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??

I currently rent, and also have been waiting for the wet weather to stop.... there is a patio area here that has overgrown awfully, but right now I simply do not have to spare funds to buy weedkiller to spray on it! You don't know everyone's circumstances, and to be honest if I was buying a house, unless there was knotweed or some 100 yr old tree oking through my potential new home, the view next door wouldn't stress me, why should it?

Our old neighbours had a huge bramble that overhung our garden. But it produced the most amazing blackberries, we got a bumper harvest every year. We were gutted when new people moved in and cut it down! 😆

It would definitely bother me - I've had neighbours like it in the past. But not to any significant extent, and I certainly wouldn't speak to them about it. A neighbour's dog jumping at my fence would, however, really piss me off.

It’s not a crock of shite.
Most people find time to do their garden. You don’t have to be Charlie Dimmock or anything, but who wants a scruffy next door neighbour?
YANBU x

The "we're busy too" brigade needs to stop a moment.

We didn't mow our lawn when we had miscarriages. We couldn't be bothered. It was part of the tremendous sadness.

I didn't decorate for Christmas. My houseplants died from neglect. After that year, I learned to never judge people about their house.

You never know what's going on; even if you think you do.

As for the helpful hints of POISONING someone's property!!!

You do realize that 7 kinds of wrong???

For one thing, IT'S POISON. Not just to plants, but to animals and people too.

We couldn't afford a mower, my husband hates to mow, I've been sick, my dc have been sick. My dh hates mowing and I couldn't. Gardeners wouldn't come. Lots of reasons and excuses but the bottom line is it's not your property.

BTW. Maybe they (like me) can't stand the noise of blowers and mowers. More irritating than messy garden.

I don't let the grass grow too long anymore because of the ticks...one of those wonderful creatures that love an unkempt lawn....

Can't believe I just used the word, 'unkempt.' What a dick :(

Ah this thread has got me pestering DP to sort our overgrown garden!
We rent and the garden was never grass, it was 'managed weeds', which is a shame because we don't have the money to do a complete overhaul of the garden when it's not ours to keep (and we'll be moving again in Winter).
Because of this we've just let it grow and now it looks awful. So after reading this thread I've bugged DP to help me do what we can, which is probably just trim it down and take out what weeds we can. It still won't actually be usable though!

Wow...if you have to worry about is next doors garden not being Chelsea show quality then you're living the dream. Seriously, it's up to them whether they cut their garden or not. I don't have a garden, but if I did I would keep it neat at least. As for a problem if it comes to selling...I don't think so. How about a problem like putting food on the plate or roof over head, that's a real problem.

Our last neighbours had a garden last this. We had to move quicker than planned because of a mice infestation. The council said before visiting that if anyone's garden around our house was overgrown they may get a fine as they'd be enabling the infestation of our street.

Handy poison tips, Boysey? What's wrong with you?

Even if OP follows that, which will have enough common sense not to, what will she achieve with it? She'll be looking at a dead unkempt garden instead of a green on.

They are not actively doing anything to harm you so I would just ignore it. Your dog should not be humping up at their fence. Trim off any bits poking through to your side. I think that is acceptable. Tell your children to keep well away from neighbours fence.

Our garden isn't unkempt, and I am very much looking forward to planting it up again after recent building works.

But I have to say, the neighbours I really wish I could do something about are the ones who dig up their gardens and terrace them over, making the it harder for the rain to go into the ground, in an area with frequent droughts and less and less green. That I think is totally irresponsible.

But it's not my garden so can't say anything about it.

If they are away a lot and it really is a jungle, then go in and at least cut the brambles that are encroaching on your garden. If you use a secateurs or other cutting device, be sure to remove all cut sprigs/branches and dispose of them.
Or you can go out with a few kettles of boiling water and pour it all on the roots/into the middle.
Sorry about your dog's injury.

Brambles will damage your fence eventually and will take root in your garden too.

The grass, thistles, dandelions, etc are just nature.

