to divert traffic away from their work, causing “chaos” to the local traffic.
The traffic on roads surrounding her home has slowed to a crawl as the landscapers continue their work, prompting angry neighbors to speak to the press.
The hedges are obviously to stop people looking into her property,” said one. “It’s just taking ages for them to cut the bush back. The gardeners have been here three days and have finished the front of the garden.”
“It’s chaos around there. The lights are taking too long to change, especially on the side roads. There is long queues tailing back from the lights.”
Rowling earned the ire of some of her neighbors for demolishing a neighboring house, which she had purchased, to enlarge her yard.
Despite earning the ire of those living close to her, we doubt any of the recipients of her $160 million particularly mind about what she does with her landscape.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
