Turf Wars
About 6 weeks ago, new family moved in next door. I’ve met the woman and their young daughter – both seem very nice. But some how, without any effort or participation on our part, we’ve become engaged in a passive-aggressive lawn struggle with them.
The majority of lawns in our subdivision are fenced. Our neighbor’s is one of the few that isn’t.
I don’t know if you can see, but he has been leaving an 18 inch strip of grass/weeds in his back yard. He has decided, for some unknown reason, that our lawn extends about 18 inches beyond our fence. He hasn’t mentioned it to us. We haven’t said anything to him. It doesn’t bother us because we don’t see it – it is outside our fence. (He rents like we do so it isn’t like he had the property surveyed prior to moving in.) My thought has been if he does say something, I will offer to take my 9 month pregnant butt out and do 1 swipe with the lawn mower and then inform him that we will be encouraging our dog to poop in that strip of “our” lawn which happens to be about 3 feet from his kids’ swing set and kiddie pool.
Moral: The pregnant lady is cranky and has lots of time to think up passive-aggressive retaliation while propping her feet up to prevent cankles so just back away slowly.
I feel for you, we are also involved in a lawn struggle with one of our neighbors. It has actually ended our amicable acquaintance with them. We own close to 2 acres, and the width of the property is road-front and nice and flat, whereas the people on the other side of the road have more hilly property. Because of this our lawn is generally a parking lot in the summer. The cars that park parallel the road I don’t have as much of a problem with, although it is irksome that they park their entire cars on our property parallel the road. The cars that outright pull into our yard as if it’s a parking space with the blessing of one of our neighbors is what ended our amicable relationship with them. I have begged my husband to buy a fence to no avail, we have tried stakes in the yard and bushes at the corners but they don’t seem to get the point. This year I put solar lights along the road, hoping they would see them as a aggressive decoration.
Anyhow… I feel your pain. I wonder if this is a common problem neighbors have.
Dawn
If you mow it once, you’ll be mowing it all year.
Instead have Steve mix up some Round Up and spray the 18″ swath of grass so that 1) you don’t have to mess with it for the rest of the year; and 2) your lazy neighbor will have to look at a crappy looking brown strip of yard for the rest of the year.
Now THAT’S passive-agressive. I am a self-proclaimed Queen of PA.
LOL! That would surely do it by going out there and mowing it yourself – but only when they are having friends over in the yard! But, when you do, make sure you waddle with those cankles and hold your back the entire way down the fence! Hey… maybe even take Sabrina strapped to your back too… make them feel like dirt!!
Nobody messes with a cranky pregnant lady!!
Is there a stake or something that marks the property line? Otherwise, how does this person know where the propterty line is? I’ve also seen that some people don’t have a weed wacker and just mow what they can and leave edging to look horrible b/c they won’t buy a weedwacker b/c they are lazy.
I agree with Brenda – I bet they don’t have a weed wacker and don’t want to get too close to the fence with the lawnmower.
Seriously though, if that drives you crazy you should come visit us. Our neighbors have not pulled a single weed from their builder-installed flower beds in the 3 years we’ve been in our houses. Yes, it is a jungle.
I might go with the no weed wacker defense if his lawn wasn’t perfect at the back edge of the fence line that abuts another neighbor.
And no, there isn’t a stake or anything to delineate the property line…most of us use the fences.
It really doesn’t bother me – it amuses me. I’m assuming he thinks it has some effect on us but the only time we notice is when we mow the front and side yard. I really find it kind of funny and am waiting for the home owner’s association or our rental companies to send someone a letter about it. I’m guessing the rest of the neighborhood is grumbling that this is why they shouldn’t allow people to rent out houses in the neighborhood. Hehe…bringing down property values since 1972!
How funny. Yes, I’d leave it too. That is pretty petty not to take one extra swipe with the mower. But, if you don’t see it…hey, he’s only hurting himself.
That is SOOO curious!! I wish I knew what they were thinking??? And why he would take the time to mow the back against the fence, but not the side? HMMMM
That is definitely quite odd considering they look at it, not you. Strange, strange. I’d be giggling about it too.
Ooh, I’d be all “Hey why do you always leave that strip of weedy yard next to the fence?”.
Ok, actually, I’d probably just call the neighborhood association myself and report it! Because I’m MEAN. GRRRR. I’d also toss any dog poo I picked up in my own fenced yard OVER the fence into their ragged strip.
Yep, the dog poo would def make me feel better. 😉
And no one commented on the regular use of cankles? I think you should skip the passive-agressivenss and let him know that you will be mowing it one time just to be nice and then fake a sprain.
Otherwise, I LOVE the dog poo defense. How about a whole bunch of rawhides right before you take her out there to do her business.
what an idiot. how difficult would it be to mow there for them? we sometimes get lazy and don’t weed whack everytime we mow so our fence line can get a bit crazy if it happens a few times in a row but we eventually do it and it only bothers me. Why wouldn’t he just mow next to the fence and not weed whack if he was feeling lazy or didn’t have one. very strange. It’s not like you are living in a trailer park where you have a 4 feet section on the other side of that fence. Don’t mow it or you will always be doing it.
Oh – I feel for you, but beware starting a war with someone you are going to be forced to wave limply to for YEARS to come.
assume no maliciousness. Maybe your neighbor has some weird protrusion from his lawnmower and he can’t get it close to the fence!
I was thinking the same thing as manager mom.
Alas, it might be worth it to just ask about it, I hear that it doesn’t bother you….but you did post about it so it is in your consciousness. It would be worth it, in my estimation, to assign the hubby for a recon mission w/ the princessa in tow. Say the strip is stressing out his water retaining, ready to pop preggers wife and that Sabrina will construct a lemonade stand to raise the money to pay for the gas for mowing the strip.
I definitely like the dog poop idea:)
Some people just suck royally, don’t they???
Cranky or not…pretty brilliant plan!
I’m thinking the “poop plan” would work wonders!
OK, that’s just weird.
I wouldn’t touch it. It’s not your problem, but I’d be curious as to his reasoning, too.