painful neighbours

[Ins62]

they moved in over 2.5 yrs ago. First parking problems, they think our drive is their space for their 2 cars which they can't park properly and their friends park there too! After a lot of police involvement, they then calmed down but still park unappropriately. They have 5 cats who litter in everyone's gardens, I had to redo my garden cost me a fortune and then had to put spikes on my fence to stop the cats coming into my garden which has worked wonders. They have 2 (lovely) girls - 8 and 10 and then had a little boy who is just turning 2. He is into throwing things, kids do these things, fine. I don't mind balls, toys etc, but he gets hold of his dads tools, brooms, stones and throw them over our fence.

I have by legal order my granddaughter living with me who is 3 yrs old. She loves the garden and 'missed' being hit with the flying stuff. I have been over and expressed my concern 3 times now. They seem to smile and say, 'yeah, yeah - we don't know where he gets the stuff from'.

Now they have gone and bought a absolutely massive, I mean massive trampoline which is way way higher than my fence! I don't mind seeing children playing (I love to see my granddaughter playing) but this is so big it completely distracts my view. (sure not much of a view there are houses but it still is so ugly).

I don't want to spoil it for their children, but what can I do?

anyone experienced this before?

thanks

smiles and thank you,

I design problem solve as a job, well a big part of it is solving problems,

I have in the past spent a lot of time dealing with trampoline related issues, from placing them into steep hillsides, building them into the ground, and concealing them for neighbours, for clients, creating access,I've even put them in ponds and pools.

If you have a massive farmers merchant something like mole valley which are a charity so cheap, they have a very large selection of cattle water troughs, and feeders, which do the job nicely, if you want "new", I use them as ponds, far superior to anything else available for ponds.

I've used IBC tanks with the tops cut off, then cedar clad the cages they come in very high end finish, but you could easily clad them in anything as long as the light cannot get through (you can get black ones, but as people like them for water, they usually go for £30/£40),

you can get them for £20 each, you don't need food grade ones if you are growing bamboo in them, you only need food grade for water storage, or growing food, they jet wash out well.

If you use IBC tanks, some people on ebay are selling them in pairs as two go on a pallet, but if you look someone very near you will be selling and delivering them locally, as they are used for everything, it use to be companies paid to get rid, now they get sold on.

It's also quite cool jumping on a trampoline surround by bamboo so children like it, as long as they have nets then it's never an issue, and you never have to buy canes again.

google IBC tanks for sale(name of area), and see if there is someone local to you, if not gumtree, ebay.

but keep them off the ground, enough so you cat can get under, that way nothing takes root where it shouldn't.

I also run a hose with holes in, through each tank near the surface under a mulch , with a hozelock connection at the end, so when they need watering, you connect the garden hose and leave it running, for a few minutes.

my garden is on a rainwater harvest irrigation,I haven't got time to water, I always put in a simple system for anyone when we add plants as part of a design, so that they do not have any added work load,

I have a way to split grass clumps, taught to me by ornamental grass growers about 25 years ago, before grasses took off. Bamboo is a grass, although I have not tried this on bamboo.

Use a short handled axe which has a flat top. You are going to slice a piece of (grass) pie out. Place axe blade on one side of pie piece. Hammer in with big rubber hammer. Do this again on other side of piece of pie. The root ball might be a foot thick. Now you can pry out your piece of grass pie.

Thanks Hansie, I will try that, I'm slightly over protective of my axes, might use one of DH as an experiment.

I use a log splitter and sledge hammer, the grasses are great for splitting.

Wish you lived near me Quote i would pay you a handsome fee to do it for me, (a self-confessed absolutely useless with anything remotely related to gardening person here).

Our back garden is average sized but the centre fence is shared with the back garden another house. Infact its a whole row of terraces and we can all see into each others gardens from the bedroom windows. I hate it, always feel eyes on me when im the garden the bamboo wouldnt be high enough but may give us som privacy?.

I recently split all of our bamboos, I do this every couple of years,

we put large clumps in tanks along the back fence of a garden, a friend had moved into, as she has an access path running along the wire fence to the houses behind, she is very overlooked, and felt odd in the small garden,

We also did three planters by her patio, she now uses it for meals, drinks. she also put some fruit trees in, a bay and a rosemary so in a few years she will have more cover.

she works with horses, so collected lots of well rotted, and had a load of spent mushroom compost delivered (very cheap around here)

Choose your tanks, get some breezeblocks (a pallet of blocks are cheap to get delivered from the builders merchant,if you have someone who is close who has an account, ask if they want to split the discount, blocks are a quarter of the price you pay to me), or if you use clad IBC tanks you can just put them straight onto slabs, as long as they are laid properly,

get soil (compost), ring bamboo suppliers, ask for advice on plants (clumping, hardy, check hight), garden hose, get a gardener/handyman/landscaper/local builder. in to put it all together for you.

I always put some large nice stones on the top of the soil, until the bamboos, and surface cover plants are established, to keep cats off.

Quote, I noticed you have mentioned clumping at least twice in your recommendations. I once made the mistake of getting a non clumping bamboo. Short, just what I wanted beside my pond. I figured the surrounding boulders would keep it contained. Wrong! It would go maybe a foot underground and pop up several feet away. I fought it for years, then we moved!

I fought it for years, then we moved!

You can poison it, but it takes a while,

I've always thought if you hated someone and you wanted some real revenge you would add bind weed chopped up, some normal bamboo and himalayan balsam seeds to their garden.

I wonder if the one of the pervious owners of this house annoyed someone,

We include invasive plant species on surveys, as it is as costly and time consuming to get rid of as rot, or many other concerns a client may have.

The bamboo thing is genius! I'm a landscape designer and I think it's brilliant! Also solves the problem about the child chucking stuff over, which is a far bigger problem than the trampoline IMO

I shall save the bamboo instructions in case I ever need them, brilliant!

But what PlainJaney said - if your fence is low enough for a 2yo to throw things over, it ain't high enough. You can have a fence that is 6ft6 from ground-level without planning permission.

Balaboosa and Bertha,

Balaboosta that means a lot, I always plant the bottoms of the bamboos, to fill the spaces until the bamboo fills out,

everything from strawberries, bulbs, fennel to ferns, then alpines to hang on in there when space becomes tight, experimenting really,

but if you have suggestions I would love to hear them.

I've also put a bird box or two on tall poles in the middle of tanks, they seem to love being surrounded by bamboo, cats can't get up it easily.

thanks everyone! many good ideas... I might look at putting up a higher fence as they are on a 'higher' ground than I am.....much appreciated!

The neighbours have moved their trampoline to the other side of the garden, I have my view back. How sweet! I didn't want to spoil it for their little lovely girls and this suits me fine.

Thanks everyone for your input. much appreciated!

yay they sold their trampoline!!! yay yay yay..... she is pregnant again!...