Neighbour spraying my weeds

[Clappingforjoy]

Okay so I'm not a gardener and have tried and tried to keep my garden under some kind of control with the weeds but have never had the money to change it in the way of converting it to a concrete jungle to avoid the maintenance.
Upstairs is senior couple who keep theirs neat and unfortunately they look over onto my lovely garden and it's open at the side meaning that I have to go over onto theirs for access to my shed so I get that my garden is thrown in thier face pretty often.
However how would you feel if she came over into your garden spraying your weeds without asking.

The weather is nice, you could do a little bit each day, enjoy the fresh air and getting out of the flat. If even that is too much, say thank you for their help.

I would be grateful but embarrassed. Do you have a major objection to weed killer- would you have used it? Hand weeding is very labour intensive and time consuming.

I need to do my gravel drive this weekend which is impossible to hand weed. I have used salt before but my local supermarket doesn’t sell big bags of salt and I am not travelling to get it so I am going to use up whatever I weed killer I have and hope it’s enough.

Sadly a lot of people in the UK are stupid and lazy and give not two fucks about wildlife.

Or are too lazy to pull a few weeds out of what sounds like a shared garden and end up pissing the neighbours off.

I agree that throwing weedkiller on someone else's patch was uncalled for, but I can totally understand the neighbour's frustration.

Once a garden has been cleared of weeds it really isn't difficult to keep on top of them, unless the garden is huge.

IMO it's antisocial to have a complete eyesore of a garden. Not everyone has to have petunias and perfectly trimmed lawns but have a bit of pride. If OP's neighbours are keen gardeners I can see why it would grind their gears over time and they've probably thought 'fuck it, she won't care'. You have a garden OP, shared or not- something a lot of people would absolutely love right now. Go pull a few weeds out, you might like it

I totally agree.

Or are too lazy to pull a few weeds out of what sounds like a shared garden and end up pissing the neighbours off

Yes I agree. OP needs to crack on and sort it out and tell the NDN to stop spraying toxic chemicals about.

@Ginfordinner as someone who bought a house last year that had an eyesore for a garden...I tidied it up as soon as possible and slowly making it beautiful. Lol.

Im slightly baffled by the amount of responses that equate taking care of your garden = bad for the environment...OP clearly indicated her garden is a mess. Planting some bee friendly trees and using organic weedkiller is slightly different from supporting your local rat population.

Ps. And yes, it's the biohazard aspect of the weedkiller which most have an issue with. That wasn't raised by the OP. They were 'aibu' about the neighbours meddling with her weeds.
If it was damaging weedkiller the neighbours used out of attempted kindness/desperation then if you're so affronted,do something about it yourself before anyone else has to in a way you don't like..

I buy insect friendly plants and shrubs for my garden. I hate seeing extremely unkempt gardens. My favourite style is an old fashioned cottage garden, full of insect loving plants.

I would be happy (and a little embarrassed).

'Organic weedkiller' is still bad for soil and insects. The only safe organic weedkiller is to get some gloves on and pull them up by the roots.

@koshkatt - regardless, the weedkiller use is not the ultimate complaint here - it's the garden interference. If OP doesn't like it, do something about it.

I think I'd be a bit embarrassed. I don't think your neigh our has done this to be a don't. Your garden is obviously impacting theirs. The wind will.blpw the seeds into their garden making keeping it weed free more difficult.
Let the weed killer do it's stuff now an kill the seeds for a few days. Then have a today up when these same bit before the new weeds spring up.
I.would be a bit miffed if they did it without asking but don't think I'd want to fall out with my neighbours over something of mine that's negatively impacting them.

It's a gorgeous day for gardening OP - get yourself out there!

I'd be furious because they are likely using a highly toxic chemical (eg glyphosate herbicide Roundup is a probable human carcinogen and the subject of million dollar lawsuits in USA (the juries decided Roundup had caused the plaintiffs' cancers).

I’d be really furious. It’d be dangerous to my dog and kids, plus spraying poison about is actually dangerous if people are unaware it’s there - plus some weed killers are carcinogenic. Just because they don’t like it, they shouldn’t have sprayed poison. They should have had a conversation with you. It may be that they are bored and hate looking at the garden - in which case they could offer to do some bits in the garden as it’s clearly something they value.