To expect my neighbours to use their mirrors when reversing, thereby avoiding my flowerbed...

[redclover79]

Grrrrr.... We spent last summer digging a new bed in our front garden and have since been adding shrubs and stuff. Before xmas we mulched it and subsequently discovered our neighbours were frequently cutting the corner off and driving over our recently installed lavender hedge. Now their driveway IS narrow so I've planted to allow them to misjudge without too much aggrevation. Anyway, they have been repeatedly driving across so we bought a rock just after xmas and put it at the corner, again allowing them enough room to misjudge. They've still kept on hitting it, and at some force (big gouge marks where the rock has been moved by cars). But today I went out to find that not only had they misjudged again, they've actually cut practically through the middle of my garden! There are tyre marks 2 and a half foot across my border! They have driven over my plants! They haven't even bothered to knock on my door to apologise, or even stick a note through my letterbox! I am livid!! Am I being unreasonable to want to exact revenge for wilfully negligent reversing?!

Last Spring i spent a few weeks building a small wall aginst my driveway wall so that i could make a planter.
One week after it was finished my neighbour 3 doors down bashed into it and almost demolished my whole wall.
Driving back home i noticed that her car was all bashed in and anti freeze all over the road.
My first instinct was to go and see if she was alright, but she was not at home.
But to this day she has never said "sorry" for the damage and she actually watched me cleaning up the glass ect that

(sorry got interupted) has fallen from her car.
Don't know it it was because she was embarrased or not.
Just a bit of common courtesey would not go amiss.
AB.

Are you sure they aren't doing it on purpose?

maybe, since they don't use their wing mirrors, you could be really kind and remove them for them.

Ripeberry, maybe she thought you wouldn't notice?! What a nightmare!
Keyboard - I have my suspicions! They also like to park across our driveway on occasion and it's a big inconvenience to move their cars when asked. We also have a strip of land between our front doors that is half ours and half theirs. But, for the 2 years we've lived here they've treated it as their own. I didn't mind as I've had the rest of the garden to worry about but now they seem to think half our front garden is for their personal use too, I might rethink...
Kelly- my dp's a mechanic, I'll ask when he gets home!
Was thinking about soem sort of explosive device under the border, maybe a few handrake turns in their back garden while they are at work... But, I really should behave like an adult and set a good example of neighbourliness to my ds, while simultaneously gaining the moral high ground... Just need to get past my infantile rage which subsides until I look out the window and start foaming at the mouth again...

I think the rock needs to get bigger. I have had the same problem with my neighbours and got a few leftover rocks from my SIL demolishing a rockery. It was seriously pissing me off because the soil level is low there anyway and it was totally flattened so that nothing but dandelions would grow. And also they have wrecked a couple of bushes (lavendar and hebe) by knocking a couple of brances off at one side so the bushes are totally bare at one side. The rocks seem to be solving the issue now. And I have put soil into the gaps so that they can plant rockery plants in among them.

Bozza, I was thinking more along the lines of a big metal post with spikey bits! And a hideous gnome with an intimidating stare positioned to look directly into their front window!

Maybe one eyebrow slightly raised...

Redclover79,

Perhaps its time for you to put up a fence eg a picket type about 3ft high along you borders. So it high enough for them see and a clear border without being intrusive.

Ripeberry what did you do with the glass ect.

I would have our it in a small box and knock on her door when the other neighbours where about and said "I have just cleared this from my damaged wall and i think it belongs to you" then turned and gone home.

Lizziemun, picket fence is a good idea, just a little worried that as they seem to drive with their eyes shut the fence would be down within a week...

Something solid and well bedded in so the damage to their car outweighs the damage to your garden? Very big rock or one of those metal post things people use instead of gates- that could be disguised with a hedge once they get used to avoiding your garden.

You need one of those stinger things the police use to stop criminals fleeing from a crime scene - you could bury it in the lavender!

ZOMBIE

Might I suggest a set of tyre spikes would make an attractive flower bed boarder? Having to replace a tyre might encourage then to learn how to reverse!

Failing that, as others have suggested, some really large awkward rocks. The type that would hit a bumper or damage the corner of a vehicle. Paint them white so they are hard to miss.