My next door neighbors are very good friends of ours. We play board games with them every Saturday and talk almost daily. Two couples lived there, and the husband who always took care of the lawn was kicked out by his wife. They don't water their lawn, so most of it is dead. What isn't dead is weeds and it's now about 2ft. tall. It's on the edge of our yard. The sticker plants are the ones growing and they are invading my yard! My almost 3 year old now can't even play in her own yard. I have asked them to mow, but they don't. I've even mentioned to them that the stickers are coming in my yard and they still don't do anything about it. I spend EVERY day picking sticker plants to prevent them from getting worse, but it's not working. I'm at the point now that I'm pissed off at them , but like I said, we're friends, so I don't want to get really rude. How can I get this across without burning that friendship? (FYI: It's against code to have it over 12 inches tall). They seriously havnen't mowed in about a month. Maybe longer. :( I'd also like to add that we would just do it for them, but our weedeater is broken and it's too tall to just mow over.
Thanks ladies. To respond to Cat: 3 adults live there, including a man. She kicked the other guy out because she was cheating on him. I'm not friends with that lady, but I am with the other couple.
I suppose I'll have my hubby put on some rubber pants and hope he doesn't get lost in the jungle of stickers. Or poked to death. They'll owe us a bottle of bourbon at the least. lol.
Poison them. The weeds I mean.
Just report them to the HOA.
They are not in compliance, with code.
Are you in City limits? If so just call code enforcement and file a complaint. The complaint is anonymous. According to the city of Arlington Weeds or grass over 12 inches in height is a violation. http://www.arlingtontx.gov/codecompliance/commonviolation... They will be given 10 days to get it corrected and then they get a fine. After that they get a fine if they are in violation for the same thing with in 12 months. If you can't get them to do it maybe the city can. Good luck.
Really? Mow it yourself? Why should you? Just call the city and turn them in anonymously. Why should you do their work. Yes one of them is your friend, but seriously?
This isn't, um, the nicest thing to do, but if you live in the city, there are probably city ordinances that require basic lawn maintenance. You could call the city office of ordinances and find out, and if there is, you could anonymously report them. They would be cited but probably have the chance to remedy it; if they didn't remedy it, the city would probably fine them.
Stickers are a pain, but if their grass is that high, then it's inviting rodents into the neighborhood and that is very unhealthy (no offense to the rodents, but...) and is a problem not just for them but for your neighborhood. Having long dry grass could also be a fire hazard (potentially).... These are some of the reasons why there are city ordinances for basic lawn & home care in many cities.
If one of the couples is getting seperated or divorce than I would say that the Lawn is the last thing they are worried about. I would just let it go or mow it yourself. Imagine if you and your husband are getting a divorce, would you really give a darn about the lawn? I would hope that a good frind wouyld care more about you then how your lawn looks. her whole life is changing and the lawn is really not that important right now. If someone called code inforcement instead of being understanding, I would say that would make them the worst friend in the world. Your friend now has to worry about making the rent and paying bills on her own. My concer would be for my friend. I would just mow her lawn and tell her that if she needs help you can mow half and she can mow half next time.
Contact your local code enforcement, there may be county codes or ordinances for grass and weed heights. You can file an anonymous complaint with them if you don't want your neighbors finding out it was you.
My neighbors are exactly like this. A senior lady typed letters to the home owners association and wanted each of us neighbors to sign a different one. When no one would, she sent them anonymously which made them bad neighbors paranoid and more lazy. Then the old neighbor started having other people call the homeowners group anonymously. These were terrible ideas that created bad will. Our homeowner's association sent them letters asking them to please mow their lawn. The lady also sent yard crews over to offer free estimates.
Please don't do any of these things as you will get blamed for being closest anyway and it won't make them do the right thing.
I would call the city because the 12" limit and they may come out and ticket them. I don't know if the city would mow it and bill them, but most people don't want to pay a fine. Knowing how irate my neighbors got, I would do it anonymously from a pay phone.
It is a safety and fire hazard. Plus, it hurts your home's value 20%. You are right to be fed up. If they don't have a mower, perhaps they could borrow one or hire a teen to mow.
Call your town board and complain. They will take care of it and make them mow or they will get fined.
I believe you can report them for untidyness. I'm sorry I can't think of the dept to call...health dept maybe??? Someone else who posts may know but usually w/things like this, reporting them anonymously may help get the job done coz it's not your job to do their lawn...hope this helps & good luck!
I would call the city or mow it yourself. Don't ask them to again, nothing worse than nosy pushy neighbors!
