Neighbors weeds

[thatgirl2478]

There is no polite way to request that my neighbors do *something* about their massive crop of farm weeds growing behind their storage shed is there? If their yard wasn't fenced, I'd consider a sneak attack. These weeds are seriously as tall as the shed - so like 8' tall? One I know is a weedy no productive mulberry, another is poke weed, and I suspect that the other is ragweed ... They are just eyesores and the neighbors don't do anything about it. The worst part is they are the neighbors immediately behind us, so my view from the kitchen and deck

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[InBetweenDays]

It's probably out of sight, out of mind for them since it's behind their shed. You could politely tell them they're kind of unsightly from your deck, and offer to take care of them if you're up for it.

[treedimensional]

I agree that they probably don't know how bad it looks because they can't see it.
Ask them if they need help. That's usually enough, if they are decent people (with half a brain) they will take the hint.

[dr.girlfriend]

Could you fib a little and say you've seen some rats in your yard and they seem to be living in those weeds? I've heard that can happen, and as an unmotivated lawn-mower that might actually motivate me to do something.

[megstoo]

Probably the un neighborly thing to do but we had a similar suitation and I went to homedepot and bought weed killer. I sprayed it when I knew they were not home. Our yard is fenced but I leaned over and sprayed. I did this a few months back and so far so good.

Edit:  In our defense others complained to them and they didn't do anything and came up with some bull shit excuse.  

[policegirl402]

I like Dr Girlfriend and Megstoo solutions!

[dr.girlfriend]

Sept 18, 2014 11:47:37 GMT -5 megstoo said:

Probably the un neighborly thing to do but we had a similar suitation and I went to homedepot and bought weed killer. I sprayed it when I knew they were not home. Our yard is fenced but I leaned over and sprayed. I did this a few months back and so far so good.

Edit:  In our defense others complained to them and they didn't do anything and came up with some bull shit excuse.  

I would be pissed beyond all reasoning if someone sprayed toxins in my yard without my permission or knowledge.  Seriously.  That is insane.  If you're that upset about it complain to the township or county or whatever.

[zoomzoom]

Does your city have codes for this? Ours does. I'd check to see and if they're in violation, report them and let the city handle it.

[zoomzoom]

Sept 18, 2014 12:04:00 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Sept 18, 2014 11:47:37 GMT -5 megstoo said:

Probably the un neighborly thing to do but we had a similar suitation and I went to homedepot and bought weed killer. I sprayed it when I knew they were not home. Our yard is fenced but I leaned over and sprayed. I did this a few months back and so far so good.

Edit:  In our defense others complained to them and they didn't do anything and came up with some bull shit excuse.  

I would be pissed beyond all reasoning if someone sprayed toxins in my yard without my permission or knowledge.  Seriously.  That is insane.  If you're that upset about it complain to the township or county or whatever.

And ditto this.  We have pets so that could be potentially harmful to them.  JFC.

[treedimensional]

Sept 18, 2014 11:47:37 GMT -5 megstoo said:

Probably the un neighborly thing to do but we had a similar suitation and I went to homedepot and bought weed killer. I sprayed it when I knew they were not home. Our yard is fenced but I leaned over and sprayed. I did this a few months back and so far so good.

Edit:  In our defense others complained to them and they didn't do anything and came up with some bull shit excuse.  

Of course the situation is frustrating, and I understand wanting to take matters into your own hands, but this is illegal and risky.

I have a colleague whose neighbor did this to her. Of course, when he sprayed her plants he had no idea that the plants were actually valuable ornamentals and that she is a partner at one of the best forensic tree consulting firms in the country. Yeah, she took him to court and he lost big time. So be really careful with guerilla tactics.

[msmerymac]

Sept 18, 2014 11:47:37 GMT -5 megstoo said:

Probably the un neighborly thing to do but we had a similar suitation and I went to homedepot and bought weed killer. I sprayed it when I knew they were not home. Our yard is fenced but I leaned over and sprayed. I did this a few months back and so far so good.

Edit:  In our defense others complained to them and they didn't do anything and came up with some bull shit excuse.  

Well I hope they don't have pets or small children.

[new2this]

When I read the title I totally thought this was going to be able your neighbors smoking weed. Ha!