...the neighbours I really wish I could do something about are the ones who dig up their gardens and terrace them over, making the it harder for the rain to go into the ground, in an area with frequent droughts and less and less green. That I think is totally irresponsible.
Corythatwas

THIS ^^

Number four???
Have you thought, they may keep it like that on purpose for wildlife? Also it's a bloody good burgler deterrent if rife with brambles.
I am a corner house, my neighbours must hate me as I have a patch out the front that is packed with lavender for bees and pyracabtha and 8 ft hedges for all hedge birds plus flowers...messy, as i am not skilled in gardening as have joint and back problems, the huge corner bit is my son's filled with kids stuff or trampoline, a tree, swings etc
But my back garden I no longer use due to the neighbours building a corner house and blocking my sunlight so I have extended my wildlife patch from the end to the entire back garden.... I currently have blackbirds nesting in my hugely overgrown wild rose, I have grass snakes, an abundance of slow worms and frogs so many variety of bees, insects,spiders and moths/butterflies in the wild flowers I sow, I even have strawberries and a small apple tree I leave to feed the animals and probably hedgehogs and other animals if I looked closer it's amazing. I have a slow worm who "gives birth" to her babies in my outbuildings every year and we see these beautiful shiny gold and black babies making their way out of our out buildings back into the garden
Chris Peckham actually tells us to cultivate as big a patch as our garden allows for wildlife to flourish due to the fact it's diminishing at an alarming rate due to pollution and our rebuilding on every piece of land available..

I love that none of my neighbours do their gardens!!
There are at least 6 neighbours who for whatever reason don't look after or maintain their gardens. If I'm being honest it's an absolute joy, it means more bees, butterflies, birds and all nature of God's beautiful creatures. Mine however is done and appreciated...my dog on the other hand likes to 'chase' away any of the above that do venture into our garden. OP I'm with the majority, it's not your garden and if any 'stray' brambles come over/through your fence do as I do and just cut them back. Good luck.

Sounds like a recipe for rats to me

I can relate completely. I live in a terrace house that we own and next door is a terrace house just like ours owned by the council with a family who have lived there for 20 years. Their garden is a mess - just weeds and rubbish which I can see from 5 windows on the back and side of my house. They have 3 big strong sons all in their 20s and living at home and I can hear them playing video games all day shouting at the screen. It really annoys me that they can’t take a break from gaming and weed or plant or maintain the garden so it isn’t an eyesore. I resent that they have a garden that they ignore when many people don’t have gardens in the city and would love one. I think potential buyers when we sell our house could be put off because you look out the windows at the back and think ‘yuck - what’s the deal with your neighbours?’ (We viewed the house in a heavy snowfall - oops) The idea that it is a wildlife haven because it’s a mess rather than manicured is wrong. It’s a plastic bag haven. I have a neatly planted garden with bamboo, hebe, rose, hydrangea, pachysandra, strawberries, rosemary, rhododendron, lots of lavender, an apple tree etc and there was a blue tit nest this spring and are loads of birds, bees and ladybirds, snails, etc. I’ve pondered offering to buy plants and materials if the boys next door would help me sort their garden out. But even if we did a massive cleanup this summer I couldn’t trust them to maintain it. I will probably just put Brume film on the windows so I can’t see out them anymore.

Some people let their gardens grow wild on purpose, for butterflies and bees etc!

Cutting it without permission could be seen as trespassing!

Mine is very short and tidy but I wish I could let some of it go to meadow flowers etc. But I appear to be too uptight for that, unfortunately

@Mitzicoco

What is making you sad about using the word "unkempt"? 

My neighbour is a hippy. His garden is out of control but he enjoys his tai chi out there and there's lots of flowers. When you drive up the road, our house is the focal point so I feel like i always have to keep it pristine. I can't imagine that someone would refuse to buy our house just because an eccentric uni professor with crazy flower blooms lived next door. I do feel like if I didn't constantly control our land then that would be a problem.

Our neighbours have nettles and loads of weeds that keep coming through. I'm fed up of having to keep sorting it. They haven't done anything with it since moving in. Not even attempted to cut it down.

www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/wildlife/butterflies.asp

Nettles are great. You can cook them, nettle risotto or soup are lovely, you can make tea with them, really good for skin, nails and hair and they are really good for butterflies and insects.

Embrace the nettles! Well, maybe not literally.

OhMyGiddyAunty

It just sounds a bit odd. And dickish. Not sure why though....