To ask how high?

[Damntheman]

I'm having issues with neighbours (and also random strangers) using my garden as a short cut. Since the town took away the bus stop up the hill when re-doing the bus routes I've noticed an increasing stream of foot traffic through my garden without permission. It's a pretty steep hill but going down my garden is probably the least steep part of it and cuts 10 minutes walking time off anyone coming from the houses up there down to the current bus stop. It's driving me batty! It's turning half my garden into sheet ice and almost certaining ruining the grass and any plants beneath. I'm also fairly territorial and have my hackles right up regarding people sauntering over my land without asking.

I've managed to catch two of them at it and asked them to stop but there are still several more. The land is quite open as when they built the new houses up the hill, they cut down the line of trees along the border so now in winter (we get a lot of snow) there's no visible boundary which I suspect is a large part of the problem. As a side note I'm also fairly certain someone living up there has buried their pet in my garden as I found a small mound along with home-made cross under one of my trees before the snow came.. wtf!

I want to put up a rope fence in spring time (probably May by the time the ground has defrosted enough to sink posts. Sigh..) to prevent people walking through. I quite like most of my neighbours up the hill and there's a shared play area up there that my kids have an open invite to use so I am not wanting to go for a completely solid high fence to start with at least. It would be nice to be able to maintain at least some of the open community feel without opening my garden to become a public footpath.

The current thought is a series of posts 1 meter apart with two ropes strung between them. One at about 1 meter high and one at 50cm to prevent people ducking under the rope or climbing over.

Is that high enough to prevent people climbing over do you think? Or should the upper rope be more like 4 feet (1.2 meters) up instead or higher?

I'm also considering planting a row of gooseberry bushes or something similarly prickly in front of the hedge for a secondary line of defense.. so to speak.

Help!

Your garden must be massive if it cuts 10 minutes off the proper route! No wonder people don't realise it is private property if you don't actually have a boundary.

I don't think 1m is high enough to stop the determined. 1.2 would be better, but you would probably need two ropes beneath that rather than just the one. Personally I would save the money on the interim solution and go straight for a fence or proper hedge.

I don't know if you are UK based (land not thawing until May?), but check whether there a restrictions on putting up fences, including heights.

Need a diagram of this garden

No, they'll climb over the rope. You need a good proper fence, either metal or wooden.

A rope with any sort of give or a gap will be ignored OP. You will need to put in a solid fence, why not do that and add a gate for your children?

The garden is big but not massive. The people walking through it live on another road which is what causes the short cut vs proper route disparity. I will attempt a diagram but warm I'm spectacularly bad at such things!

Here we go with diagram (I hope). Neighbour 2 owns house 1 and the private road and we rent access to it from him.

Not in the UK indeed. Much further north! We can have up to 1.5 meters without planning permission but they can complain if it blocks their view (it won't as we are down the hill from them).

A small fence, just too high to step over, or maybe a lowish wall so you can put some kind of spikes on top?

Posts with rope or chains wouldn't really put people off, I had a chain when my fence broke, and people just climbed over it rather than open the gate that was still there.

As for the little grave, although I wouldn't want a whole pet cemetary I would let that go. A child may have found a dead bird or something there and wanted to lay it to rest, maybe a run over pet and didn't know where it lived. Or not have a garden. Fencing it off should prevent any more graves.

an old ndn of mine had this issue and a rop/chain fence did nothing to stop people. I would go for a solid fence high enough not to step over with notices on.

The voices of experience are so valuable! Thank you so much for the input.

I will indeed let the pet grave go, it's just one so it's no bother. But I would like to avoid having several showing up there or I'll have to make a lovely little official cemetary border and start crafting gravestones in my spare time like some crazy weirdo :o :o

Ropes are very easy to duck under/over

Have you considered a sign telling people it’s private land and no access? Could be that they just don’t realise? From experience there’s not many people that willingly trespass once they’re aware that land isn’t public property

There's nothing to really affix a sign to at the moment, but we were thinking of getting some signs to put on the new fence when we can hammer some poles down into the ground.

I'm pretty sure it's obviously a garden. I have clearly cultivated baby trees and berry bushes in the space as well as three raised beds which are currently still visible through the snow. But I was also wondering if a visible boundary like the rope fence (plus signs) might make it crystal clear that it's private land and put the trespassers off if they hadn't realised. Or perhaps even put them off even if they know it's private land but now they'd have to actually make effort to get over/under a rope fence. I suppose the good thing about the snow is that it makes it VERY obvious if someone has decided to walk through my garden!

An u use a hedge rather than a fence? Ropes won't work ime and would also look rubbish after a while!

Hedge isn't really great as it would then require a lot of maintenance and my kids then couldn't get up to the playground. It would also then remove a lot of the nice feel of the area in my opinion. So if I did have to go with a full on fence it would likely be one with quite a bit of open space between slats. I did consider one of those farm-style fences with a slat at the top and one in the middle, but figured those would be a TON easier to climb than 2 (or 3?) ropes at awkward intervals.

Unfortunately most people are CFs and will just step over your rope, especially if it's such a time saver. You need something more substantial that they can't easily climb over or they will just keep doing it.

That's why I was wondering how high a rope would need to be to not be very easy to step over :) I was thinking 4 feet high on quite a nasty incline would put people off? Particularly if there were then multiple ropes under to make going under it also not possible.

Can you install a hit-and-miss fence about 3' tall, with a gate in it so your kids can get to the playground? Vertical slats would be harder to climb than horizontal ones, and a fence would make it very clear that it's not public land. You could put a lock on the gate if CFs persist in opening it and strolling through.

I don’t think rope will stop them. I think a farm fence (while easier to climb) would be more of a deterrent than rope. I wouldn’t climb a fence but might well duck under a rope. Hedge or proper fence would probably be better though.

Save your money on rope and put in a prickly bush. Anything else is false economy- I speak from experience!

Just put in a hedge with a gate for your children.

Brambles make a good barrier.

You need to put up a fence and I'd add a sign saying private property. If they do it for long enough and you don't say anything through being polite, it could create a legal right to continue to use it.

I'd get a pack of Dobermans too. Cheeky sods.

And I'd go 6ft with proper panels.

A picket fence with a pointy top would work.
Like this or taller, wider slats, paint it a colour you like. It wouldn't be comfortable to sit on, and not great to climb over.

You could charge for the pet cemetary but not permit any plastic tat or balloons.

It is quite touching that someone buried a creature, someone cared rather than binning him or her and wanted a nice spot, maybe where they could walk by and see it often.

They need to be using it for 20 years apparently(!) but I'd still nip it in the bud pretty sharpish.

www.problemneighbours.co.uk/public-rights-way-england-wales.html