This is NOT our neighbor - but it's somebody's neighbor!

We’ve had our share of neighbors – good and bad – over the years.  After all, we’ve lived in this house for a long time.  Americans as a rule aren’t known for staying in one place for very long.  And this is (laughingly) what many call a “starter” neighborhood -  meaning that the homes are small and (at least at one time long ago) inexpensive.  Plus we live near a teaching hospital, so it’s not uncommon for folks to buy and then sell when they finish their residency. 

The two houses on either side of us have been both rentals and owner occupied.  Many of the renters have been better neighbors than the owners, so you can’t use that as a tool for deciding who’s going to be a good neighbor.  And we’ve found that even when a renter is a bad neighbor, that’s it’s still usually the owner’s fault for never checking on the property. 

We’ve never had gardeners for neighbors.  There may be several reasons for that.  People know they won’t be here long, for one, so don’t want to put in time and effort.  Often, families that move here are young and don’t have the experience to make a garden and, what with work and young families, also don’t want to put in the time and effort.  We’ve heard many people say that they’d love to have a garden but don’t know anything about them, not realizing that no one knows anything about anything until they start doing (and learning). 

We’ve had neighbors that would leave town and leave their dogs out (under our bedroom window) the whole time they were gone.  We once had a neighbor who drove a big bread truck and parked it in his driveway.  It was like having a billboard in your front yard.  I felt sorry for the guy, but 1) it was ug-ly, and b) it was illegal because of it’s very large size.  We once had a neighbor with very bad teenagers.  And we once had a neighbor that became so angry one day … well, it was like this… my wife was trimming a bush at the border between our yards and stepped into her (the neighbor’s) yard to trim that side.  The woman comes rushing out (she had been watching, evidently) yelling “get out of my yard” over and over.  We had no idea.  We thought we were doing a good thing.  I still have no idea what that was about.  We’re talking two minutes of standing two feet inside her yard to trim our bush.  Whew. 

What does all of this have to do with gardening?  Well, you want to enjoy your garden.  And some of the things that keep you from enjoying it might be noise, poor relations with (perhaps very visible) neighbors, trees that hang over into your yard (and maybe shade things you don’t want shaded), and plants that find their way into your garden (with us that means grass). 

What can you do?  We like privacy.  We don’t want to be watched (or watch others) while we’re outside, so we’ve planted plants that became natural barriers.  We do have one short section of privacy fence, but the rest is mostly trees and large hollies.  That helps with the privacy a lot – for everybody.   About trees hanging over – in our city (and in most I think), anything on (or over) your property is yours.  You can cut it.  But in the interest of having good relationships with your neighbors, it’s a good idea to talk these things over.  Most people are reasonable.  Even with grass being blown into our garden, usually when we mention it, they say “I had no idea – it didn’t even occur to me” and then they point the mower’s chute away from our yard (or get a catcher).   Sometimes talking doesn’t work.  We once had a college student (s) neighbor with a very large St Bernard that they would leave for days at a time.   We asked many times for them to make better arrangements.  They ignored us.  After night after night of a deep “woof….. woof …. woof” we called the police.  Sorry.  Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.  

How about you?  Do you have great neighbors that garden and share plants and water when you’re gone or do you have …. different…. neighbors?   Share your story.   Use the comment tab.

Filed under: Urban Gardening, neighbors