To have told neighbour I wouldn’t lend them our lawn mower for this

[Craftsandfun]

They’ve lived here for 4 years and have never attempted to clear their garden properly. They have some form of copy-catiness and are always looking out the window at what we’re doing.

Dh and me cleaned the garden yesterday and they must have been watching again. Today she messaged me to ask if I have any “powerful” tools to clear the garden (like I’m some kind of lumberjack)

She came around and asked to see the lawn mower as hers is crap, and I told her Dh said not to attempt to cut that growth with the lawn mower as it will break. To cut down the plants and trees and then use the mower on grass only. She left pissed off i think as she’s not replying to my message about Gardener recommendation.

I don’t want to drip feed but what’s pissed me off is that they have 3/4 holidays a year (2 abroad) and she said it’s too expensive to have someone come and clean it as they’re quoting £200-1000. Also I told her to burn the grass/cuttings like we did with the big clean and she made a face like it was a nasty thing to do. I mean wth?

You can't use a mower on that. Your DH is correct. They might be able to use a line trimmer or a scythe.

Just tell them sorry, you borrowed the tools you used and have already returned them. [To the tool shed].

Hi - pictures blurry but do be sure there's no Japanese knotweed in that lot. Complete nightmare if there is.

please don't put rat poison down, it's a terrible death plus if a cat or fox bit the rat they could die as well. if there are rats then you could call the council.
This. It can take them hours to die.
Even worse if someone’s beloved pett then gets one..

A couple of hours of fire during one night isn’t going to ruin your life.
It can if you’re asthmatic.

What kind of lawnmower is it? I can't quite visualise the serrated whirring scythes of death it would take to 'mow' that.

Op the tall plants off to the left hand side of the pic genuinely look like Knotweed. Look for red stems on young growth, heart shaped bright leaf which alternates up the stem I.e not in pairs. Mature stems have a bamboo like appearance with marked stations - woody.

Rats can climb walls. Yes dont lend her anything. It won't help and you'll end up having to buy a new one.

It's an offence to have knotweed. Householder can be prosecuted if they don't sort the problem. Knotweed damages buildings and footings and if detected in a survey can stop house sales because getting a mortgage would be near impossible. It spreads so fast it comes up in neighbouring gardens and breaks through concrete. It is dangerous to humans and animals.
I hope for your sake it isn't knotweed.

I don't think you should be adding to pollution by burning clippings either. You could compost them, that does not necessitate any trips to the tip.

I can't see anywhere that it's an offense to have knotweed, the sites say you have to keep it under control and declare it if you have it, design, do you have other info or links that say it's illegal. It might not be that but whatever it is let them sort out their own garden.

Ok sorry about the burning, but she didn’t want to spend £200 on a skip hire so I told her we burnt ours (which tbf was no where as much as what she’s got festering there).

I just find the blatant money saving tricks very annoying. Being thrifty keeping your house in order but asking people to lend you expensive garden tools is just twatish behaviour. She did take my large garden shears too because hers are small. They haven’t been used this evening. They were making their 11 year old mow the front garden earlier and her Dh appeared with a face mask on to do the rest. They did no chopping of the tall weeds. Just spent a 1.5hrs mowing everything

HeGotManFlu
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/greenpolitics/11185356/Homeowners-who-fail-to-control-Japanese-knotweed-face-criminal-prosecution-under-new-anti-social-behaviour-laws.html

www.theguardian.com/money/2012/sep/08/japanese-knotweed-house-sale

Their house is a council house. How does having knot weed affect them then? Is the council responsible or them?

HeGotManFlu

Hate to tell you but most councils will just put poison down too, that's what the did in my mum's street.

Just say No, buy your own.

They need a strimmer. An electric one will probably do, mine does half an hour on a full charge and that takes care of a big allotment.

They aren't expensive. Mine was around 50 quid at argos.

A skip?!? For a load of greenery and grass and plant cuttings? Would you really get a skip for that?!?

Really quite simple here, it's your mower and you said no. If she's chosen to get annoyed about that and give you the silent treatment like a spoiled teenager, that's her problem.

Do you not have a garden bin from the council OP? And knotweed will be your problem soon if they have it.

Burning anything at night, esp this time of year, does threaten the health of people with asthma and hay fever who are trying to do selfish stuff like sleep.

Suggest they rent the right tools from a hire firm

please don't put rat poison down, it's a terrible death plus if a cat or fox bit the rat they could die as well. if there are rats then you could call the council.

How do you think the council get rid of rats? They put down poison they don't phone the pied piper.

Anyway off topic, no-one in their right mind would tackle that with a lawn mower you'd be better of with bloody scissors then a lawn mower.

I have a really weedy chest now, after a neighbour spent days burning clearings from a field, leaving them smouldering all night, my house full of smoke. Bonfires, especially of green waste, which smokes for ages, are dangerous and anti-social. They can trigger serious asthma attacks, could even kill someone.

What a lot of alarm over a mildly overgrown garden! No reason to expect knotweed just because it's overgrown. And it's not an offence to have it, only to allow it to spread to someone else's land.