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 have a neighbour like this. Single older bloke (early 50s) who is quite a loner so never has anyone over or uses the garden. Used to get 2 blokes in once a year to cut everything back but hasn't done this for a couple of years.
In practice it doesn't bother me but in reality it actually impacts on me. I've now got numerous weeds coming through the fence from his side of the garden that I have to pull up (previously this wasn't an issue - and I should point out that I am NOT a gardener and don't like doing it). I'm also worried that it makes the place look uninhabited (he goes away for work quite a bit) so my concern is that this will be an "open" sign for burglars, squatters, etc.
He also doesn't maintain the small front garden he has either so, again, this makes the house looks uninhabited!

Although it is all quite peculiar as wouldn't think twice about some-one else saying it. Would do thoughtful emoji but can't work out how to do it.

SnowyAlpsandPeaks from 1st page

We are finding the same thing.

Ours is waist height. Just been away and it seems to have grown massively

I have plenty of wildlife in my garden as i have planted plenty myself. Already have plenty of bees and butterflies. We have large sunflowers growing up and strawberries in baskets, a blueberry bush and lavender. Planted a load of lillies etc which are now coming up too. You can encourage wildlife without the mess.

My NDNs garden is awful, he has leylandii trees bordering all round his corner plot. They are completely out of control with brambles, ivy and god knows what else growing in it. Almost completely naked at the bottom as they’ve been left to grow too high without regular trimming. So no longer remotely like s hedge now.
Him and his wife are really private people and like privacy in their midden of a garden.
They are ok with us trimming our side and also the top that borders our garden as long as we don’t take too much off the top. We dispose of the cuttings as well. Ultimately they are lazy and don’t want to cut them down and definitely don’t want to dispose of the cuttings themselves.
There was scaffolding up for a few years but nothing was done. Neighbours complained that the trees overgrew the pavement so the council told him he had to trim it back. The lower 6feet is now trimmed back but there is an overhang of another 6 feet plus.

We need to replace the boundary fence and I believe the trees may have to come down to allow us to do this.......not sure that is going to be a good conversation.
Maybe asking if you can come into their garden to kill the bramble roots as they’re coming into your garden might open up the conversation on the garden state.

An overgrown garden which encourages wildlife is one thing, having a rubbish tip next door, which brings vermin is another thing entirely. Our NDNs do nothing with the garden and leave it to grow wild. The fence which is their responsibility is hanging apart and completely fallen down in parts. We have put up our own screen to provide some privacy for us, so we can use the back garden in peace.

We put up with all of this as there is not much else to be done. It would certainly make it more difficult for us to sell the house at present. They are elderly and we are in our late fifties. The long term hope is that when they pass on the family (who are actually quite wealthy) will tidy up to sell the property for the going rate. In the present condition it would only go for a knock down price.

A couple of years ago we got completely fed up because the elderly lady who owns the house has a live in (also elderly) boyfriend. He had created a rubbish tip on the patio over a 2 to 3 year period. There was a 3 to 4 foot pile of plant pots, rotten garden foliage and discarded carrier bags of garbage completely covering the patio. It was adjacent to our own patio and we were pretty sure there were vermin nesting and living there, after seeing rats. We also noted that they had stopped putting their black wheelie bin out for several months and were accumulating the rubbish in the back garden and in the garage instead, it was pretty disgusting.

We asked them politely to tidy up the mess because we were concerned about vermin. The lady refused and when we mentioned reporting them to the council she said "go ahead, because they will have to clean it up for me".

A few photographs from the bedroom window upstairs and a complaint to environmental health at the local council was a pretty effective means of getting all the crap shifted quickly. The Council stepped in and offered to do this, BUT at a substantial cost to the householder. At this point somehow they were able to do this themselves after all. Apparently there are laws against creating an unlicensed rubbish tip on your property.

My garden has become overgrown due to a neighbour having a vicious dog that could climb into it. My other neighbour probably feels as you do. I'm hoping to sort it out now the dog has gone but it probably needs a total overhaul and dog neighbour has dumped stuff in it that probably needs a skip.

Cantstopeatingchocolate

Our NDNs have grown a Leylandi hedge which is now about 20 feet tall. They have made no effort to contain this. It now grows several feet over our garden.

When younger I was able to trim this back on our side, but now awaiting a hip replacement this is no longer possible for me. I am completely unable to climb the required distance up a ladder to trim their hedge.

I understand however that there is legislation to cover high hedges. You have to show that you have approached your neighbour to try and resolve the situation amicably first and then pay a fee of around £400 to get the council to intervene if this is not successful.

* Shootingstar1115* I have the exact same issue, it's been 6 years since he last touched his garden.

The back fence has been pushed out because of it and its visible over the 6 foot fence. My dh secretly jumps into his garden to hack a line down that is next to the fence on our side as although it's his fence if it was pushed down like the back one he would never replace it.

He is single mid 50s, works, is mortgage free so not sure why he doesn't keep on top of it and we would have to deal with it if we ever decided to sell.

You CAN do something though. Contact the local council who after continued badgering will send someone round to assess it. If its bad enough they will write to the owner to try and persuade them to do it,, if they don't they can issue enforcement notice whereby the council will do the gardening and charge the home owner. Its taken nearly 2 years to get to this stage but hopefully it will sort it out.

Get as many neighbours as you can to email the council and if there are mentions of rats being sighted it helps.
BTW we did mention it to him but he didn't do anything and there is no disability preventing him from doing it, his elderly parents used to do it but they have both since passed away.