I'm with J.A. - mow it for them (just go really slowly with your lawn mower on the highest setting). They will get the hint and probably feel either very grateful or embarrassed or both. Either way, you get what you want and you can feel good about yourself (not resentful). I did this at the last house I lived in because our neighbor's lawn mower "broke down" and her husband had moved out. Sometimes it's not because they want to be difficult or lazy, but maybe there are dynamics of the family where other things take priority. For my neighbor it was going to school while working and supporting her 4 year old... I couldn't feel resentful about that.
My Husband says that at 2 feet tall just mow for them and do it very slowly and carefully. Trust me the weeds in our foreclosed nieghbor's yard have gotten tall, just take your time cutting... it is a pain, but if you really want it done and have already hinted and it hasn't worked, bite the bullet!!!!!!! It will be cold soon and maybe by next growing season things will be sorted out next door!
You mention that code is 12 inches. Whose code? Can you call and report them? Is there a fine?
You are right that it's too tall to just mow. That's where they've gotten themselves in trouble. They don't know what to do now. Using a regular or riding mower can cause a fire. That happened in my mom's neighborhood and the fire department had to come and put out the fire in the yard, the riding mower that became toast, and omg, the side of the house. You need to worry about that too, because their fire can become your fire. Maybe that's something you can mention to the code people.
I don't know what else to tell you. It is terrible that their stickers have encroached on your yard. Crab grass is one thing. Stickers are another!
So sorry - Dawn
I would feel the same way. The house next to ours was empty for a while and the owner who had it "for sale by owner" but didn't live there didn't take care of the lawn as often as needed. It was a flat, average size lawn so I would grab our push mower (my husband wasn't as determined as me and he rides the riding mower so it would have been easier!). I looked at it like my work out for the day and then it would look good for both of our houses for the next couple of weeks. It was worth my state of mind to put the work gloves on and get out there. There really wasn't another option. Ended up a couple bought the house and now I am the one keeping up with them on taking care of our yard. It's funny .. I've actually considered calling a company out to start taking care of ours so it grows thicker now ... theirs looks perfect!
My daughter says take Roundup and spray their yard.
That is a little harsh, why not just mow a little into their yard so it's not encroaching into yours.
I have a neighbor that this was going on too. I called the city code enforcer and they had a ticket on their door by the end of the day.
Basically the neighbors think the trash collectors did it. I kind f told them we got a red sticker on our trashcans one time when our lawn was too high, our electric mower was broken down and it got really high too. We didn't really get a sticker about that but that our trash can was busted on the bottom and they couldn't pick it up to dump it anymore. They have no idea but the remnants of the red sticker shows on the side of our trash can so I just made up the story to keep from bad feelings to fester.
This can be a health hazard to people too, our house sits next to a small field. Mice live in that field and they only mow once or twice all Summer.The mice run wild and if we didn't have feral cats living around they would infest our homes.
I say call the code office and report them to get it done or they have to pay large fines, much more than a person to mow for them.
One thing that happened when an elderly neighbor died while in the hospital, his family just forgot about his house and the yard was above the fence. The city came out, gave the notices, then they mowed it themselves and the family had to pay for it, they put a lien on the property or something so they had to pay it before they could do anything with the house to sell it.
I had the same problem. Our neighbor had some invasive weed that kept creeping into the lawn that I have been working on for years to grow nice and lush. This neighbor doesn't water or mow, and now she has a lawn service that butches her yard down to the roots, every time they come on their riding mowers, they can't make the turn to go back across her yard without coming several mower widths into our yard. I put a stake in the ground at the property line down by the road, and at the back yard fence post, and ran hot pink vinyl tape between them to get the point where the property line is, that worked for awhile but as soon as I took it down (after MONTHS) - business as usual. They don't water and it is mostly weeds of some sort so when they started invading our yard, I just sprayed her weeds with some round up. I didn't broadcast the round up everywhere - I took my time and sprayed individual "pods" of weeds, a couple of times over several weeks, and now I don't have that issue, just the darn lawn man & his mower. Good luck!
You didn't say you were part of a HOA, and I am not either. When lawns get too tall around here, the city sends a letter saying you have 10 days to cut the lawn/weeds to bring your lawn into compliance. (I got one when my lawnmower was being repaired, and it was barely over.) If you don't do it in that time, you will be not only fined, but the city will come mow, and you KNOW it will cost a lot more than hiring a professional to do it (which is what I did).
You may have to report them, unfortunately. If you do it anonymously, it will save your friendship because someone else will 'force' them to take care of it and you won't have to keep asking them to do something.
