Seedlings in neighbour's paved driveway

[OinkBalloon]

Fences are not permitted between our properties at the front of our houses. So my front garden runs right up to my neighbour's drive on one side. A few years ago I scattered a bunch of mixed seeds in the border between my lawn and his drive. He's barely been at home in the last year, so there hasn't been much movement over his drive. Now Forget-Me-Nots are coming up between the pavings. Presumably in previous years his car kept them down.

Neighbour says that they are from my flowers so I'm responsible for keeping his drive clear.

AIBU to think that he's a sandwich short of a picnic? After all, I've never complained to him about all the apple trees that sprout in my back garden from the apple trees in his back garden, and they are a heck of a lot more intrusive and harder work to get rid of.

Yanbu whatsoever, what a lazy CF of a neighbour

Forget-me-nots spread like wildfire!

But no - not your responsibility. Give him a packet of weed killer.

Well perfect. If he mentions it again you tell him you'll do it when he clears up his plants in your garden

Forget-me-nots require bees, or other pollinators, do produce seed. Tell him to take the local insects to court.

@Seeline

Forget-me-nots spread like wildfire!

But no - not your responsibility. Give him a packet of weed killer.

Not your responsibility so DON'T make it yours by getting a packet of weedkiller.

I'd ignore him but if he's persistent he needs to be firmly told that you are not responsible for any assuredly of his property maintenance, just like he's not responsible for the apples in your garden.

Assuredly = aspect in autocorrect language

@Ifailed

Forget-me-nots require bees, or other pollinators, do produce seed. Tell him to take the local insects to court.

🤣🤣🤣

Damn - knew I should have found a tongue-in-cheek emoji

He's nuts. They're really not difficult to pull up either. He should try some of the mare's tails and thistles and stuff I get.

If I had forget me nots on my drive, the last thing I would want would be to kill them!

Tell him you will remove them if he can recite Mending Wall word by word perfectly.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

I like that poem.

The lack of fences at the front was one of dh's concerns when we bought house. He also said "Good fences make good neighbours". But TBF this is the first time we've had any issues of this sort.

Forget me nots are lovely, and are dead easy to pull up.
If it were me, I’d be very thankful that they’re not bloody dandelions. Or sycamore seedlings!

If you wait to pull FMNs up until they’re past it, though, beware, loads of seeds will stick to whatever you’re wearing. Speaking from experience since we have stacks of self sown FMNs in the front garden every year.

Plants spread 🤷‍♀️ if they didn't then they would have died out long ago. Neighbour needs to get a grip.

I'm also very jealous. I planted forget me nots in a little patch out the front of our house ready for this year but DH has since been on a personal vendetta against the creeping cinquefoil in said patch and doused it all in weed killer several times 😭

No matter how lovely they are, he doesn’t want them there and they are only there because the op scattered seeds. Now personally I’d not ask my neighbour to clear my drive but I can see why he’s annoyed as he now has something growing in his drive he didn’t wish there

Who can I blame for the dandelions which are in my garden, the bankngs around here are covered in them. I do find it interesting that random things come up, wild garlic started a few years ago, lovely in soups, and I've noticed this year that I have periwinkles for the first time.

I like daisies and dandelions, and they're very good in soup. Am I not to cultivate them in my garden because others consider them undesirable weeds?

Tell him to ask bee’s to clear his driveway. After all, they pollinate the flowers.

Plant some sunflower seeds in his pavement cracks

I want to know more about the soup.
I like cooked nettles.

Crikey I’d be quite happy with forget me nots instead of the bloody awful sycamore seedlings, hundreds of the things, that I have to pull up every year. I’d never dream of expecting my neighbour to come round and do it for me.

Chuck his apples back over the fence or something. Or arrange them artfully on his drive.

Congratulations OP you are living next to one of that extraordinary breed of people, the ones for whom the word 'batshit' was invented. Good luck.

@BaronessBomburst

I want to know more about the soup. I like cooked nettles.

Small dandelion leaves are good in salad, but the larger ones are better cooked IMO. Chop them up a bit and add to soup towards the the end of cooking. They're a bit like rocket, I think.

Daisies are entirely edible, though I've never dig them up to try the root - I leave the roots so that more will grow. The flowers are a nice addition to salads, but the leaves are a bit leathery and need to be cooked IMO. Chuck them whole into soups and st ews. They have a nice texture when they're cooked, more substantial than most leafy vegetables.

We have chopped dandelion regularly OP. The local farmer grows herbaceous flowers round the edges of some of his fields. He does not harvest them, but get money for growing them. The beauty is we can harvest them for salads and stews. Nothing like a bit of farmers' own seed when you need it.

My my @MyOctopusFeature!

Thank you @OinkBalloon. I have an abundance of both growing in my garden and we love rocket. I'll give it a go!