People who dont look after their gardens even a little bit are generally scratters.
I wouldn't want to live next door to them.

Our old neighbours used their garden to store contents from hi s building company. It was a TIP. They had a huge rusty old double swing in it and their eldest son was 23 and the younger one severely disabled. The workmen getting stuff out of garden would struggle round old swing. Never understood why they didn't take it down. Was full of paint, metal poles, barrels of stuff etc etc.
I hated looking out of window and having to see his tip.
Neighbours on the other side hated anything natural, they ripped out grass and put in fake stuff so their 4 dogs could wee and poo all week and they finally picked it up once a week at most. She didn't have a single flower or shrub, just a fake lawn full of poo!
I on the other hand love my garden. Had garden sofa, lamps, cushions, full of plants and flowers.
Bottom line is - as much as I hated their gardens - it was absolutely FA to do with me !

Thanks all. I know that I don’t know what’s going in their lives but I’m not just talking about a short term problem here, they’ve never really done anything at all. I just don’t think they are very house proud (own their house). As far as I can gather their house is a bit of a ‘mess’ too.

Their garden doesn’t look like a nature reserve. It looks like an overgrown mess.

Our garden is far from perfect. We aren’t keen gardeners but we keep on top of cutting so my children can okay safely outside.

They have children and I’ve never seen them ply outside because it’s too dangerous and probably unhygienic. The local cats like to poo in everyone’s gardens 🤣

And yes sometimes (only sometimes) my dog doesn’t jump at the fence but she’s a tiny dog. The fence is quite High and they’ve probably never seen her because she’s so small and their grass and weeds are so high!

Maybe they don't want to go out there as your dog shits in there garden?!
No but really I would be very annoyed if neighbours dog kept hopping my fence, I think that's the bigger issue than their unkept lawn?

A (now dead) neighbour had an utterly immaculate garden and looked as if it had been planned by a geography teacher.He blasted it with every known gardening chemical under the sun and it would have been worthy of the Chelsea Flower Show. He wasn't slow at berating anyone whose garden didn't match his standards, that's for sure.
Then he died......as he lived alone within about a week his garden had been raided by various neighbours (under cover of darkness but we heard the wheelbarrows trundling past) and less than a month after he died it was covered in craters where various precious plants had been dug up.

Oh, dear!

My auntie’s neighbour’s garden was like this because the tenants next door were lazy bastards who refused to maintain it.

In the end, it was so bad, the huge overgrowth encouraged rats and other vermin. Disgusting. She had to contact the landlord (who was useless) and the council.

You are NOT being unreasonable; people should maintain their bloody gardens to a halfway decent standard. Lazy things.

If you have concrete posts and can lift up a fence panel, ask them if they don’t mind you cutting back a foot or half a foot from your fence, depending on the plants of course. Just says it’s to stop the plants breaking up the fence. If they do mind you’re still within your rights to cut back anything over the boundary line at any height unless it’s a tree which is a more complicated issue. Besides kindly offering your kids to do some gardening for pocket money or suggest a gardener who is looking for more clients it’s best to give them their privacy to deal with things as they wish or feel they can. Nobody likes to be told how to live or what to do. The law seems pretty comprehensive at setting out our rights without infringing on others freedom unnecessarily.

golddustwomen
I can't see where the OP has said her dog goes into the neighbour's garden.
The dog sometimes jumps up at the fence but that's in its own garden surely?

I'd rather have an over grown wild garden, than all the awful astro turf that's suddenly appearing in lots of gardens around me.

Tommy oh, it is either/or? Overgrown or astroturf? I hadn't realised.

Our plants which are good for the insect life are regularly threatened by bindweed coming in from next door. Why exactly is that better? Is bindweed a good plant for bees and butterflies?

Well it is pouring down again and my grass which I was hoping to cut this weekend if it had been dry will be left another week.

My neighbour doesn’t tend her garden which makes the area look a bit shabby but it can’t be seen from the front. We always cut her verge when we do ours and she seems happy with that.

Obviously, I would love it if Hyacinth Bouquet moved in and brought the pace up to scratch but, reading all the stories of nightmare neighbours on Mumsnet and Gransnet, I am just incredibly grateful ours is a quiet, middle aged lady who keeps to herself, owns no noisy or smelly pets, has no parties, or for that matter, visitors, takes no drugs and has no badly behaved children.

Count your blessings, OP, it could be so much worse.

A lot of people really don't like gardening, I don't myself but I do the bare basics so it looks o.k.I think it should be much cheaper to get you garden paved or gravelled over, so if you CBA with it you can have this done.
The thing is its so expensive to have anything done that people just don't bother.It can run into hundreds just for a basic tidy up.

A lot of people really don't like gardening, I don't myself but I do the bare basics so it looks o.k.I think it should be much cheaper to get you garden paved or gravelled over, so if you CBA with it you can have this done.

I hate gardening too, but if you are at the stage of wanting paved or gravelled, move to a flat, or a city property without garden. No need to destroy the environment because you are lazy.

Why would my dog poo in their garden? It doesn’t jump over the fence @golddustwomen

My dog has never got into their garden nor has it pooed in there but before we had our dog their would poo numerous times a day in our garden which I had to pick up. Fortunately the cat doesn’t come in since we out got our dog (only had her a year)

Their cat would poo in our garden I mean **