Should I be concerned about next door's seriously overgrown garden?

[PeachesMcLean]

As in, the entire plot is filled with 6ft high brambles and outsize shrubs. And they're not tiny gardens so that's a lot of brambles.

I know I can cut down the ones which encroach on my garden, and I wonder if this is why I'm getting so many brambles in my garden as well...

But I'm also just wondering if there could be a rat problem. I mean, I've never seen one here so far but the thought has just crossed my mind and summer's coming and I'm feeling a bit (we only moved in last autumn...)

I think brambles spread by creeping, so you'd see the branches encroaching into your garden and rooting there, if they're coming from next door.

I don't think there's much you can do, apart from knocking on the door and seeing if it's an old person who might appreciate some help with their plot?

Or sneak in one night and drench the whole area in weedkiller!

Is it a rented property? You might be able to write to the actual owners if so as there might be a clause that says they have to look after the garden.

I've put a pic on my profile so you can sort of see just how full the garden is - right up above the walls. You wouldn't be able to walk past the first couple of feet which is all dandelions. I can't begin to imagine just how much weedkiller you'd need!

The house is empty - the owner has lived in a care home I believe for several years. her house gets checked occasionally by a distant relative but they only tidy the front garden.

I've been happily thinking how great it is for wildlife - the birds love it - just beginning to wonder what else might live in there...

Good lord That needs napalm on it.

If it's owned I would leave a note (several strong ones) to be found by whoever comes in now and again to see to the front garden. Maybe ask them to pop round so you can have a chat.

Is it worth phoning the council and emailing them a picture?

Rats are everywhere anyway, I see them often because we live in the country. If they arent out in daylight in your garden, you're not doing too bad.

I Wonder why the nextdoor house isn't for sale, though, if long-term empty.

Would the council be able to do anything?

I think I'll have to start by just dropping a note in asking them to call round when they're next there. So long as there's not likely to be a rat problem (that was my real worry) and other than it being an eyesore, (LOL at the shocked faces!) I don't know that I've really got grounds for official complaint. Just have to keep cutting down the brambles that come over the wall..

That picture looks quite horrendous!

I pity you, because my next door neighbour seems to have a similar problem when it comes to garden maintenance. I am plagued by brambles and bindweed that keeps find it's way under the fence and into my garden.

My problem is not on such a large scale as yours, but it is still a pain to keep these weeds under control when they are coming from someone else's garden.

I wish you the best of luck in dealing with this.

i sympathise - our neighbour has a waist high jungle of brmables, bindweed and nettles which are all merrily seeping into our garden. if council cant get sthing done on env health grounds you could always be sneaky and paint Roundup or one of those systemic weedkillers onto anything that grows onto your side of the fence. that will kill it right back to the root. if enough of it comes over the wall it will make a start...i am itching to do this to our neighbour but dont trust the dog not to eat it.

tbh - I don't think it is all that bad (sorry). You could have a lot worse next door. That just looks like a lot of the overgrown lanes we have around our house. I wouldn't worry too much about rats if you haven't seen any. You are just as likely to get rats due to the activites of other neighbours (not putting bins out properly, feeding birds, using compost bins). At least there aren't smelly bins or old freezers, microwaves etc dumped in the garden too.

I sympathise with the bambles though - you just have to keep at it with the cutting. We are surrounded by hedgerows which are full of them - they like to lean over and attack me when I'm carrying the laundry up the garden, then I have to go back and pick odd socks etc off the thorns