.....to think my neighbour is unreasonable????

[maisym]

She called me up to ask if I'd remove some weeds from my garden that are growing near her fence - and ivy that is growing up some parts of her fence.

The fence is very long and mainly covered by trees on both sides so it's hard to actually see all of it - plus we can't actually get to all of it. The parts that she can see are clear of weeds. Also it's on the side and isn't a main feature of our gardens iyswim.

I'm preg and have 4 kids so doing this will be a trouble plus not immune to toxo and there are alsways cats coming through the gardens.

Told my dh & he just laughed at her calling!!

ooh, iklboo, great minds and all that!

ahundredtimes - it's not kind, it's interfering! It sounds harsh but our neighbour does this. Once, we came home to find out garden completely strimmed, turned out he did it, saying he need to test a strimmer he'd just fixed for someone . Another time, a different neighbour came round saying had I noticed what he had done to our yew trees, did we ask him to do it. When I went up the back (garden is terraced into a really steep hill at the back of the house) he'd chopped down two (admittedly small, but still) yew trees adjoining his garden, saying my dh had asked him to prune them. Prune them? They will never grow back!!!! Plus, of course, dh knew nothing about it! Few days later, a brand new shed is erected right up close to our boundary! Hmm, very helpful! When we first moved in 5 years ago we thought 'what a useful bloke to have about the place', now we won't give him an inch - he needs to know his boundaries .

If I was maisym, I'd ask the neighbour's helper to do it (she probably send them anyway!), and explain exactly what to remove and what to leave.

But is it possible Songbird, that you and Maisym are just a bit well, lazy, in the garden department and your neighbours know that soon the whole place will be over run with weeds and yew tree monsters if they don't take action?

If the neighbour has offered to do it, it must be bothering her quite a bit. At least let her do the ivy.

The ivy can be her present.

To be honest, yes, I am a bit lazy. Coupled with having a really awkward garden to tend. But, I make sure that dandelions get strimmed (ground too rough even for a mower!) before the seeds fly off everywhere. And those yews were far from being monsters, they take aeons to grow, which is what upset me the most.

I'd much rather sit down in the garden with a g&t than obsessively trim my edges! We keep on top of it and we both agree that our 'wild' garden is far more interesting than the neighbours manicured lawn and bedding plants. Dd loves all the butterflies and bees that abound in our garden.

Having said all that, it would be nice to get Diarmud Gavin in!

And when I said I like ivy and bind weed, I mean to look at! They really are a nightmare though.

Lazy in the garden department - lol - how did you guess!! I actually planted some herbs today! (just had to add that!!)

We do have a lot of garden so enjoy letting it grow. Our wood part is so cool in the hot weather & the rest looks after itself apart from my dh who does an exellent job mowing the grass. It doesn't look messy (I hope) and the fence that my neighbour complains about is not something her or us sit and look at.

My kids have made an adventure trek through the trees, jungle etc next to the neighbours fence!! Wonder what she'll make of that.

She could come round but I'd worry that she'd have quick trim of the trees when I wasn't looking or whatever.

I'll be sure I clear the ivy I can get to - have only found a small patch on her fence - the bindweed I'll trim where I can reach - but the bits out of reach I'll leave.

We're good neighbours to her & I've helped her loads as she's elderly on her own.