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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Obsessive neighbour losing the plot over leaves

578 replies

Sparkies2012 · 13/11/2023 20:40

Our neighbours are a relatively elderly couple and since they moved in have had a bee in their bonnet over leaves that blow onto their driveway. The gate to our driveway is opposite to their open driveway, separated by a narrow road. Our next door neighbour has a massive old tree in their garden that produces a lot of leaves, most of which fall into our driveway. We don’t really bother collecting the leaves, as it is an endless task at this time of the year, but the elderly couple is constantly on at us because the leaves blow across the road into their driveway and the odd one gets in their front door. Now we have told them we don’t produce the leaves, and they don’t bother us, so if they are bothered by the leaves either pick them up or take it up with our neighbour who owns the tree. But now they have even started collecting them in black bags and, under the cover of darkness, leaving them in front of our driveway gate, or throwing them over our fence. I’m tempted next time they do this to open the bag and dump it over their driveway again. AIBU by not picking up the leaves in our garden?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
13
wishingiwas20something · 15/11/2023 10:01

In interests of solving the issue, I’d suggest a leaf whatsapp group, every leaf that falls should be photographed, cataloged and assigned to a household. Absolute madness that this isn’t under control. 😬

grass67 · 15/11/2023 10:05

Honestly I'd be very grateful, it makes great compost. Just stab some holes in the bags and hide behind the shed. Alternatively stick a note out and leave curb side..someone will gladly take them.

Obviously they are being odd, but just don't play along. All the passive aggressiveness will just fuel a long running dispute. life is too short. One day you might need their help and you can bet they are good for neighbourhood watch! I'd drop them a bottle of wine, and explain how grateful I was.

bonzaitree · 15/11/2023 10:06

Print the picture of them putting the leaves on your property and post it through their door, along with a note to say fly tipping is an offence.

what absolute nutters

ClawedButler · 15/11/2023 10:13

Spent a cheerful hour last night thinking of songs that would be enjoyed by an audience of leaf-bagging loons:

Trees release me, let me go
Don't leaf me this way
50 ways to leaf your neighbour
Love me or leaf me
I beg your pardon....I never promised you a leafless garden
Shut up and (clear the) drive

SnowflakeSparkles · 15/11/2023 10:13

Sparkies2012 · 14/11/2023 19:13

So a quick update, last nights bag of leaves is back. We caught the neighbour on camera, out in her dressing gown, putting it back against our fence at 7am this morning, not directly in front of the gate this time but back on our property none the less. I’m writing a note to pin to the bag in the morning with a warning about fly tipping and putting it back on her drive.

Omg please update with their response!

Pocketfullofdogtreats · 15/11/2023 10:18

I sympathise. We have people bloody miles away 150 metres- who obsess over the leaves so much that their two (two!) gardeners spend half their time using massive industrial leaf-blowers. The gardener's wear ear defenders and it is deafening when you walk past. But what really gets me is that they blow the leaves up the road, both sides. It's not their road! Why does it matter that it's pristine outside their house? And instead of picking them up they blow them, so that next day they have to it all again after they've blown back. There is this drone sound going all afternoon these days and I know it drives their opposite neighbours batty. I've thought about talking to the gardener's but it seems pointless, as it keeps them in a job, presumably.

greenacrylicpaint · 15/11/2023 10:18

leaf mould is fantastic for the garden.
just collect the bin bags and store them until spring. then you can use the content to mulch your flower beds

Danielle9891 · 15/11/2023 10:26

This is pretty funny, imagine someone getting up through the night to pick leaves up. I wish you had a ring doorbell or camera footage. I could do with a laugh. Some people really need a hobby.

Aif1234 · 15/11/2023 10:32

How well do you know the people who own the tree? Have you spoken to them about what’s happening? Not to complain but just to see if they’ve also been approached about the leaves!

TheKnittedCharacter · 15/11/2023 10:33

They are truly batshit. I’d be sorely tempted to tip all the leaves back out over your drive just to wind them up. 😂

Grumblevision · 15/11/2023 10:49

FREE COMPOST. I'm always torn between 'leave for the insects at risk of slippery death' and FREEE COMPOOOOOST at this time of year. I'd think it was the ultimate gift if someone made the decision for me and gave me precious leaves.

CheeseCakeSunflowers · 15/11/2023 10:56

You could wait for a day with a nice breeze blowing in the right direction then tip them out in the right place on your drive so they blow straight back onto your neighbours property.

dutysuite · 15/11/2023 11:01

I’d tell them to fuck off…really firmly.

Darker · 15/11/2023 11:14

Thank them profusely and tell them to send all the bagged leaves your way as you are making compost.

Therealjudgejudy · 15/11/2023 11:23

Your neighbours are batshit!

