I'd rather live next to you than him, OP.

FWIW we live in a fairly nice neighborhood (houses $700-$800K) and we have two neighbors on our street who freescape (don't cut grass or anything at all). And I DON'T CARE, because I'm going to die some day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the neighbor - that is a ridiculous request. I would love to tell my neighbor to get rid of all the little pine tree like bushes in his year (seeds keep coming over to our yard, but that would be ridiculous. Every spring i am forever looking to pull those new trees by the root (counted 27 so far this year), but hey, it's nature. Not going to fight it, or rather fight my neighbor trying to fight nature.

WE HAD THIS issue and talked to the neighbor and they cut all their pines down. It was a win for everyone

How sad that the response was to hack down a bunch of trees!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the neighbor - that is a ridiculous request. I would love to tell my neighbor to get rid of all the little pine tree like bushes in his year (seeds keep coming over to our yard, but that would be ridiculous. Every spring i am forever looking to pull those new trees by the root (counted 27 so far this year), but hey, it's nature. Not going to fight it, or rather fight my neighbor trying to fight nature.

WE HAD THIS issue and talked to the neighbor and they cut all their pines down. It was a win for everyone

Seriously? Maybe they already had plans to cut them down? I don't think our neighbors would be willing to do that. They have mulch around their trees and keep them trimmed nicely. With all the maintenance they put into them, I think they actually like them. Lucky you! I could only wish.

We have another neighbor with a dead tree hanging over our house - he refuses to help pay to cut it down, so we are footing that bill (tree on his property). He'd be liable if it were to fall on our house - we're not taking that chance. I can understand if pine tree neighbors won't cut down their trees. I don't understand the guy with the dead tree in his yard.

OP, I have a neighbor like this too. It is always elderly neighbors who are retired and spend all their time on their lawns and gardening. She complains non-stop about not only weeds, but what she calls "trash trees" that she wants us to have paid to have removed from our back yard. These are mullberries and other trees that she considers "low class" and bringing down her property with their berries somehow.

This woman is batshit crazy basically. We can't just pull our weeds, we have to dig them up by the roots according to her. If we allowed it, she would call us non-stop to discuss what she calls "our grass experience." No, she's not talking about whether we inhale.

Like you, we work fulltime, have kids, and have no intention of weeding night and day to live up to her standards. We mow every week, groom the lawn, and that's it. No one's gardening obsession is going to run my life.

I say....GET A LIFE YOU OLD WINDBAG.

People who care that much about their lawns need to get a damn hobby.

Anonymous wrote:Ignore the neighbor - that is a ridiculous request. I would love to tell my neighbor to get rid of all the little pine tree like bushes in his year (seeds keep coming over to our yard, but that would be ridiculous. Every spring i am forever looking to pull those new trees by the root (counted 27 so far this year), but hey, it's nature. Not going to fight it, or rather fight my neighbor trying to fight nature.

WE HAD THIS issue and talked to the neighbor and they cut all their pines down. It was a win for everyone

Ignore the neighbor - that is a ridiculous request. I would love to tell my neighbor to get rid of all the little pine tree like bushes in his year (seeds keep coming over to our yard, but that would be ridiculous. Every spring i am forever looking to pull those new trees by the root (counted 27 so far this year), but hey, it's nature. Not going to fight it, or rather fight my neighbor trying to fight nature.

Hardware stores sell something that you put in the dirt in between the two lawns, which stops the crabgrass from spreading. It of course doesn't do anything for windblown seeds, but keeps things from spreading their root network. Depending on how nice you want to be, you can either tell him about it or buy it for him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From an old article:

Nancy and Walter Stewart of Potomac, Maryland, discovered this truth in 1986. That was the spring their tractor mower broke down one time too many, and they decided to let most of their seven-acre yard grow. Soon shaggy meadow grasses and wildflowers overtook the lawn. The Stewarts loved the natural look and the low maintenance—twice-a-year mowing and no watering or pesticides. But in their posh Washington, D.C., suburb the meadow garden stuck out like a jalopy up on blocks. The neighbors were furious. One sent an anonymous note calling the yard “a disgrace to the entire neighborhood.” Someone started a fire in it. The county cited the couple under its weed ordinance. After the Stewarts threatened a legal challenge- Nancy is a U.S. Justice Department attorney—the county finally amended its weed law to permit meadow gardens with a mowed strip surrounding them.