I would fib to them and say you're spraying for weeds at your house and offer to spray behind their shed because you've noticed the weeds have kind of taken over lately. Either they say yes and you have free reign to spray or they get your hint and do it themselves. I definitely would not spray without their consent. I'd be pissed if someone did that to me. We don't use chemicals because we have chickens that eat out of our yard and kids that play in it.

The rats in weeds is totally a thing. It happened in our old house

[InBetweenDays]

Yeah, please don't just spray your neighbors yard with weed killer. I too would be beyond pissed if someone sprayed chemicals on our property. I'm thankful to live in an area where people are less judgmental of weeds than they are of weed killer.

The rat suggestion isn't a bad one either. You wouldn't necessarily have to lie and say you saw one, just that a friend told you there are rats around and they tend to hide out in weeds like that.

[thatgirl2478]

LOL - yeah, I wouldn't just spray with weed killer. We have kids & pets, they have kids too. While I DO USE weed killer, I try to use it as responsibly as possible (ie not on windy days, only on approved plants, direct application with a brush when required, etc). I think calling code enforcement might not be a BAD idea...

I don't know if it's something that they don't know about - maybe they don't realize they are weeds, but they are growing on 3 sides of the shed so....

ETA - I never see the parents outside.  It's only ever their 4 boys and their friends. Even the lawn mowing is done by the boys.  Seriously, we've lived here 3 years and have seen the adults exactly once - and they weren't overly eager to talk...

[thatgirl2478]

Sept 18, 2014 18:58:42 GMT -5 @callmefia said:

I don't know. I mean, definitely do not spray weed killer on someone else's property. That is awful. As far as caring, I just don't get it. If it bothers you that much then you should just plant something tall there to block it.

Thank god my neighbors don't complain about my yard. I think this post is judgey. Not everyone has time to keep their yard to their neighbors standards, and if not, they may not have the money either.

I think the answer here is to let it go and plan your yard to block it.

Clearly I'm projecting my own insecurities about our yard but we apologize to our neighbors and they always say they don't care.

We've done that actually, but the Magnolias & Chamaecyparis won't grow that quickly LOL.  Plus, in order to give us more planting space and still provide enough space between the plants to grow we had to leave gaps.

The other problem is that our house sits higher than theirs, which means that from any point in our house/on our deck you can always see their yard. 

Here's a picture for reference.



The rail in the lower portion is our deck railing... the offending yard is behind the pretty fence.

Eventually the grass between the larger shrubs will be removed and we'll have other 'stuff' planted back there - including a raised bed for veggies (but DH is costing me a lot in replacement stuff this month - first my good paint brushes were used for deck stain, then he chopped 2 extension cords while trimming the hedges...)

[dr.girlfriend]

I was imagining some overgrown jungle! That one little spot of weeds, to me, is easily ignored. Seriously. Don't be that neighbor.

[thatgirl2478]

Sept 18, 2014 20:09:19 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I was imagining some overgrown jungle! That one little spot of weeds, to me, is easily ignored. Seriously. Don't be that neighbor.

Lol - I know - it's just frustrating to be behind the one person in the neighborhood who doesn't cut down their weeds. As you can see the others don't even really do much landscaping, but they at least chop down weeds.

Plus, all the stuff on the vinyl fence is weeds AND if you see the dilapidated play house on the left side of the picture there are more 6-8' high weeds there. *-)

But yeah, I need to stop letting it bug me...

[InBetweenDays]

Yeah, that photo is not nearly as bad as I was picturing. Although I could see worrying about the weeds on the fence as they could cause damage to the fence (is it yours?).

But if you do ever decide to do anything, I'd really recommend being neighborly and approaching them rather than jumping right to calling code enforcement.

[pitterwoo]

You have a fair amount of lawn, so it's not like the weeds are right next to your deck. Given your lack of relationship to them, I would just ignore.

[msmerymac]

I feel the need to confess that we did NOTHING with our mulch beds this year, and we apologized to our neighbors for it.

We moved in in May, and the contractors were still working on porch, so by mid-June/July it just seemed like a losing battle. I'm surprised the rose bush bloomed this year, since we didn't even cut it back.