Definitely go with the flytipping note on returned bags of leaves

Hickry · 15/11/2023 11:31

FGS how ridiculous. If they're that motivated to pick them up and bag them up, why not just put them in their own bin?!

I'd squash this fast. Warn them they are fly tipping and aks them to stop or you will take it further. The leaves are not even from a tree on your property. They're bonkers!

AlocasiaPolly · 15/11/2023 11:32

I could almost have written this post about my mother apart from the passive aggressive bag leaving, she does bin them herself, and complains bitterly about it!
She has a bee in her bonnet about next doors tree, and has my dad outside cleaning up multiple times a week. She genuinely has too much time on her hands, and worries about her drains getting blocked, wet leaves sitting at the side of her house which could cause damp, etc etc. I get regular phone calls with leaf status updates 🙄.
Her answer is to move, which has prompted even more frantic leaf clearing ahead of every. Single. Viewing.
I can't help with a solution OP, but you aren't alone.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 15/11/2023 11:44

What's neighbourly about some one dumping leaves in a random persons garden? That's bang out of order? Are you actually saying OP should accept that? Because its neighbourly to not say "dispose of them yourself"?

It's like bitterly falling out with your next-door neighbour because the neighbour the other side blares out loud music all day, or because that neighbour often parks blocking your drive - as well as the in-between neighbour's drive sometimes. They really cannot be well.

Except that playing excessively loud music and selfish parking are deliberate and unpleasant antisocial behaviours; whereas leaves dropping in autumn is just what nature does.

This actually reminds me a bit of one of my (now-deceased) relatives who suffered from serious mental health problems all her life. Supposing there was an item on the TV news or in the paper about a terrible crime committed by somebody called John, she would think that it must be her neighbour John at number 63 - and he's obviously going by a false surname and identity (and everything else apart from happening to share a common first name). Thankfully, she wasn't able to actually go and accost him in person, but she would still frequently shout up his name from her living room.

Sauvblanctime · 15/11/2023 11:44

ClawedButler · 15/11/2023 10:13

Spent a cheerful hour last night thinking of songs that would be enjoyed by an audience of leaf-bagging loons:

Trees release me, let me go
Don't leaf me this way
50 ways to leaf your neighbour
Love me or leaf me
I beg your pardon....I never promised you a leafless garden
Shut up and (clear the) drive

genius 🤣🤣🤣🤣

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 15/11/2023 11:49

I returned to my parked car yesterday to find that a bird had done an enormous poo on the windscreen. I know that the couple three streets away have a canary, so I'll have to go straight over there and give them a load of righteous abuse - what further proof of guilt would you need?

SequentialAnalyst · 15/11/2023 11:49

Whiteday · 15/11/2023 03:17

What's neighbourly about some one dumping leaves in a random persons garden? That's bang out of order? Are you actually saying OP should accept that? Because its neighbourly to not say "dispose of them yourself"?

No, I don't hold with every old person should be respected, getting old doesn't make you a saint!

I thought the point was that the poster you replied to advocated neighbourliness?

Even in the Good Old Days, there were shitty neighbours. There are always dickheads, of every age. I expect there were Leaf Battles even in my young dayGrin

ImNotReallySpartacus · 15/11/2023 11:54

Sauvblanctime · 15/11/2023 11:44

genius 🤣🤣🤣🤣

If Ever I Should Leaf You...it wouldn't be in Autumn.....🎵

AbsolutePlonker · 15/11/2023 11:58

Oh I'm loving this thread. We live on a very old tree-lined road (it's absolutely beautiful) and you would not be-LEAF how over-the-top the oldies get about their driveways. Meanwhile I like to leave the leaves and brush them on to our lawn because it helps insects etc. No one has mentioned anything to me about our driveway yet but we do have the worst house on the street so they probably expect it of us.... (truly, we bought a reno and then had children and ran out of money)

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 15/11/2023 12:06

Wonderful, ClawedButler!!

How about:
I'm a de-leafer
Don't stop de-leafing
Blowin' in the wind
Forever Autumn

It's going to be an award-winning soundtrack to the exciting new North Yorkshire remake of a classic film: Leafless In Settle - with bonus timeless tracks from Harry Secombe-ore, Phil Oak-ey and (Horse) Chestnut-ty Hawkes.

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 15/11/2023 12:21

Can I volunteer to hide in a big bag of leaves that you put on the neighbours' driveway? Then, when she toddles out to bring it over and dump it back on your garden I can burst forth (I'm thinking glitter, possibly a tutu and a wand) and shout 'I am the leaf fairy! I come to bring you joy!'

The sight of me in a tutu, never mind the glitter et al, ought to be enough to confine her to the house for the rest of her days and mean she never has to look at another offending leaf.