Tyrannical gardening-obsessed shaming neighbors

[Anonymous]

We just can’t take anymore of our retired over the back fence neighbors. We have a toddler and a newborn, but even before we had kids, they (especially she) were unbearable. She’s obsessed with weeds and what she refers to as “junk trees.” She will call and email us acting as if we have made a commitment to her to weed our yard or pull up some tree she has it in for. My husband laughs in her face. I feel harassed.

[Anonymous]

I would offer to let her weed your yard. My weirdo gardening neighbor is obsessed with t the strip between the sidewalk and street so I agreed to let her plant flowers in ours if we trim around hers. Win-win.

Or just ignore and avoid them, but that gets old fast.

[Anonymous]

Laugh in her face, block the emails, let calls go to voicemail.

[Anonymous]

What does you having children and listing their ages have to do with this?

[Anonymous]

Is your yard really bad, OP? And do your “junk trees” drop on her lawn/garden?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your yard really bad, OP? And do your “junk trees” drop on her lawn/garden?

+1 ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your yard really bad, OP? And do your “junk trees” drop on her lawn/garden?

+1 ?

What are you questioning, PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is your yard really bad, OP? And do your “junk trees” drop on her lawn/garden?

.

I knew someone would ask this. I should have put in my original post that we have a lawn service that comes once a week.

I really don’t understand her definition of junk trees. She HATES fruit trees and huckleberries.

I listed my daughters’ ages because I have zero free time.

[Anonymous]

Certain types of trees constantly drop branches into the yard. They become a bit of a nuisance. I think people would call them “junk trees.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Certain types of trees constantly drop branches into the yard. They become a bit of a nuisance. I think people would call them “junk trees.”

None of our trees are anywhere near her yard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your yard really bad, OP? And do your “junk trees” drop on her lawn/garden?

+1 ?

What are you questioning, PP?

Just reinforcing the same good question(that the op answered).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your yard really bad, OP? And do your “junk trees” drop on her lawn/garden?

.

I knew someone would ask this. I should have put in my original post that we have a lawn service that comes once a week.

I really don’t understand her definition of junk trees. She HATES fruit trees and huckleberries.

I listed my daughters’ ages because I have zero free time.

Ignore the nasty posters. Your neighbor is incredibly rude. I would not invite her to weed, and I would not invite her to step onto your property, because if she's really that crazy, she might take out some plants or damage something.

Fruit trees that attract birds also attract rodents and leave huge bird droppings in season. We have a mulberry tree that attracts all the wildlife in our neighborhood, and our cars take a beating. We prune it back, but will not cut it down, since we appreciate that it feeds the birds. We love our natural lawn with dandelions and clover, we generally have a lush and profuse kind of garden - we pick the plants we like, be they humble weeds or rare and valuable roses that we've sourced and shipped with care. Your garden is your own domain. Push back firmly against the neighbor, and tell her that the concept of "weed" belongs in the 20th century, and that you like your garden just as it is.

A note on landscaping companies around here: most of them don't know what the heck they're doing. They use mulch, which is completely useless in 99% of applications, instead of filling the space with appropriate plants and create busywork so you'll need them regularly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Certain types of trees constantly drop branches into the yard. They become a bit of a nuisance. I think people would call them “junk trees.”

Which ones, exactly? I know of none, except sick trees.

[Anonymous]

Joke that you're happy to have her come weed your yard and maybe she'll come do it.

My neighbors completely stopped weeding or mowing parts of their yard that they don't see. They have a set of bushes that border our house and they just won't do anything else with the 5ft that's on our side of the bushes. Trees started to grow in the grass and the roses got so out of control they were scraping my cars in the driveway. We asked if we could pull weeds and mulch and they said yes. They even let us re landscape it when we had a big company do our yard. I didn't mind the extra gardening, I like gardening. New neighbors just moved in and were like "why is our yard so nice on your side and the rest is post-apocalyptic?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just can’t take anymore of our retired over the back fence neighbors. We have a toddler and a newborn, but even before we had kids, they (especially she) were unbearable. She’s obsessed with weeds and what she refers to as “junk trees.” She will call and email us acting as if we have made a commitment to her to weed our yard or pull up some tree she has it in for. My husband laughs in her face. I feel harassed.

I would reply to her email with "we're happy with our lawn as it is" and then block her email address. Unless your shared fence falls down she really shouldn't have an opinion on what's happening in your yard. And I say that as someone fighting an endless (and losing) battle against junk trees (meaning the fast growing, seem to be spreading underground, 4 foot taproot before you know they're there kind of trees).