There are two strangers sat in my garden eating their dinner

[Scrowy]

I've told them it's private property and not part of the footpath that passes next to it. Apparently they will be on their way soon.

I've now chickened out of saying anything else but I'm passive aggressively watering the hanging baskets about 5m away from them and they are very deliberately not making eye contact with me.

a private land sign?

What or who is Scrowy?

Tell them they can only sit there is they order from you - and make it an exorbitant charge for a drink.
Seriously, tell them to shift, pronto, before you call the police.

@fussyhousewife

Put a fence around your garden - problem solved

She’s already got a dry stone wall.

It’s a rural farm in the Dales, not a suburban terrace.

Reminds me that when I was a kid we had a largish enclosed garden, with two gates. On Saturday/Sunday mornings one could sometimes see the trail of drunks opening one gate, crossing the garden and exiting by the second gate (a short cut cutting off, ooh, maybe 30m).

The 'trail' of course being occasional splatters of vomit, and sometimes an empty bottle.

Perphsps put up a ‘private property’ sign for the future. Or get a dog!

Your home, your rights, I’d tell them again!

Put a sign up making it clear it’s private property to avoid this in the future. Don’t display a homemade sign, get one made.

YABU for not replying "No, you're getting off my land right now. Pack up your stuff and go." Not much you can do since you let them stay

Why "passive" aggressive - tell em to bugger off or you're calling police!

Honestly half of mns problems would be solved if assertiveness training were part of the curriculum

Get em told!

Get a fence barbed wire and a sign up to deter future cheeky fuckers!

By that diagram they're a fair way and across obvious boundaries from the footpath!

No need, I have three bulls and more than enough slobbery filthy dogs already

Then I say

UNLEASH THE HOUNDS!!

Geese make perfect guardians!

@Flufftc

Seriously!! Give them a break….after the horrendous few years we have had does it really matter in the big world!!! Lucky you having a garden that incorporates a public footpath (presumably when you bought the property you knew this!)…so someone chooses to sit on a bench on the public footpath and eat their picnic and you are pissed they are facing your garden!! Haha!!! Good for them….(as long as they leave no footprint and take there rubbish) what are you actually moaning about? YABVU

Do you take the same stupid altruistic approach to everything? You have a nice car, so they can steal that, good clothes so they can steal those? I assume you leave your front door open in case they need a sleep or watch the football.

@Galdos

Reminds me that when I was a kid we had a largish enclosed garden, with two gates. On Saturday/Sunday mornings one could sometimes see the trail of drunks opening one gate, crossing the garden and exiting by the second gate (a short cut cutting off, ooh, maybe 30m).

The 'trail' of course being occasional splatters of vomit, and sometimes an empty bottle.

We had trouble with drunks taking a short cut over our back fence and through the garden. We cured them when we managed to get hold of a load of manure, smeared it over the fence and planted some evil shrubs along the fence.

Put up a sign saying not to come on the grass/private property

How is this still trending/going on?

OP started it at 12ish lunch time and the people concerned were gone before half past.

We had sign/hose/sprinker/fence/hedge suggestions right at the start. 31 hours later the same ones are still coming

No one seems to read threads these days and they just grind on like zombie things with the same thing being posted over and over and over again.

Free country and everything but it's weird.

we were in a local cotswold village a couple of summers back and walked down the road behind some Japanese tourists who stopped outside one house with a very tiny front garden, and set up a full on picnic on their front wall!
we looked about to see if we could see cameras! we were so sure it had to be a prank tv thing.
the wall was flat and deep. they sat two on the road side and 2 with their feet in the garden and got out plates and glasses etc!
bizarre!

This made me laugh (sorry!) purely because I can empathise. We're in a popular village in the Peak District. Yesterday, a woman walked up our drive and stood with her foot up on part of our garden wall, very casually, while she took a phone call. It's extremely obvious it's a house/garden, not part of the footpath. You have to walk through our gates and our cars are there, and all the children's outdoor toys, day bed, BBQ etc. Some people are mad!

Really! What a stupid comment! My garden doesn’t incorporate a public footpath….what’s your point?

Hopefully they are gone now. But for the future why don’t you clearly mark off where your garden begins and put a sign or to up?

These must be hardened walkers to be there in the first place. They are just taking the piss and out to annoy ppl. Lock every way into it, put up signs on the grass, remove the public footpath sign ;-)

We get this often

It doesn’t bother me tbh 🤷‍♀️

Time to get the hose out and water those plants

I cannot believe this thread is still going.

They left around midday YESTERDAY

This happens perhaps, 6 times a year, not worth signs or expensive fencing.

Usually if I see people I very politely go and say 'ever so sorry this is actually private property, but if you go back out through the gate there's a lovely spot with great views just over there etc etc' and they apologise, say thanks, chat about the weather and how many miles they have done that day and then leave.

I was just pondering the mindset of this particular couple who, having been told they were sat in my (admittedly scrowy ) garden looked me in the eye and told me they wouldn't be long.

We don't own it by the way, we are tenant farmers. Not that it should matter.

But OP, for the love of god, please just say yes - you've put up a sign, planted a hedge (or a prickly plant) and mounted a gun turret style hose pipe/sprinkler ready for next time.

Years' ago, I had a friend who lived in a famous old house in the centre of a small town. We were students so used to spend a lot of our day hanging around in her living room, watching daytime telly. Groups of schoolchildren would stand outside for hours drawing the house, tourists would take photos, and loads of them would cup their hands against the window, trying to see in.

There were net curtains, it was obviously a private house but they didn't care. The fact that it was a house that featured on postcards meant that the rules didn't apply.

Your garden @Scrowy is the same. The rules don't apply.

@Flufftc

Really! What a stupid comment! My garden doesn’t incorporate a public footpath….what’s your point?

And neither does the OP's. Did you actually read any of the OP's posts ?

There is the footpath.....then a STONE WALL, then CART TRACK ,then the OP's garden. The culprits had to ope a gate and cross a cattle grid