Neighbours never cut their grass.

[Shootingstar1115]

When I say never, I mean never. It’s a jungle out there. They are busy working people, I understand it’s hard to keep on top. We aren’t keen gardeners ourselves but manage to cut the grass and keep it looking half presentable.

They don’t maintain their garden at all. It’s causing all sorts of plants and brambles to grow through the fence into our garden which we can trim to a certain extent but both my kids have scatched themselves and recently our dog had a nipple injury - large scratch/cut after coming in from the garden. Obviously we don’t know for sure it’s that but she often jumps up to the fence if she hears other dogs/people/cats nearby (not that she can see them 🤣) and it seems likely she injured herself that way.

My kids have also accidentally chucked balls over there but you can’t see them to find them so we’ve just left them in there for now 🤣

I feel like helping them out with it but it will be a large job and myself and Oh lack the time nor are we keen gardeners ourselves.

Would you be annoyed??

@MrsSchrute If they cant be arsed with doing something as simple as mowing the lawn and a bit of gardening, they are not going to be arsed about other things. I'd rather live next door to people like myself who actually give a shit.

Do you have local bylaws regarding lawn care and maintenance? You may be able to contact your local bylaw enforcement people and ask them to do something.

Nope, I'm with your neighbours. Excellent (and completely legal), way to deter annoying kids and dogs from their property. Will have to remember that one.

I have family have a neighbour with a similar garden. Their house is truly awful also, paint splattered windows (the actual glass), a window which was damaged is now just a black bin bag, a couch in the front garden in amongst all the weeds/bushes (been there around 5 years now), a skip in the drive that any Tom Dick and Harry use, metal grating as a fence, the kind you see around building sites. They had scaffolding up for 2.5 years (!) but had no work done and a car out front that rusted and rotted away which the council removed. You can see in their windows and it’s all just bare brick with holes. The council have been round about a lot of things but nothing ever improves. They had an awful lot of damp which affected my family members house and cost them thousands in repairs and the other side of the neighbours house started to subside which then fixed only because part of the chimney started to fall onto the street and the council we’re involved.

I would be an absolute beautiful house too if they maintained it.

It's a wildlife sanctuary, and much needed. Be grateful.

I can't stand lawns, and I'm a botanist by training. I have filled my garden with all sorts of plants that I only minimally prune and train. There are hidden seats where you can sit and not be seen from the house. I sit there and listen to the bees and watch the butterflies. The grass I do have is well above knee height.

My neighbours have completely block paved their garden. They must look out of their bedroom window at my little jungle and groan. I look out at their concrete jungle and sigh. Each to their own.

All you can and are entitled to do is cut anything actually coming into your garden. What they chose to do or not with their own garden is NONE of your business. You are being very unreasonable, as you can’t dictate your aesthetics and tastes to someone else. As for recommending a gardener, in your neighbours’ place, I would regard you as a passive-aggressive and an interfering CF. We have a very large garden for central London standards and never cut the lawn, in fact, we have a wild flower meadow at one end, a clover lawn that doesn’t need any watering and no mowing, plus herb and vegetable garden and it all looks like a jungle with hidden seating and hammock. Over the years, we had a couple of comments by neighbours who can see a small bit of our garden from their top floor, although it luckily is very sheltered and private. They mentioned how they would never have their garden look so wild. I shut down any further conversation with a swift and deft response that it was irrelevant since it wasn’t their garden. It attracts loads of wildlife, especially butterflies and bees. More recently, we had a new and very entitled family suggest that we should make this large space communal because now one else had any proper outdoor space, larger than a small patio and mini lawn area. They told us that their DC had no where to play ball games. There is a park within a very short walking distance. It’s our sanctuary and our DC love exploring and watching insects and the dogs run around. Everyone is entitled to live in their property according to their wishes (bar obviously unsociable noise etc) Property values of surrounding houses are not an argument to tow the line and have boring and environmentally pretty crap immaculately kept lawns and regimented borders. In fact, if our garden keeps the likes of those that insist on that away, all the better!

Now I'm worried I live next door to you! We never do the garden. We are out of the house 15 hours a day in the week and away doing our hobby every weekend.

What's worse - our neighbours have beautifully manicured gardens. I always feel ashamed but we so rarely have time (or dry weather) to cut the lawn.

@Vilanelle I would actually report that to the HA.

can we assume then that you've brought a property with next door neighbours who don't take care of their lawn and let it grow (yeah right)

No
What a strange post! What I am saying is that if I wanted to move house and viewed a house that I loved and wanted to live, I wouldn’t give a toss if the Nextdoor neighbour’s grass was too long. To me, it is a tiny little thing to get worked up about.

Goodness autocorrect had a field day with my post.

