Was wrong to say this to my neighbour - feel sad that they are now talking to me.

[Somethingsosimple]

A couple of weeks ago the sun shone for the first time in weeks and I was planning to dry washing and be outside with my son as he had a inset day. Then we looked out of the open window to the sky full of smoke and bits of ash falling and covering all our cars and drive way. I decided to ask my neighbour politely how long she was planning to have a bonfire. It was 10 in the morning. She said all day which I said I was disappointed about as was pleased to be able to be in the garden. Her husband came out and said oh sorry maybe we could finish at lunchtime to which his wife looked furious. I politely turned and said I would leave them up discuss. The husband knocked on my door a short time later a said they would finish at lunch time a dvi thanked him. I have since seen the wife since who said I had massively inconvenienced them and has since ignored me. I’m feeling really sad as we have been friendly before this and I hate falling out. Should I have kept my mouth shut?

The other scary issue is, many people will be fighting corona, stuck in their bedrooms, struggling to breathe and need fresh air, probably feeling sick and with headaches.

Imagine having to shut them in with an already smokey smell all day because of the most inward navel gazing tit who can't live with some mess in their garden.

@jojobar Maybe one of your neighbours has covid already and you don't know? I have been ill for a month. I have only just started being able to leave the house now. I met my neighbours yesterday and had a brief chat from a safe distance. They were very surprised and concerned to hear I had been unwell. Luckily they are considerate people who have been burning nothing in their garden.

Perhaps if one of your neighbours does have covid they may have no alternative but to stagger out of bed and come round to tell you in person they can't breathe properly and your bonfire is making it worse?

On the basis all my immediate neighbours are leaving the house regularly and many are still going out to work, it seems unlikely any are suffering from the virus.

However even assuming one of them is, the question remains what do I do with a significant amount of garden waste that I can't burn, or bag?

I would genuinely put up with a bit of inconvenience now for the sake of neighbours who might be struggling @jojobar.

jojobar - get a garden shredder and a hot-bin composter. Rats can't get in to the hotbin, and if it only has garden waste (not food), they won't try to anyway.

if you shred the branches / leaves in the garden shredder and then put them in a hot composter, you will get good compost in about 6-8 weeks. You then save on trips to the dump AND on buying new compost at the garden center

I've used this system for the last few years and it works amazingly well. All my garden rubbish now gets recycled in my own garden.

@jojobar assuming you are for real just try not to worry about it because there are far more important things in life.

The selfishness of people astounds me sometimes. Just leave your garden waste in your garden.

How much garden waste can one person have to make a whole section unusable?

What is wrong with poeople?I
I thought it was illegal to have a fire before 6pm, maybe it's not.
I would think sod her op, she is selfish.
There was a man on tv talking about pollution and sadly even though the traffic level has been reduced, pollution has hardly dropped. He said it could be put down to the increase in fires.

I already have over a carload, plus probably the same again to cut back. Obviously more will be added over the coming weeks.

I will have to pile it in the front garden which will probably still inconvenience others if it's then blown into their gardens. Hopefully they don't complain about that.

I will look into a shredder but I've no idea of the cost or if I can afford one. I'm reluctant to get a composter because the exterminator man was adamant they were a rat risk.

I have a large garden with several trees. Once a year, usually around 5th November, I rake the leaves into a huge pile and burn them. My neighbours will usually pop round for a glass of mulled wine.
I guess this makes me Satan's spawn in the world of absolutes that is mumsnet land.

When she decides to speak to you again, which she will when it suits her, ignore her and give her the silent treatment back. You really don't need this kind of petty person in your life...

All our waste goes into compost. In 20 years we’ve never had a problem with rats - as long as you keep turning it (so rats realise it isn’t an attractive place to raise a family), critters should stay away.

Jojobar just ring for a rubbish removal firm. Check he has a licence for the tip and send it with them. Tips are still open for commercial businesses.

Our Council has banned bonfires during these times, with fines for non compliance up to £5000 if a nuisance.

Bonfires have started up again due to no bin collection and the tip not open. So burning garden rubbish at this time isn’t unreasonable. However I don’t think you were unreasonable to ask how long it would take. Just ignore her. My neighbour one the other day at 7pm so wasn’t a problem for me. However once the tip is back open I shall look forward to no bonfires.

@jojobar can’t you designate an area of your back garden where your garden waste goes.

I assume that is what most people are going to have to do. There is no way I would consider having a bonfire in our garden. We are surrounded by houses and have a typical modern estate sized garden.

In future just phone the council, she was being an idiot so forget about her

Where do we stand on fire pits and chimineas?

It would be difficult to designate an area in the back garden without clearing it first, and I can't clear it without anywhere to put it. It will have to go in the front garden.
My garden isn't huge, about 80ft x 30ft, but it has 9 trees of varying sizes plus large bushes, hedges etc.

I don't think any rubbish collection services are operating locally; someone did ask on our local FB page and received responses to that effect.

It genuinely wouldn’t occur to me to burn anything. Do you not then just have a big charred mess to deal with??

That sounds quite a reasonable sized garden to me @jojobar. Can’t you just pile it all up in a corner

The corners are the most overgrown, I'd be piling it on top of and in front of things I still need to cut down or back, and U need to try and get all round to spray the fences too. I'll move it to the front. It will need to be taken out there to put it in my car to take to the tip (when they finally reopen) or to be put in a skip when you can get one of those again. I've managed to move my car so there's room for both garden branches and car on the drive.

We can’t put shredded paper in the recycling, it’s listed as a definite no-no. I have a small incinerator and burn it in that but wouldn’t dream of doing so on a warm sunny day!

You were perfectly reasonable. This woman isn't a rational person, nor someone I'd call a friend or at least friendly neighbour.

I've had a couple of tiny ones at night, around 9pm. I wanted to teach DS about fire building and safety. Also teach him some campfire songs and toast marshmallows. I've got some lovely sticks from felling an old tree so it crackles away rather than smoking, like when you burn waste.

They dont have Cubs and Scouts over here so I realised it was up to me, as a former highly-decorated Girl Guide, to provide this experience

Big smokey daytime ones are dreadful - I'd be too embarrassed to do it. You were not unreasonable at all.