Do you judge people who don't mow or weed their lawn?

[Tobythecat]

Do you? Mine was overgrown for a little while and everyone else's was freshly cut, I felt a bit scruffy

Is this a thing that people judge their neighbours on?

I cnba cutting the grass... so now I hoover it instead

I'm non judgy and find it fairly sad that ppl have to impose their ideas on others then get irritated when others don't comply with these invisible random rules as a result. What a waste of energy.

But I have a question- our neighbours who have the area's really big house down the road have a gardener. He is now cutting their front grass long - ie it's freshly cut as blunt and I saw him doing it, but it's long like 4-6 inches. Is this now a thing among elite types? Gardener is very grumpy and I am imagining him grumbling his pants off at mowing long if it is a trendy instruction - but maybe it's a proper gardener thing to let ground recover or some such- I know nothing!!

I have a wonderful neighbour that hoovers their drive. I'm not a drive hoovering kind of person. I hope I don't drive them too crazy. [whispers] I see weeds on my front "lawn".

We desperately need to mow our front garden. We had new turf laid during the April heatwave so have been leaving it to grow, and sprinklering regularly, to give it a chance. Ideally it was ready to mow last weekend but our garden waste bin has a dead witch hazel in it which has a giant root ball, and we're concerned the bin would be too heavy. It's being collected Monday so we'll probably mow on the weekend and store in bags until the bin is empty.

My ndn is a lazy sod, he says his front lawn is a 'wildflower meadow'. It isn't. It's couch grass, dandelions, bindweed and fag ends.
I love my garden but I'm fedup with his weeds invading my flowerbeds.
Apparently the indoors is all his wife's responsibility (poor woman), the outside is his hence it looks a mess because he does sod all 😳

everything looks meadowy and billowy and natural.

Yes! The way the seed heads ripple in thewind. Far more beautiful than short green stumps (for the record, I do have short grass - I have a dog! I have had it taller than a standing up cat though)

This reminded me of this "Roundy and Squary" cartoon from Roger Hargreaves.

The "Roundy and Squary" stories by Roger Hargreaves are not very well-known, but I think they were very funny indeed, and so true!

Sometimes I look out of my back window st all the gardens in my road. It goes:

• Riotously weedy
• Immaculate, lawn like a millpond
• Party central (decking, chimney, gazebo)
• Total bombsite, weeds up to your neck
• Shabby but clinging on (ours)
• Constantly barking dog
• Family bonanza (playhouse, trampoline, plastic slides, mini cars, constant washing on line)
• Studenty cesspit

I only judge the barking-dog owner, tbh.

We have a weedy garden. Our front garden needs attention. The driveway needs de-weeding badly. Our jet wash is not great, we need a new one, so that’s fallen by the wayside, also the hose leaks.
My dh normally does these jobs, he really drags his feet, as he wants to do anything but maintain the house 🙄 like riding his bike, rugby...

No I don’t judge...those lazy gits who dare to allow nature get out of hand

**WhatsGoingOn

My back garden would be the family bonanza if I was your neighbour.

I never judge.

My front and back lawns are knee height. I can't afford to pay someone to do them and both I and DH are disabled. I can't even get out there as I'm in a wheelchair and there are steps front and back.

There are no charities in my local area that help with grass cutting and we don't have any family locally. Despite being in a council house, they won't help either, so we don't have a choice.

I'm horrified by it. The back not so much as only the two back neighbours can see it, but the front is really embarrassing and I'm ashamed.

A good example of why we shouldn’t judge, I can’tcope. How sad the neighbours haven’t offered? We used to always pop next door and cut our elderly neighbour’s lawn for her.
Also, try contacting the ‘gardening for disabled trust’, I know someone who found them very helpful.

I wouldn't judge, I find it hard to get around to doing it when it needs it and also it's a pain, two gardens with awkward landscape and pretty poor gardening equipment.
This year paying someone £20 a fortnight to sort it out, they do a great job and it's a bargain imo.

I can enjoy my garden on nice sunny days rather than slugging about with my lawnmower. Will put my spare gardening energy into building a shed

As a child our front garden was a pain to mow as it was on a very steep hill and the only way you could mow it was with a hover mower with the power 'paddle' tied down and we used a length of rope to let it go down the hill by gravity and then pull it up!
We were one of the first houses owned on our street and everyone else was council, so they had their grass done.
We the 'house owners' were the scruffiest!

Our neighbours are vile, Mumto2two. Abusive, cruel to animals and aggressive on one side and racist twats on the other side (live in rural West Wales but come from South and that's a bad thing apparently).

He is now cutting their front grass long - ie it's freshly cut as blunt and I saw him doing it, but it's long like 4-6 inches. Is this now a thing among elite types

What? The grass will be mowed long for any number of reasons, probably if it's was too long to start with then it needs to be trimmed by a third. Then done again a few days later, Otherwise, they may be worried about scorching or it's been treated.

Oh ok thanks. It's always been done short as short before and has been done so several times this year. This was not a criticism btw I really couldn't care less, it was a light hearted query as I know nothing about gardening!

My neighbours do stare when they walk past my front lawn. They were not to impressed when I let the dandelions grow before my first cut...weeks after theirs.

Now I've had trees removed and had four tons of soil on the front to level it out...and last year I had the most amazing oriental poppies of different colour combinations..One neighbour offered to strim them for me but was told to leave them alone.

This year its worse though, will be sorted this weekend. I dont have as many poppies this year

We feed the sparrows in our back garden from hanging feeders and as a result, the borders are a riot of plants from the discarded bird seed. Lots of interesting colours, purples, oranges and yellows. Impossible to 'weed' though, as they're technically not weeds, and v popular with insects.

Our tiny garden backs onto our neighbour's enormous garden. They clearly have lots of bindweed, dock and ivy at the end of their garden because it spreads into our border and is impossible to control, which is why, in the end, we decided to relax into it and go for the wild meadow look.

as they're technically not weeds In what way are they technically not weeds? There's a very small number (about 10) noxious weeds defined in law, and that doesn't include most of the things that people weed out of their garden - it certainly doesn't include nettles and dandelions. So for everyday purposes, the most useful definition of a weed is a plant which is growing in the wrong place.

So cornflowers, marigolds and poppies are weeds if they are in an arable crop (which is why we don't see them in the fields any more), but a "wildflower" if sown by the local Council in the park.

And I weed out rigorously the Alchemilla mollis that is over-running my garden, but is being sold at £5.95 a pot by the local garden centre.

Also...how can these beauties be weeds ?

You could dig the poppies up and put them in pots and then when you do your garden plant them where you would like them in your borders.

My driveway was basically a poppy field last year. I harvest d loads of seeds before it was re-laid and plan on scattering them at the end of my garden when I’ve sorted the bramble patch out

I never judge an unmown lawn. Long grass is actually a great weed preventative.

Where I do get narked is people allowing brambles to grow unchecked. We now have a massive problem with brambles undermining an external supporting wall and blocking a pathway because the last resident of next door didn't tackle them in his garden. They are spiky buggers and create an enormous amount of work and green waste.

That said, we are currently fighting a battle with dandelions in our area as they are totally taking over every public green space and garden. It must be the unusual weather we have had so far this year, but everywhere you look, there are sheets of dandelions.

It's got so bad that I've decided to cut back my turf and have larger beds. I don't see bees on them either, and I do have a lot of bees in my garden. They seem to prefer my flowering currant.