To want to go in my garden without my neighbours being intrusive

You can have the headphones on but nothing playing.

Gear up. Put on a yellow paper suit, don your gloves and eye and ear protection, maybe a mask if it will be dusty, wave at them and rev that chain saw or whatever.

Point at your throat and croak.

Tell them you're having quiet time.

This

Just be honest and say sorry I need some processing quiet time but have a nice day.

Job done

Sorry to say it but we recently had our roof replaced & the older male neighbours loved it: workmen to watch in action, things to judge, etc

They complain about your washing?? that will be the peek a boo bras and crotchless knickers. How disgusting hanging that out in view! But by all means hang out the bondage gear, leather 😁masks get quite sweaty so I'm told

I think you are being a bit unreasonable in that you keep saying you can't do any of the suggestions but you wont just say something to them. There are quite a lot of polite suggestions here. How about "sorry, if you don't mind we can't talk now, we are having a private discussion". Once you break it once it might get easier. Or even simpler. "Sorry, can't talk now, You don't mind, do you?". Or "Hello! Can't talk now. Speak later." Or even. "Hi there, I'm just out for a relax after a long day at work, you won't mind if I don't speak right now." Or "I'm just doing a spot of gardening to relax after a hard day you'll understand if I dont' talk".

I get that it's a bit awkward. But there are a tonload of ways of saying you want peace without being rude and without being unfriendly. The advantage of just saying it is that you don't have to endlessly pretend to be looking the other way, or having headphones on or pretending to read a book. You're making it clear that you are not NOT talking to them if there's a problem or whatever, but you don't want to routinely talk to them. It's a good idea not to get too screwed up about the neighbours and to keep lines of communication open, but you should be able to just say this without it being unfriendly and without having to wait 5 years for a hedge to grow!

🤣🤣
sounds similar to my neighbours
Everytime we go out in the garden, they go upstairs and look out the bedroom windows, they either open the curtains, open the window and then later they go and close them again 🤣
whe my husband is out there working you can guarantee they’ll be there watching so I stand by waiting for them and shout hello, and start waving 🤣 they’re not up there for long now, and they complain when I hang my washing out, so on rainy days my husband hangs out his dirty work rags just to piss them off 🤣🤣

“Neighbour, to us, the back garden is a private space and when I am out here I don’t want to talk to you or anyone else. So please stop approaching us when we are out here. It’s not personal. So please stop otherwise I will have to start logging it as harassment.”

I really feel for you. I had this in my first house I lived in for 10 years. I don’t know how I managed it, and it was only when we moved house, and I walked into my new back garden and felt relief flooding over me, I realised how anxious and stressed it had made me.

Our walls were thin and no matter how quietly I tried to sneak out, they’d hear us. Felt like I was living with them! They were a really weird couple, never once saw them have a visitor or go anywhere and all they wanted to do was moan!

It doesn't help OP but this is why they say good fences make good neighbours!

Our neighbours are sulking because of the last storm we've had to replace seven panels. They're not the ones they wanted and they won't look as nice from their side. Bearing in mind the old fencing had been hanging on by a thread for a few years because they liked the awful bloody ivy crawling all over it.

So my advice get them to sulk about something.

You need some of that expandable trellis with fake greenery on it for some privacy cheaper than digging up cement

My neighbours are lovely, but older now (I'm getting there myself at this stage too!), and have all the time in the world to natter on about nothing. It would be charming and the opposite of many horrible neighbour stories we read about IF I had the time to stop and chat for up to half an hour at a time! And it's always as I'm unloading the shopping and worried that the frozen stuff will defrost lol.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I recently got hearing aids, so now when they start their witterings I point to them and say "I'm deaf and trying out these hearing aids, sorry can't hear you" then with a quick wave run in to the house. It kinda works unless they are up close and personal 😊....

OP I'd get some sort of screening up. The cost is commensurate with your peace of mind. Do it soon.

Mine use to do this she's dead now so not a problem but I use to pretend to be on the phone, put massive over the top headphones on and then eventually a higher fence. I did feel a bit bad because she was clearly lonely but it was everytime I stepped outside.

Any way I'll let you get on, as I have a lot do preferably in peace, bye

Always works for me

Our previous neighbours were like this, a lovely couple but every time we went in the garden they appeared. I wouldn't have minded if it was just "Hello how are you? Fine thanks, you? Good." but we would get everything their grandchildren had said and done for the last 6 months, while we stood with rictus grins, nodding. We always had to pretend our dinner was ready/phone ringing etc. to get away. Our new neighbours are pleasant but thank goodness it's just a hello and smile from them.
I really don't know what the answer is without being rude.

Say, ‘I was hoping to get a bit of peace.’ I genuinely would wander straight back in my house without conversing if I had a neighbour who would walk out to interrogate me every time I went in my garden. I spent my entire 20s, 30s and 40s being polite to irritating people at my own cost and I no longer tiptoe round them!

Sorry to say it but we recently had our roof replaced & the older male neighbours loved it: workmen to watch in action, things to judge, etc. They're fantastic neighbours, though, so it was fine.

I would never go round to theirs for a cuppa as they’ll feel entitled to come to yours. I would have very short conversations; you’ll probably find you get no peace until you’ve offended them.