Anonymous "Dear Neighbor" letter

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Oh my gosh what a terrible neighbor to say such a thing to you. The person who wrote the note has nothing better to do than watch your grass grow. That just goes to show you what an exciting life that person lives.
To get back at them just continue what you have been doing don't just give into their commands.
Oh along with the toilet in the front yard add a head board to the flower bed and make it a true flower "bed"

 

[lpandorf]

Wow - my husband has health problems. Uses a cane to walk. He used to be fine when we moved into the house and took care of the yard. Now he can't mow the lawn so I'm in the OP position. Taking care of inside and out and sometimes lawn looks not so great. But our next door neighbor sometimes will help mow when he does his. Now he had knee surgery and can't do his own and I see the lady two doors down mowing both our back yards last week. And the man across the street came over and helped me shovel this winter when I was out there alone doing it.

 

[simpilotswife]

I'm so mean and spiteful. After I got that letter my grass would be ten foot tall and I would have friends come and park there cars in the culd sac

 

[tink2dw]

I live where it rains all the time!! This years record is 47 days with no sun, only rain. Even in the Summer it rains. We would let the grass get nice and thick and about 7" tall before mowing or you kill the grass. Then we wouldn't mow it until the sun was out at least 3 days to get the grass dry enough mow.

But when summer did hit the grass would go yellow, till it rained then it would shoot up, and we would mow. But the day after these weeds would shoot up and there were about 12" high. But you couldn't mow then till you had grass to mow again. These weeds were so tough they wouldn't mow! They would lay down and make you think you got them but the next morning they were standing tall. You had to cut them with the grass.

All summer they would beg you not to water your grass to save water, so I saved water. and the grass would go really yellow and dry out. So you didn't have to mow it. But then those weeds would grow!

It drove my grass watering, greenest grass in the world, Neighbor nuts! She would yell at you from her yard when you were leaving to go to church. And by the time you got home, her beery mouth was not fit for the ears of children.

I got really tired of this. So, one day when her mouth was running, I walked over to her fence and said If my yard bothers you so much you have to swear about it, you are welcome to come mow it anytime it is convenient for you. And walked away before she could form any sentences.

Well she never mowed my yard. And she stopped yelling at us.

 

[veraletta]

Neighbors are suppose to be helpful, when my neighbor's husband died I cut her grass for her for 1 1/12 years twice a week to help her out, she got to the points she would call me to bring in her news paper for her, get her dog's bowl she left out in the back yard. I still feel I should help her out when needed, but not to the point that she is using me. I felt that this year she should be able to do her own yard, as she has moved on, and has a new boyfriend.

I know when we went to Disney on vacation for 11 days, our other neighbor who lives behind me, cut our grass to help us out, that just how our neighborhood is.
I feel sorry for you that you have such uncaring neighbor's, who could help out by cutting your grass instead of writing mean letters.

 

[mybabesuz]

A bag of fertilizer + weed control costs $30 - and you can borrow a spreader from a neighbor - or one of those hand spreaders is $6. After that, mow and water. Edging your lawn costs a Saturday afternoon and an old knife.

So, how long do you think it will take me to edge 200 ft of sidewalk
with my steak knife? My back hurts already...

 

[minniebeth]

So, how long do you think it will take me to edge 200 ft of sidewalk
with my steak knife? My back hurts already...

Yeah, you laugh, but that was my job as a teenager, I kid you not!
I'm the queen of the steak knife edging! And my DH wonders why I want NOTHING to do with lawn maintainance~!

 

[dizkids]

Adult Bullying....so awful!

Grass is grass. My neighbor is a grass worshipor(maybe the other kind too?) He would rather walk the 2 dogs in the street to pee and poop on the road than allow them on his grass. #2 gets cleaned up but not all that pee!

We mow when it gets long and my kids are allowed to run and play all they want on the grass. Nothing sounds better than kids playing and they wont be kids for long.

Oh and what a coward! How about make a sign with the letter and post it on a home made bill board on your lawn saying "attention neighbor...you forgot to sign your letter!

Wishing you peaceful days ahead!

 

[orlandothebeagle]

The phrase

"Get a life" springs to mind!

 

[dzorn]

I had a neighbor once come over with a rake in her hands, asking if I wanted to borrow it.

