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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbours/their visitors walking over newly laid turf

40 replies

Greenfishy · 25/08/2023 12:48

So we have a very slightly strained relationship with our neighbours for reasons I won’t go into, but we are polite and friendly, cooperate when necessary (pests in the garden etc) and take in parcels for each other etc.

We have recently had turf laid on our front garden. Previously it was a weedy wasteland (we bought a Reno and it wasn’t a priority) and now we’ve had meadowmat turf laid. Lush and green but lots of different grasses/plants for wildlife. I suppose if you are not paying any attention you might not notice it was different - however the other stuff was yellowing and dandelions etc, so it is different.

Next door (particularly their visitors, but they have been doing it too) have been walking over our front garden for ages. Even dragging bins across it! I assume it’s because they can’t be bothered to go around all their cars that are parked on the drive and street. We’ve left it and not said anything when it was a wasteland but now they’re still doing it and we are pissed off. Culminating in DP shouting at a bloke walking his dog across it to speak to one of the neighbours today!!

So my question is, AIBU to go round and tell them please don’t walk across it? Or just leave it and hope the message gets through from DP’s actions today?

OP posts:
Wherethewildthymeblows · 25/08/2023 12:49

Put up a fence?

Eyesopenwideawake · 25/08/2023 12:50

We’ve left it and not said anything

hope the message gets through from DP’s actions today?

PA with bells on!! Just talk to them. Really, it's that simple.

TriedToMakeMeGoToRehab · 25/08/2023 12:50

I’d put planters and boulders round the edge and tell them to stop. They’re more likely not to do it with a visual reminder.

GrunkleStan · 25/08/2023 12:53

If its newly laid, no one should be walking on it tbh.

pikkumyy77 · 25/08/2023 12:55

Fence it or rocks or new boundary until they learn a new pattern.

Longtimelurkerfinallyposts · 25/08/2023 12:55

put up a fence (even just a temporary one) and a sign (that explains the turf is new and can't handle being walked on right now)?
even if you talk to them about it in person (which isn't a bad idea), that doesn't get the message across to random visitors, delivery drivers etc.

Badbudgeter · 25/08/2023 12:55

Put up a fence. You get rolls of orange plastic temp fencing and posts for £20.

AgathaMystery · 25/08/2023 12:56

YANBU BUT - this in an ingrained habit they need to break. Buy some cheap bamboo poles and stake the lawn off with tape for the next 6-8 weeks until the turf is established. The habit will be broken by then.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 25/08/2023 12:56

Temporary fence. If you can get some flexible sticks you can just stick them in the ground and bend them down into arcs.

Tinkerbyebye · 25/08/2023 12:58

Put up small posts and twine if you can’t have a fence. I use canes stuck in the ground and twine between them. They will soon get the hint

Totalwasteofpaper · 25/08/2023 13:00

Yep - Get a fence
Something like this is nice in white or black.

www.harrodhorticultural.com/driveway-chain-link-fencing-pid9275.html

Original poster
Greenfishy · 25/08/2023 13:03

Thanks everyone. Yes we were thinking of a fence but can’t do it till Monday so hopefully they won’t do any more damage until then. I like the flexible sticks or post and twine ideas!

Just annoyed that randoms think it’s ok to just walk across someone’s front garden 🙄

OP posts:
Original poster
Greenfishy · 25/08/2023 13:03

I will speak to them this evening too I think

OP posts:
jeffgoldblum · 25/08/2023 13:06

People used to let their dogs poo on ours before dh landscaped and put slate down, was particularly crap as we have our own dog and it wasn't allowed ( we live literally next to dog park with poo bins!) 🙄

user76541055773 · 25/08/2023 13:08

Temporary fence, some signs, and speak to them.

They won’t know if you don’t tell them, but your expensive new turf will be easily damaged by people walking on it.

Bluevelvetsofa · 25/08/2023 16:46

Too late now, but would it have been possible to speak to them before the turf was laid and explain that it need to settle and root and shouldn’t be walked on. You could do that now though.

LikeShitMermaids · 25/08/2023 17:34

They won’t know if you don’t tell them

People shouldn't need to be told not to walk all over other peoples' gardens (turf or no turf).

We are the "new" neighbours in our village, but I don't need anyone to tell me that I shouldn't be trespassing in/on the front garden next door.

lanthanum · 25/08/2023 17:49

They shouldn't need to be told not to walk over someone else's garden, but on the other hand, if they've been doing so and nobody has ever said anything, they've probably assumed they don't mind - which was apparently the case until the new turf went down.

Have a quick conversation to say you've started working on the front garden, there's new turf that mustn't be walked on, and you're hoping to have it looking like a garden rather than a thoroughfare before long. Then they'll understand the sudden change of attitude to their trespassing.

Gaxy1 · 28/08/2023 10:18

We took over my dads house when he passed away. The neighbours would walk through ours to get to theirs, leave junk in ours awaiting pick up etc. Even when we took over and started using our garden more it didn’t seem to make a difference. We’d be sitting in the garden when their visitors would walk through without thinking anything of it. We built a big fence round ours which blocked off the access they were using to their garden. It was only then that they started respecting that it was our space not theirs!

Fraaahnces · 28/08/2023 10:22

Electric fence

Deathinvegas · 28/08/2023 10:22

This is unfortunately something that happens with unfenced front gardens in built up areas.
My mum had this in similar circumstances used to drive her crazy, she planted small bushes round the edge which eventually solved the problem and the birds love it.
The sticks and twine sound like a good temporary solution.
Also, good call with the meadow lawn.

MonumentalLentil · 28/08/2023 10:26

Motion activated sprinklers. Dual purpose.

FFSWhatToDoNow · 28/08/2023 10:29

Just annoyed that randoms think it’s ok to just walk across someone’s front garden 🙄

Quite, but presumably they think you don’t mind given you’ve said nothing every other time they’ve done it!

Nopenopenopenopenopenope · 28/08/2023 11:27

Unfortunately some front gardens are designed (use that term loosely) in such a way that it's not entirely clear if they are someone's garden or if they're just a public verge.

Made worse by the fact some are managed by contractors for housing associations who don't give a shit which ones are council property and which ones are privately owned. Perhaps your neighbours and the people walking across it don't realise? Have you told them?

I ended up putting stepping stones across mine as one postie would always trample over whatever I had planted there.

ImABox · 28/08/2023 11:28

Bamboo stick and some string along the edge for now and go and speak to them and say newly laid please don’t walk on