Starting tomorrow we are chopping down the 5 foot tall weeds and tilling the beds and trimming the plants for winter. But it's looked like shit all summer. Sorry.

We'll mulch in the spring and hopefully have a decent looking yard next year.

[thatgirl2478]

Sept 19, 2014 12:43:34 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I feel the need to confess that we did NOTHING with our mulch beds this year, and we apologized to our neighbors for it.

We moved in in May, and the contractors were still working on porch, so by mid-June/July it just seemed like a losing battle. I'm surprised the rose bush bloomed this year, since we didn't even cut it back.

Starting tomorrow we are chopping down the 5 foot tall weeds and tilling the beds and trimming the plants for winter. But it's looked like shit all summer. Sorry.

We'll mulch in the spring and hopefully have a decent looking yard next year.

it's OK you just moved in etc. We didn't do anything with our back yard except chop down an extremely over grown and weedy bush & remove 2 trees that were about to fall on either our house or the neighbors the first year we were here either.  Heck, even last year we did NOTHING with the back yard considering the deck was being built.  This is the first year we've had some extra $$ to put into landscaping - and even now we're doing it a little at a time as we find the $$ and time to get it done.

These neighbors have been there for a while and winter is pretty much the only time of year I don't mind looking at their yard .  LOL

[emoflamingo]

I'm totally your neighbor. Sorry, not sorry, I have a lot of shit to do and weed my yard is low priority.

The lawn is mowed, there's no trash in the yard. It could definitely be a lot worse.

[msmerymac]

Sept 19, 2014 16:02:16 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

Sept 19, 2014 12:43:34 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I feel the need to confess that we did NOTHING with our mulch beds this year, and we apologized to our neighbors for it.

We moved in in May, and the contractors were still working on porch, so by mid-June/July it just seemed like a losing battle. I'm surprised the rose bush bloomed this year, since we didn't even cut it back.

Starting tomorrow we are chopping down the 5 foot tall weeds and tilling the beds and trimming the plants for winter. But it's looked like shit all summer. Sorry.

We'll mulch in the spring and hopefully have a decent looking yard next year.

it's OK you just moved in etc. We didn't do anything with our back yard except chop down an extremely over grown and weedy bush & remove 2 trees that were about to fall on either our house or the neighbors the first year we were here either.  Heck, even last year we did NOTHING with the back yard considering the deck was being built.  This is the first year we've had some extra $$ to put into landscaping - and even now we're doing it a little at a time as we find the $$ and time to get it done.

These neighbors have been there for a while and winter is pretty much the only time of year I don't mind looking at their yard .  LOL

My grandmother's neighbors were SUPER nice people, but they were the kind of people who had Christmas lights up 5 months a year, put a string of Easter eggs in the tree for spring, had a wading pool that they left out all year, a swing set, a bunch of other yard toys, etc. It was... interesting. It was kind of hard on my grandma because she grew up in that house (my grandparents build a house on a lot next door that her parents gave them), so she had hoped for... something better looking, lol. Especially when they enclosed the screened-in porch with this turquoise plastic siding thing.

Anyway, could be worse. At least we don't have neighbors in back to look at our yard. We also have to re-pour our porch steps and my husband has been fighting the insurance company about that, but I don't know if we're going to be able to get that done before winter at this rate. So the whole thing contributes to the front of the house looking like hell.

[Deleted]

Sept 18, 2014 11:47:37 GMT -5 megstoo said:

Probably the un neighborly thing to do but we had a similar suitation and I went to homedepot and bought weed killer. I sprayed it when I knew they were not home. Our yard is fenced but I leaned over and sprayed. I did this a few months back and so far so good.

Edit:  In our defense others complained to them and they didn't do anything and came up with some bull shit excuse.  

I'd be inclined to do this as well.  Get a step stool and just dump a container of weed be gone on the damn things.  BUT if you want to be neighborly you could point out that they are getting tall and cite that you're worried about rats going in and out of the weeds which could attract snakes.  

[thatgirl2478]

Sept 19, 2014 16:28:24 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Sept 19, 2014 16:02:16 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

it's OK you just moved in etc. We didn't do anything with our back yard except chop down an extremely over grown and weedy bush & remove 2 trees that were about to fall on either our house or the neighbors the first year we were here either.  Heck, even last year we did NOTHING with the back yard considering the deck was being built.  This is the first year we've had some extra $$ to put into landscaping - and even now we're doing it a little at a time as we find the $$ and time to get it done.

