.....to think my neighbour is unreasonable????

And when I said I like ivy and bind weed, I mean to look at! They really are a nightmare though.

To be honest, yes, I am a bit lazy. Coupled with having a really awkward garden to tend. But, I make sure that dandelions get strimmed (ground too rough even for a mower!) before the seeds fly off everywhere. And those yews were far from being monsters, they take aeons to grow, which is what upset me the most.

I'd much rather sit down in the garden with a g&t than obsessively trim my edges! We keep on top of it and we both agree that our 'wild' garden is far more interesting than the neighbours manicured lawn and bedding plants. Dd loves all the butterflies and bees that abound in our garden.

Having said all that, it would be nice to get Diarmud Gavin in!

The ivy can be her present.

If the neighbour has offered to do it, it must be bothering her quite a bit. At least let her do the ivy.

But is it possible Songbird, that you and Maisym are just a bit well, lazy, in the garden department and your neighbours know that soon the whole place will be over run with weeds and yew tree monsters if they don't take action?

ahundredtimes - it's not kind, it's interfering! It sounds harsh but our neighbour does this. Once, we came home to find out garden completely strimmed, turned out he did it, saying he need to test a strimmer he'd just fixed for someone . Another time, a different neighbour came round saying had I noticed what he had done to our yew trees, did we ask him to do it. When I went up the back (garden is terraced into a really steep hill at the back of the house) he'd chopped down two (admittedly small, but still) yew trees adjoining his garden, saying my dh had asked him to prune them. Prune them? They will never grow back!!!! Plus, of course, dh knew nothing about it! Few days later, a brand new shed is erected right up close to our boundary! Hmm, very helpful! When we first moved in 5 years ago we thought 'what a useful bloke to have about the place', now we won't give him an inch - he needs to know his boundaries .

If I was maisym, I'd ask the neighbour's helper to do it (she probably send them anyway!), and explain exactly what to remove and what to leave.

ooh, iklboo, great minds and all that!

Oxford concise say a weed is 'a wild plant growing where it is not wanted'. So one woman's weed is another woman's pretty flower!

Our extremely annoying neighbour is always going on about our garden. We actually sowed wildflowers in part of it, both of us loving wildflowers, and pretty much leave it to look after itself. My neighbour is a right finickity old bugger, is retired and has an immaculate garden, and is also very jealous that our garden is about 4 times bigger than his (ha!). He saw me hand-trimming my bush (mwah ha) the other day and offered to do it with his electric thingy, then laughed at me when I said I don't like things in straight lines. He then sat there on his front step making useful comments while it took me about 45mins to lop off the bits I wanted lopping (whilst also gabbing with my other neighbour!). I do it like that because I want to, I like taking my time over it and I like it to still look like a natural things, not a box! Also, I wouldn't have been able to gab over the noisy electric thingy!

Referring to the OP, the neighbour must also be really finickity, and should probably largely be ignored. But it might be worth investigating the ivy thing if it really is growing up her fence. Needless to say, I love ivy! And bindweed .

A weed is only a flower that nobody loves

maisym, we're beginning to think you're neighbour's got a point. AND she offered to do it herself? Very kind. Tell her exactly what she's allowed to do. Shout directions at her, lie about in a hammock with a cool lemonade and say 'Oh no I love dandelions. Those can stay.' Will be great fun.

I really can understand her not wanting the ivy destroying her fence it's evil stuff and it's hard to get of the roots for it to be gone forever.

Okay, so wear gloves. Hmmm, your neighbour's very keen to get your garden in shape isn't she? You can't LOVE bind weed, that makes no sense. Your neighbour thinks you're going to infect her garden some how doesn't she?
Enjoy your party. Am going to think about this.

Not sure about that logic

They also 'managed' without carseats

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No me neither Crokky. But do people really not pull up weeds because they think they'll get toxo from cats? Wear gloves, go wash your hands afterwards. Is feeble excuse I think.

ahundredtimes - the OP said she was not immune to toxoplasmosis so I am just respecting what she said about not being able to do it.

Also, all pregnancies are different - some pg women are very ill because of it. But some feel fabulous. I don't know about the OP.

You can still do weeding when you're pregnant fgs. She's not an invalid.

Maisym - I think she is unreasonable in asking you to do it primarily because you are pg and the toxo problem.

If it is really upsetting her that much and she is a keen gardener then she should have come round, let you know that it was upsetting her and offered to do it HERSELF! That would have solved everyone's problem.

LOL. I'm just interested. Was a good job, mind you, when her boiler was playing up in the winter and DH turned the gas off and called BG.

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Thing is mummydoit, these are wise words but we're a bit unclear about maisym's garden and the ivy business too. I reckon she's gone off now to do the weeding.