Andy and Judy have bought a large cottage as a retirement home in a village in rural Derbyshire. There is a stream flowing through their garden which goes through a number of gardens in the village. Andy is cutting the lawn and trimming the hedges one day and lot of the waste falls into the stream making a dam. Andy assumes there isn't a problem because all this seems to do is lessen the flow of the water.

The loss of stream flow is felt in their neighbour's Douglas and Claire's garden, where the stream becomes visibly thinner. Coincidentally, some of the flower beds start dying. Claire suspects that Judy and Andy are responsible and writes Judy a letter saying, 'can you stop destroying my pleasant garden with whatever you are doing.' Judy writes back saying that the problems in the stream are nothing to do with their flowers dying. Claire pays for a horticulturist to come and inspect the garden. They establish that the cause of the dead flowerbeds are the rare Javanese shrubs growing in Judy and Andy's garden, whose long roots are killing Claire and Douglas' flowers. Judy complains that the shrubs were planted by the previous owner.

Douglas has gotten planning permission for a smokehouse where he plans to make smoked meat for sale online. The smokehouse is built over the part of the stream that goes through their garden but it is built when the stream is at its lowest. The smell of the smoked meat goes directly into Judy and Andy's garden. Judy is furious, saying that this is being done as an act of revenge for the flower beds and that this is a quiet residential village. Douglas responds that the meat he is smoking is produced by local farms and that in any event the local council gave him planning permission for the smokehouse.Andy finally gets around to clearing out the blockage from the stream in their garden. This causes the stream's rate of flow to increase suddenly. This seeps into Douglas' smoke house damaging some of his smoked meats.

Advise Judy and Andy.