At the time, I had a an 8 month old, 3 year old and 4 year old, and my wrist was in a cast following surgery. I explained politely that we had a rake, I was just unable to use it at that time.

They moved about a year later, thankfully.

I would have been very tempted to say yes could you please bend over.

Denise in MI

 

[dzorn]

Great minds think a like. I guess I should have read the whole thread first.

 

[musicdude]

From experience I am telling you not to lower yourself to their level by letting your yard go on purpose. All you will end up with is an even uncontrollable weed problem and letters and fines from your city. We had a neighbor that just moved two weeks ago that made life miserable for the last seven years! She would call our HOA constantly about ours and other neighbor's yards. The HOA had to come out and look at one of our trees that we planted because she thought it was a cotton wood, which we shouldn't have planted and she thought the roots were going to grow up in her yard. Well, it is a maple and I told her that if the roots are in her yard in twenty years she could come and talk to me then. It got so bad and one point we came accross a sign that said "BEWARE OF ATTACK NEIGHBOR" and I put it up on our front fence. You guessed it, it only made matters worse. We started getting letters from the HOA about once a month about some complaint or another. The lady at the HOA told me that our file is one of the most thickest one there with complaints, but it is funny that we have never received on fine. Now that she is gone, life is so much calmer, and I realize that it was stupid of me to let this person get under my skin and upset me.
The problem is that they didn't sign it and you don't have one person to express yourself to. If you let your yard go, or plant a toilet(very funny btw) if gives a bad image to your other neighbors as well. You are new to the hood, and want to get to know your nice neighbors and invited to the block parties. I would copy the letter and type up a nice response, thanking them for their concern and that there have been health and financial concerns over the last several months but you will do your best to keep up the clean image of the neighborhood. Explain you have given this to each home in your area because you do not know who the concerned party is, sign it and drop off a copy at each house on your block. Kill them with kindness, because their is no better revenge than "GUILT". Not only will it be calling out the bad neighbor, your other neighbors who haven't had the chance to get to know you, will now have a window to stop by an say "nice to meet you, can I give you a hand?"
Good luck with all that is going on in your life, and here is to hoping that your busy body neighbor finds something new to get their britches bunched up over. But if not I have a slightly used sign you can have.(lol)

 

[nicknamy1996]

Great minds think a like. I guess I should have read the whole thread first.

INDEED!

 

[rottiemom]

First off, I am very sorry about this & about all that you have going on. I would have been furious as well but in reading this thread I think that many of the posters are correct in that this was a marketing ploy from a landscape business. A stupid, rude ploy. If it was in fact a neighbor I'd try to just let it go & continue doing what you can, when you can. Let them be the one to carry the buden of upset.

I moved into a neighborhood that is supposed to be well maintained; we all get the covenants before we purchase.

FWIW there's no HOA where I live and so no covenants. We keep the grass mowed and the weeds contolled as much as possible (we're across from a lake) but we don't have landscaped beds or anything like that. Ours is a very "informal" kind of neighborhood, a bunch of old lake houses, and we're fortunate enough to have really good, considerate neighbors for the most part. Our house is 77 years old & many of the plantings are as well. I prefer the rambling, old beds of myrtle, roses and azalea to structured, mulched beds but they don't look as "nice".

We did, however, once have a neighbor complain to my brother about our lack of formal landscaping & ask when we were going to do something about it. Of course my brother told us about it. That weekend we needed to air out the camping gear so my husband made it a point to pitch the tent in a part of the side yard for the weekend where this neighbor would be sure to see it when she went to & from her home.

This year we're in the process of digging out that same side yard so that we can connect our leader drains to the storm drain in order to comply with the town's regulations (part of the reason for last year's lack of landscaping...we knew that we were going to have to dig it all up again). I'm sure that this same neighbor must have been on the verge of heart failure when she saw the ditch (more like a moat) but the very next day we found a note from a landscaping company tucked into our mailbox . I thought it was funny. If we could afford to hire a landscaper we certainly wouldn't be digging this stupid ditch ourselves.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

My nephew got one of those nasty paint your garage letters from the city.. Mind you it was not like he was neglecting his house. He had put a new roof on the garage as well as a garage door and side door to the garage. Then he gets a letter that said paint the garage and you have 2 weeks to do it or pay a fine. He as mad. