Would you/have you asked your neighbor to clean up yard?

[2ndGeer]

I just want to jump in and say that my yard can get a bit neglected, not hoardersville or anything but weeds and random toys, but I do my best. I work full time, I'm a full time wife and mother, and go to grad school. My husband works about 60 hours a week and spends most of his time after work helping care for our DD so I can do homework. I know that there are people who are superhuman and can keep their homes perfect inside and out while still working, but we are not them. Again, we do our best. I remember my single mom worked a lot and our yard could get a bit neglected, but instead of complaining our wonderful retired neighbors pitched in to help her. Instead of complaining about it, have you asked them if they would like some help with their yard? If you approached it in a nice way such as, "I know your busy and I would like to lend you a hand with this," you might be surprised by the results. I know if someone offered to help us on an overwhelming day, I would be brought to tears by their kindness. Don't always assume these things happen out of lazyness, they just may be overwhelmed. Just a thought, I might be wrong, they could just plain be lazy, but try not to judge too harshly.

[Peanut Giggleface]

Originally Posted by 2ndGeer

I just want to jump in and say that my yard can get a bit neglected, not hoardersville or anything but weeds and random toys, but I do my best. I work full time, I'm a full time wife and mother, and go to grad school. My husband works about 60 hours a week and spends most of his time after work helping care for our DD so I can do homework. I know that there are people who are superhuman and can keep their homes perfect inside and out while still working, but we are not them. Again, we do our best. I remember my single mom worked a lot and our yard could get a bit neglected, but instead of complaining our wonderful retired neighbors pitched in to help her. Instead of complaining about it, have you asked them if they would like some help with their yard? If you approached it in a nice way such as, "I know your busy and I would like to lend you a hand with this," you might be surprised by the results. I know if someone offered to help us on an overwhelming day, I would be brought to tears by their kindness. Don't always assume these things happen out of lazyness, they just may be overwhelmed. Just a thought, I might be wrong, they could just plain be lazy, but try not to judge too harshly.

Excellent post.

[Becky2005]

It would just cause bitterness. I'm still annoyed by our back neighbor who caught me off guard after a weekend away as I was unpacking the car to complain to me about the backyard -- to which my DH had planned to mow that day anyway (but heck, I didn't know it since I hadn't even gotten in the house yet and I was already tired from a long drive & cranky -- I think she did offer to mow but all I kept thinking was she would then be the type to sue us if there were any problems since she is coming over here to complain). If I recall that was a particularly crazy busy summer for us so the front got mowed way more often than the back because that was all we had time for.

Unfortunately, I have a very negative view of her now and that was several years ago.

[sam_gordon]

Originally Posted by furb & dez

This is why, sam_gordon. If your city has standards, you can turn them in to the city, and the city will then force them to deal with it.

And if your city doesn't? What if you don't live in the city? We're in a nice neighborhood, but it's part of the county. I have a hard time believing MOST cities would take care of this.

[Pigeon]

No, I most certainly wouldn't say anything.

I'm responsible for my yard, not being the neighborhood busybody. If things like porch pumpkins bothered me, I'd move to one of those Stepford HOA developments.

And I would be beyond annoyed if taxpayer dollars were being spent on Porch Pumpkin Police, but fortunately, my town is more sensible.

[MrsDuck]

Originally Posted by trip

No, their yard, their mess. Unless they are breaking some covenant/ neighborhood rules, just ignore them. (As hard as it may be ) Maybe they just keep forgetting to put the pumpkins in the garbage.

Exactly.

[disney1990]

Originally Posted by sam_gordon

And if your city doesn't? What if you don't live in the city? We're in a nice neighborhood, but it's part of the county. I have a hard time believing MOST cities would take care of this.

Our county would do something if it were long grass, but pumpkins on the porch -- no. We have an HOA, but we don't control what people do with their properties. No Stepford HOA here.

[clarkshel]

Originally Posted by 2ndGeer

I just want to jump in and say that my yard can get a bit neglected, not hoardersville or anything but weeds and random toys, but I do my best. I work full time, I'm a full time wife and mother, and go to grad school. My husband works about 60 hours a week and spends most of his time after work helping care for our DD so I can do homework. I know that there are people who are superhuman and can keep their homes perfect inside and out while still working, but we are not them. Again, we do our best.

That is not a very good excuse. I work 50 hours/week. My wife works full time and is taking her Masters. She is a teacher, so she has extra work in the evenings too. It doesn't take very long to mow the lawn. I spend about an hour every week mowing the front and back. I still have lots of time left over to care for my two young sons while the wife does her work and homework. We are far from superhuman. Instead of sitting on the couch watching TV for hours a night, I can look after my kids and do whatever work needs to be done around the house. I guess it depends in people's priorities in life. I guessing these neighbors the OP was mentioning are not too busy to do the work, probably just too lazy.

