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.

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

Getting someone wet classes as assault??

Can do. I don't make the Law.. unfortunately

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

I would suggest geese

Not really fair on the bulls

[BlueBoob]

@Bluntness100

Are either of them an elderly Korean lady?

I loved EKL.

[MrsMackesy]

Not peacocks.

[BlueBoob]

I'd set up a sprinkler system that I can activate by indoors.

[VaizyCrazyDaizy]

Go to the garden centre after they have left and buy up all the prickliest shrubs you can find and plant along your boundary. Can you get some really smelly mulch place along there or some horse manure?!

[Bitofachinwag]

Nice diagram

[Tobermorie]

Many people don’t understand footpath laws. My friend owns a rural house with a field outside that has a public right of way across it. It’s amazing how many people think it’s ok to play with their dogs in the field! She goes out and shouts at them that they don’t have right of way on the field, only on the footpath. She’s even put up signs saying “Private land, please stick to the footpath” but that didn’t work. So in the end she put up a sign saying “This land is treated with chemicals that are hazardous to health, for safety please stick to the footpath”. That stopped 99% of the CFs.

[Auntienumber8]

Excellent diagram, my only disappointment is you have misspelt walkers I’m sure you meant wankers :)

[Watermelon221]

I can understand if they thought it was part of their walk but don’t understand why they didn’t apologise and live straight away when told! Most people would say sorry and move surely? Why on earth would they just stay there!!

[Watermelon221]

#move

[Moonwhite]

I wouldn't bother asking myself why anymore, just get a "private property" sign put up.

[Wallywobbles]

My dad had a sign

Trespassers will be shot, survivors will be prosecuted.

Might that help?

[custardbear]

@Wallywobbles

My dad had a sign

Trespassers will be shot, survivors will be prosecuted.

Might that help?

It's the way forwards here I think 😆

Or beware of the bull signs

[Thisisus909]

@Scrowy

They have gone now. Just got up and carried on with their walk.

I don't know, I think it's obvious it's private property... unless you believe that all grass adjacent to a footpath is fair game?

to get here they must have walked across at least a couple of miles of open fell. They have then come off the main walking route, through the farm gate and cattle grid with a 'private, no vehicle access' sign on it (but also a public footpath arrow pointing past the house). Right outside the house at the front there is a steep grassy banking with a low wall at the bottom of it with some flowers growing in it, and a veg patch and gates into fields at the top where it flattens out.

They were sat on the steep bank bit.

To give people the benefit of the doubt it’s not always super clear around footpaths. Most gardens with footpaths have fenced the footpath off so you don’t come across this that often. Would a sign saying this is a private garden, please keep to the footpath be possible? Obviously CF will ignore it but I reckon most people are just confused since it’s happened more than once.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

If people always sit in the same place, a sign in that area saying ‘private property’ should be enough

I was also going to say write 'noxious chemical testing site' or 'sewage treatment zone', but a PP beat me to it!

This thread has disappointed me slightly: when I saw the title, I assumed the 'strangers' were going to be baby chicks or field mice or something and was hoping to see some really adorable wildlife photos!

[Classicbrunette]

You need a sign saying ‘Private property’

[SallyCinnabon]

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.

Apparently they will be on their way soon… what?! That’s so rude and entitled. I’d understand that someone could genuinely make a mistake but most people would apologise profusely and move on. The entitlement would make me rage. I’m so petty I’d stand over them until they left 😬😆

[Clymene]

Have a look at the OP's diagram @Thisisus909. There's a wall between the OP's garden and the footpath!

[SpongeBobJudgeyPants]

Have you cancelled the cheque yet @Scrowy. Also, I feel I need to know. Are you in fact Cumbrian, or northern. Wherever you live now?! :)

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Back in the mid 80s my mum took 6 year old me on a walk. We came across a beautiful little cafe, so sat down. A lady came out of the house and my mum ordered a coffee and a glass of squash for me.

It was only when she tried to pay that the lady explained we'd just randomly plonked ourselves down in her garden and she wasn't any kind of cafe. My mum was MORTIFIED, the lady thought it was hilarious and since she had coffee and squash she decided to go along with the request.

Did she charge your Mum?!

I've encountered a few similar scenarios in my time - places where they did put up signs inviting custom, but they were very much private houses and not actual business premises. I think some people who live in large countryside houses maybe like a bit of company, possibly have a little surplus food, want/need to make a few quid or whatever; and have a ready-made sign that they stick outside when they're in the mood and just take it back in when they don't want any visitors. I suppose it's just an extension of putting out a table of eggs or produce with an honesty box at the end of your lane when you have things to sell and then taking the table away when you don't.

It can be slightly awkward, but it's mainly a win-win situation. I don't see why the gig economy only has to be based on the worker going out to the client rather than the other way around.

That said, your Mum must have been very perceptive indeed, as she didn't even need to see a sign to identify a kindly, willing host

[dapsnotplimsolls]

Just posting to praise the diagram, excellent job! Also, are they still there?

[Classicbrunette]

I have a property that has a similar arrangement and t wasn’t clear that the land is owned by someone. I had people park on it and have picnics on it. Now I have fenced it off more and put a notice up saying ‘private property belonging to (the name of the house)’ I’ve not had any one as yet.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Did she charge your Mum?!

Sorry, I've just re-read mo0re carefully and I see that she didn't want to take any money!

Reminds me of that episode of Peter Rabbit, where the mother duck accepts the rabbits' invitation to join them in taking all the produce that she wants from the farm, but she then goes to pay the farmer afterwards at what she assumes is a 'pick your own' farm shop - she has no idea that the rabbits are pests who steal what they want and scarper before the farmer can shoot them

[RustyBear]

You need a sign like this. Taraxacum is the common dandelion, and the radiation they will be exposed to is the sun, but they won't know that...