These neighbors have been there for a while and winter is pretty much the only time of year I don't mind looking at their yard .  LOL

My grandmother's neighbors were SUPER nice people, but they were the kind of people who had Christmas lights up 5 months a year, put a string of Easter eggs in the tree for spring, had a wading pool that they left out all year, a swing set, a bunch of other yard toys, etc. It was... interesting. It was kind of hard on my grandma because she grew up in that house (my grandparents build a house on a lot next door that her parents gave them), so she had hoped for... something better looking, lol. Especially when they enclosed the screened-in porch with this turquoise plastic siding thing.

Anyway, could be worse. At least we don't have neighbors in back to look at our yard. We also have to re-pour our porch steps and my husband has been fighting the insurance company about that, but I don't know if we're going to be able to get that done before winter at this rate. So the whole thing contributes to the front of the house looking like hell.

This year I wasn't able to keep up with my front yard flower beds the way I should have (see ticker - pregnant all through the spring & summer) so it's ... interesting.  I'll need to redo one half of my garden beds next spring for sure...

[mrsreynolds4]

Honestly I expected worse.

I've been your neighbor - and currently am to a point since I've been sick. Being on the back side of the property it's probably not high priority especially if they have other things going on.

You could catch one of the older boys in the yard and bring up rats/snakes. That should put it on their radar. Also offer the use of your weed whacker or weed spray.

[heliocentric]

We are the neighbors with the weeds so I don't have a ton of advice.

I'd first try talking to them. They genuinely might not realize how tall the weeds are or how they look from your property since you say they don't really spend time outside. If that's not an option, you could offer to trim them yourselves or try calling your town. If that doesn't work I'd go with the trellis option until your other plants grow.

To those who would spray, I don't even know what to say. We keep bees and have pets so we don't use chemicals. If you sprayed on my property I would be livid and the police would be called.

[treedimensional]

Sept 18, 2014 19:16:08 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

Sept 18, 2014 18:58:42 GMT -5 @callmefia said:

I just don't get it. If it bothers you that much then plant something tall there to block it.

We've done that but Magnolias & Chamaecyparis won't grow quickly.  Plus, we had to leave gaps.

The other problem is our house sits higher than theirs, which means you can always see their yard.  Here's a picture for reference.



The rail in the lower portion is our deck railing... the offending yard is behind the pretty fence.

This is the view that has you all bent out of shape?

^o)

I don't get it. And I don't get your solution to plant very young plants that you know will grow very slowly if this is such a big deal.

[thatgirl2478]

Sept 21, 2014 7:33:50 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

Sept 18, 2014 19:16:08 GMT -5 thatgirl2478 said:

We've done that but Magnolias & Chamaecyparis won't grow quickly.  Plus, we had to leave gaps.

The other problem is our house sits higher than theirs, which means you can always see their yard.  Here's a picture for reference.



The rail in the lower portion is our deck railing... the offending yard is behind the pretty fence.

This is the view that has you all bent out of shape?

I don't get it. And I don't get your solution to plant very young plants that you know will grow very slowly if this is such a big deal.

The plants aren't *actually* that small - the magnolias are about 6' tall - the Chamaecyparis are small though - maybe 2' and probably won't get much bigger than 6-8' tall.  The problem we have is that we can't go TOO tall because we've got power lines to contend with. 

Since we're doing this a little at a time, we're planning to put some tall grasses in there to help screen as well.  Plus, we need to plant in front of the deck railing as well (the floor of the deck in 6' off the ground, the top of the rail is about 10' up). 

It's not so much the view I hate, but the fact that them not taking down their weeds means the weeds spread more readily to *my* yard.  Particularly the poke weed since it spreads when the birds eat the berries.  I know it's helpful to attract birds & wild life, but it's also kinda toxic to people and I don't want my kiddos seeing berries & eating them.

[treedimensional]

Have a talk with them, thatgirl. They probably have no clue.
It's a tough situation, and tough situations usually have a better chance of working out if you take the friendly approach. Good luck.