To be a bit freaked out someone has come into my garden...

[GardenDramas]

And cut my grass?

I have a path from my garden that runs between 2 neighbours gardens (6ft fences around path) that means I can take my bins out. My gate is at the bottom of the path and I forgot to put my padlock back on last week after bin day.

Iv gone to my bins this morning and noticed that the grass down the path has been cut (it was getting quite long to be fair) which means someone has come into my garden and cut it. While it is a lovely gesture, I'm a bit unsettled. I have no idea who it was. No neighbours have mentioned it (and I can't see that some long grass on my path would have affected them in any way-if so, they could have said!) I also have kids and dogs who are out in the garden a lot thanks to lockdown, who could have stumbled across the stranger in the garden, or the gate might not have been closed properly etc.

Aibu to be a bit confused and unsettled?

It's your private space, I don' t think it is unreasonable to expect a bit of control over it. It's obviously a neighbour who thought they would do something nice for you and it IS a nice thing to do, but I don't think it would do any hard to say, "Thanks but we prefer to cut the grass ourselves as we don't want the kids/dog escaping from the garden."

harm not hard!

Ugh yeah that's weird. When I was a kid our neighbour used to climb over our fence and mow our back garden. I think it was because he fancied my mum.

Thanks for the replies! I think I'll try find out which neighbour it was and have a word @krustykittens I'm not great with awkward chats but I think I'll be more cross with myself if I didn't say something!

@mumoblue, ugh your poor mum having a creepy guy crashing over the fence 😬Hopefully that's not the case for me, happily single 😂

Maybe a gardener who's got the wrong garden?

Its not a very professional looking job 😂
I hope its just something like that

Perhaps it is the person using the garden tap in this morning's thread.

My neighbour used to come in my garden and scalp my already mown grass when we were out. He was elderly and we decided he was bored so we ignored. It was unnerving until we worked out who it was. He also used to put our bins back for us which got annoying when they hadn't been emptied 😂

@krustykittens

It's your private space, I don' t think it is unreasonable to expect a bit of control over it. It's obviously a neighbour who thought they would do something nice for you and it IS a nice thing to do, but I don't think it would do any hard to say, "Thanks but we prefer to cut the grass ourselves as we don't want the kids/dog escaping from the garden."

Yeah, this ^

Just keep your gate locked again. Weird that they just happened to do it the one day you forgot - I bet they were itching too if your grass was that overgrown

But cheeky though to do it without asking first. As a favour is lovely and it might seem a treat but it's still your private property and a bit intrusive to assume it'd be ok when your gate is usually locked

Lol at the elderly neighbour putting bins back before they were emptied,(they'd still be heavy tho)

Is it just your path or do they have access to it also ?

Just my path, no one else has access.

I didnt think the neighbours can see onto my path because of the way it's angled, it's narrow and 6ft fences.

Will go and have a talk with some neighbours today and report back!

Yes Id find out and as Pp said, Thank them ,then say you'd rather so ot yourself due to dogs and kids..
Then its a case of remembering to keep gate locked as before I guess.

Ooh this makes me feel really invaded just th inking about it!

I hate the way some people overstep boundaries to be 'nice', it isn't nice, it is trespass.

Someone did same to our front grass once and I had to tell them to get off my land, clearly they thought I was the one with the problem.

Instead of having an awkward chat with your neighbours - could you ask them if they saw who had cut the grass? Then say, thank you, I hadn’t realised I’d left the gate unlocked - oops better not do that again!
I totally understand why you’re freaked out (as I would be), but it was probably well intentioned - perhaps they had the mower out and thought they’d just help you.

@FlamingoQueen

Instead of having an awkward chat with your neighbours - could you ask them if they saw who had cut the grass? Then say, thank you, I hadn’t realised I’d left the gate unlocked - oops better not do that again! I totally understand why you’re freaked out (as I would be), but it was probably well intentioned - perhaps they had the mower out and thought they’d just help you.

This^^ is great advice

At least they actually did the work! We were two days in our new home when I had my first child prematurely. As new parents, just been through a move, and in my husband's case, trying to keep working through it all, we didn't have time to mow the grass front and back and it got very long. Someone put a note through our door, advertising a Community Clean Up Day when everyone was going to mow their lawns and weed their garden etc. Guess what? Didn't happen. They were just trying to guilt us into doing something. We got someone to come round and sort it all out for us in a day and get us back on track but after that passive aggressive note, I did it when I was good and ready! Neighbours can be odd.