[sam_gordon]

Originally Posted by clarkshel

That is not a very good excuse. I work 50 hours/week. My wife works full time and is taking her Masters. She is a teacher, so she has extra work in the evenings too. It doesn't take very long to mow the lawn. I spend about an hour every week mowing the front and back. I still have lots of time left over to care for my two young sons while the wife does her work and homework. We are far from superhuman. Instead of sitting on the couch watching TV for hours a night, I can look after my kids and do whatever work needs to be done around the house. I guess it depends in people's priorities in life. I guessing these neighbors the OP was mentioning are not too busy to do the work, probably just too lazy.

I guess it depends on people's individual situations. It could be what hours people work, to the size of their lawn to what the weather's like, to what else is happening in their lives.

FWIW, no, having a perfectly manicured lawn is NOT one of my priorities. I do mow and occasionally trim (or have someone else do it), but that's about it.

[foreUT]

I have to pick up the neighbor's dogs' poop in my yard, so pumpkins in their yard probably would not concern me, but if it really upsets you: would you be comfortable telling the renters that you *thought* you *might* have seen a rodent nibbling on the pumpkin? Might leave them a note to that effect.

[Mokat76]

Originally Posted by clarkshel

I can call 311 in the city I live in to report any bylaw infractions. I have called numerous times to report long weeds, excess garbage in yards, and if they don't shovel snow on their sidewalks. IMO, I pay good money for my house and I don't want lazy neighbors lower my property values. I do give my neighbors time to clean their junk up before I report them, but if it is still there after 4 months, time for it to go.

My closest neighbor is really nice, but very lazy. When he does finally cut his grass, he stacks the bagged clippings between our houses. But he doesn't do anything else with then. At the end of this summer there was about 10 garbage bags of clippings there. When he went on vacation I put them out with his trash pickup because I was tired of looking at them.

I just can't believe how lazy some people are. It doesn't take hardly any wok to look after your yard.

Wow! Glad I don't live near you.

[Kaspar Houser]

Originally Posted by goofinoff

We have neighbors who are renting the house next door to us. The owner relocated for her job and is renting it out to friends. When the owner lived there she always kept her lawn mowed and neat looking. She moved out in June and the yard is a mess. The tenants left their pumpkins from Halloween on the front steps until they turned black....in fact I think they are still there. The lawn isn't an issue now since it's December but the rotten pumpkins are disgusting! I just want to knock on the door and ask them to take care of it.

The girl who owns the house is the 2nd owner. We are still very good friends with the original owner of the house and have told her not to come over because they would be heartbroken to see their house and yard in the shape that it's in.

Yes I would. I was in the other "camp".
We build a house but were working abroad and just had no view on the building. When it was finished we had never seen the mess the contractor left behind.
Our neighbors called that the place was a mess and we thank them.
After that we got a gardener and he still comes every weekend for ten years now. He cleans op everthing and in the winter he takes care of the snow on the curb.

[furb & dez]

It's really simple... if you don't want to take care of a lawn, get an apartment/condo/townhome. If you "need" a yard, take care of it.

OTOH, if you want to live like trash, move someplace without neighbors who will have to endure it and the drain it has on their property values.

[arthuruscg]

Well, I live in rural county and it has ordinance concerning grass length and yard debris. Most of the ordinance only apply if you live with in the township limits or residential zones. The county will gladly contract out to take care of the issue and tack the bill onto the property taxes.

The ordnance are because of very real public health reasons. Around us, long grass is the perfect breading ground for chiggers and ticks. If you don't know what a chigger is, they are bugs the bite and leave a feeding tube in your skin that will make you ich like crazy for about 2 weeks. I have had them and it sucks.

The yard debris, especially food (pumpkin), attracts small animals that deer ticks live/feed on. Deer ticks are one of the main carriers of lymes disease, my brother got it when he was 6 years old and has had knee problems ever since.

When people here say mind your own business. It is your business because of the stuff does not stay on their side of the fence.

[Pigeon]

Originally Posted by furb & dez

It's really simple... if you don't want to take care of a lawn, get an apartment/condo/townhome. If you "need" a yard, take care of it.

OTOH, if you want to live like trash, move someplace without neighbors who will have to endure it and the drain it has on their property values.

It's really pretty simple. If you need to control how your neighbors deal with yardwork, you should move somewhere with a control-freak HOA.