Is it rude to look at people's front gardens

[Varnas]

I live in UK for many years but still sometimes I wonder if I'm doing something wrong without realising.
I often glance at people's front gardens - what plants they have etc. I don't stop and look, literally a glance and I never meant to be offending.
But today an elderly woman open her front door when I was passing and started to shout at me "Why are you always looking at my garden?". /I use this street maybe 2-3 times per month/.
Now I'm thinking - is there some unspoken rule about that? Where I come from, looking at someone's garden is perfectly normal but maybe is different in UK 🤔
AIBU - I was rude.
AINBU - nothing wrong with looking at front gardens

I’m proud of my garden and if I saw someone looking I would be delighted.

God knows what’s going on with that woman. Maybe she mistook you for someone else? Maybe she’s had trouble? Maybe she has dementia (my aunt was very randomly aggressive and accusatory when she developed dementia)? Maybe she’s just a confrontational prick?

YANBU

I second the dementia thing. My Grandparents (both deceased now) Garden was literally like the secret garden, it was incredible with little passageways and hidden waterfalls and statues and ponds and I adored it as a kid and they were happy to show it off, have me and my friends round to play in it. When they both got dementia my uncle took it over but my grandma would shout and swear and make horrible, insulting comments at passersby. It was the disease talking not her. She'd gone [sad[.

Not weird at all OP.

Whats weird is the people who rock up at my garden, often coming right in, taking photos or stopping to eat sandwiches. THATS rude. Looking as you walk past is perfectly normal.

Is she Mrs Twitt? Sounds it, misery guts needs a fence to protect from people seeing.

Flippin heck....I'm done for then. I often stop and point flowers and birds out to my 3 year old on the nursery run. I'd take it as a lovely compliment if people stopped to look at my garden.

Mine is meant to be looked at. I'd be offended if people didn't look. I put a lot of effort in.

I love looking at other people's gardens. I've planted my front garden so that people walking past can enjoy it.

What is a front garden for if not for people to admire it!?

I've got long troughs and window boxes at the front of my house, no garden, just these. They give me a lot of pleasure and people often stop and compliment them, saying they enjoy them too. I always look at gardens, it's a mutual appreciation society. Keep looking and enjoying OP, that's what they're there for.

I am one of those that stops and has a look. I love gardens and am looking to see whether plants are doing well (gives me inspiration for my garden as we would have the same soil), what they’ve chosen, what combinations etc. I am happy for anyone to look at my garden too. I always do it with a smile on my face and I hope I’m not coming across as suspicious!

I live in an area of central London with very few front gardens - and very little made of those that do exist. There's a council block near me where an old retired guy (and he's been that for at least fifteen years!) takes great pride in the little strip in front of his window, and has now expanded to outside the flat next door.
It's usually a riot of colour for about nine months of the year - and when I stopped outside when he was working on it last summer and said how cheering his garden always is, he bristled with pride.

sounds a lot cheerier than your neighbour :)

I love taking the dog for a walk when it's getting dark and people have their lights on so I can have a good nose in their houses.

that's rude

@Kitkatkatnap me too! 😂

@Fr0g well close your blinds/curtains you exhibitionist. Most people have a nose as you well know

You are not being rude looking in people’s front gardens. People often stop to talk to me when l’m in mine. It’s only rude to look in people’s bedroom windows !

No! Unless looking = casing the joint.

I still remember though glancing over someone's garden (not even looking, just turning my head in that direction without really taking in anything) walking through a local estate as a teenager, and a woman coming out saying really aggressively "Look at your own fuckin' 'ouse!"

Perhaps you and I came across the same person at different times of her life, OP.

Not rude at all. People’s front gardens are usually right on the footpath, so it’s only natural for people to have a glance. I don’t mean stand there, take photos and help yourself to flowers or anything, which obviously would be rude. She sounds a bit bonkers!

I'm always looking at other peoples gardens or extensions! I guess I'm rude too!

I think she was cranky, it was not you. She must have an issue of some sort. Most people with nice gardens take pride in them and expect people will walk past and see them.

You have been inadvertently looking at the garden of a woman who is completely batshit.

I do this all the time. What’s the point of going for a walk if you can’t look at anything? I

@wickedlypetite me too.

I love flowers and I plant up my front garden with a riot of annuals every year because it makes me happy.
A few passers by have commented on it and I am delighted it makes other people happy too.

@Varnas

Do you live in East Sussex? I saw this very thing happen yesterday afternoon. In the road near mine. Woman is known to be a bit 'odd'!