It would be really inappropriate to find them a gardener! Maybe they prefer to let it go to wilderness?

Leave it.

I’ve got a garden with lots of flowers and bushes. The neighbours have a concrete tomb of a garden without a single living thing in it. I hate their garden but not for me to chose what the neighbour’s spend their time and money on. They probably hate my garden but I wouldn’t expect them to tell me what to do with it because it’s my land and they’re not obliged to look at it.

Trim the bits that are on your side and hope for some poppies. This could be a turning point in your life- are you going to become someone who has a chart of when and where bins go out?

thought not

If they cant be arsed with doing something as simple as mowing the lawn and a bit of gardening, they are not going to be arsed about other things.

Like what things?

My garden needs mowing, the beds need weeding, the deck is in the process if being replaced so is half ripped up. My front garden is covered in weeds.

I do garden, but very infrequently, because I hate it and don't really care that much what it looks like.

However, I can sure you I 'give a shit' about a lot of things, have a professional career, wonderful children, and volunteer in a night shelter.

I just don't understand how you can make such sweeping judgements about someone based on their garden!

OP there is a real possibility that your neighbour has something going on in their life that you know nothing about. This has happened to several neighbours I have known through the years. One was having cancer treatment & kept silent about it. One had had a nervous breakdown they hid from everyone and the last one was a victim waiting for a court trial for rape. It was enough that all 3 just managed to get through the day. Don't assume their life is quiet & trouble free just because you can't see anything going on. Suggesting a gardener isn't a great idea - they might not be able to afford it, but offering to help them yourself is another matter. You are of course, entitled to cut down anything that hangs over/pokes through to your side.

I'd ask them if they want help, or to borrow the lawnmower or strimmer, but I do like gardening.

I wouldn't buy next door to someone who clearly doesnt give a shit about their property...

But is this a sign that they don’t give a shit, or do they just like wildlife? My old neighbours had a super-tidy garden but annoyed the hell out of me by spraying weed killer and bug killer on anything that moved or dared to grow on their immaculate patch. Another neighbour has a lot of mental health issues and one thing that helps him is being really into wildlife and having a wild garden. He has birds nesting, fox cubs and other things, but people complain that the garden is ‘overgrown’.

I’d say it depends on how your neighbour feels about the garden OP. If they love it being wild or are trying to encourage wildlife then good for them. If it’s got out of hand and is overwhelming them, maybe it’s worth tactfully offering to help. But otherwise it’s none of your business - just cut back whatever comes through the fence & enjoy the fact that they are helping wildlife for your whole street.

@Grumpelstilskin

we had a new and very entitled family suggest that we should make this large space communal

How very bold of them. At central London prices! Can you tell us what you said to them?

@MrsSchrute The thing is I would assume you didn't give a shit about other things if you cant be bothered doing your garden. First impressions and all of that.

If the house next door to you was for sale I more than likely wouldn't buy, unless you're quite old, then I'd buy.

My front garden looks like crap - but we're saving up to get the paving slabs renewed, keep the hedge loosely pruned and it's our own weeds growing between the paving slabs. Back garden is fantastic now - although it's patio, it has lots and lots of planters out there and there are usually bees and butterflies out there as well. Before that it was threadbare grass and I overheard a couple of the neighbours having a right moan about it in terms of the amount of child-related plastic toys out there... and it was none of their bloody business at all really if I had two Cozy Coupes in the middle of a rather tatty lawn. They got mentally put on my arsehole list.

@theyellowjumper I love wildlife and welcome it in my garden. I have loads of hedgehogs, fox's, field mice, all sorts of birds and fuck loads of bee's which are loving the allium and lavender. I still mow my lawn though.

We hate gardening, but also prefer grass to not be massively overgrown... the poster who suggested kids now the lawn as a summer job isn't a bad idea if they are up to tackling it! I'm not opposed to someone else doing my lawn if they don't charge too much (I've mowed it twice this year so not a total jungle but it does need doing again...)

My neighbours had it chest high and it had toads living in it! And full of dog poo. When they moved out the gardener took THREE hours just to get the lawn looking okay. I didn't mind at the time but must admit it's nicer to live next to someone who takes care of it.

Another one here who would be put off buying a house next door to a jungle. Weeds get over the boundary, fences get overgrown and collapse, sheds etc get undermined, and generally the area looks a depressing mess. It's a first world problem, but it is a problem.

If you want to encourage wildlife, plant some flowers, make a pond, put up a birdbox, have a compost bin, plant some fruit trees and bushes. And yes, have a wild area... but don't just give your whole garden over to impenetrable brambles and overgrown grass unless you have no alternative.

Not sure what you can do about it, though. I like a pp's suggestion of getting local gardening companies to leaflet them!