OP, grow a meadow lawn. I want to, but my wife will not let me.

That sounds like a nice idea in theory but wouldn't it be like issuing a written invitation for rats and mice?

Why would that invite mice/rats any more than anything else? I'd think mice/rats would be more likely to go somewhere with food around. There are mice/rats at shopping malls, and there are certainly no meadows there!

Anonymous wrote:We have always tried to keep our lawn as weed free as possible. The issue is, once the weeds really take over, the only thing that will get rid of them entirely are chemicals. I recently spoke to a lawn company that said it had an organic/chemical free plan for treating the lawn. After I delved further, they said that they can fertilize naturally, but, they would suggest 1-2 years of weed prevention first. Then they said that it is easy to maintain healthy and weed free grass naturally, once the weeds are gone. Since we have kids too, we have decided to just make sure to keep it cut. No complaints here though.

correct once the weeds are out and then the grass will fill in the dirt patches and not allow new weed growth to occur. I would just bite the bullet and do proper pre-emergent, fertilizing and weed broad leaf weed kill in the spring. Then last do a heavy grass seeding in the fall. Once your grass is back to acceptable you can stop doing the weed killer.

Anonymous wrote:From an old article:

Nancy and Walter Stewart of Potomac, Maryland, discovered this truth in 1986. That was the spring their tractor mower broke down one time too many, and they decided to let most of their seven-acre yard grow. Soon shaggy meadow grasses and wildflowers overtook the lawn. The Stewarts loved the natural look and the low maintenance—twice-a-year mowing and no watering or pesticides. But in their posh Washington, D.C., suburb the meadow garden stuck out like a jalopy up on blocks. The neighbors were furious. One sent an anonymous note calling the yard “a disgrace to the entire neighborhood.” Someone started a fire in it. The county cited the couple under its weed ordinance. After the Stewarts threatened a legal challenge- Nancy is a U.S. Justice Department attorney—the county finally amended its weed law to permit meadow gardens with a mowed strip surrounding them.

OP, grow a meadow lawn. I want to, but my wife will not let me.

Started a fire?? WTF? How is that good for the neighborhood?? If you're worried about property values, arson doesn't seem like the way to go about it.

Anonymous wrote:From an old article:

Nancy and Walter Stewart of Potomac, Maryland, discovered this truth in 1986. That was the spring their tractor mower broke down one time too many, and they decided to let most of their seven-acre yard grow. Soon shaggy meadow grasses and wildflowers overtook the lawn. The Stewarts loved the natural look and the low maintenance—twice-a-year mowing and no watering or pesticides. But in their posh Washington, D.C., suburb the meadow garden stuck out like a jalopy up on blocks. The neighbors were furious. One sent an anonymous note calling the yard “a disgrace to the entire neighborhood.” Someone started a fire in it. The county cited the couple under its weed ordinance. After the Stewarts threatened a legal challenge- Nancy is a U.S. Justice Department attorney—the county finally amended its weed law to permit meadow gardens with a mowed strip surrounding them.

OP, grow a meadow lawn. I want to, but my wife will not let me.

That sounds like a nice idea in theory but wouldn't it be like issuing a written invitation for rats and mice?

Post an image/link from Google that is an example of your yard and one that is an example of his yard.

We have always tried to keep our lawn as weed free as possible. The issue is, once the weeds really take over, the only thing that will get rid of them entirely are chemicals. I recently spoke to a lawn company that said it had an organic/chemical free plan for treating the lawn. After I delved further, they said that they can fertilize naturally, but, they would suggest 1-2 years of weed prevention first. Then they said that it is easy to maintain healthy and weed free grass naturally, once the weeds are gone. Since we have kids too, we have decided to just make sure to keep it cut. No complaints here though.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why you posted here OP when you clearly have no intention of trying to make your yard look nicer. Have fun being the neighbor everyone bitches about behind your back!

OP here -

Not sure where you get that from. I'm mostly wondering if there might be some solution that I haven't thought of and if people do actually hand pick their weeds.

Other than the goats (which I don't think will go over well), I'm not sure what other suggestions I can implement. And, now that another PP mentioned that he can sue me, I'll have to look into that to see if it's really the case.

If spraying is my only option, I'm fine with being the neighbor that everyone bitches about, whether it's behind my back or to my face. I'll take the other PPs suggestions of just ignoring the complaints.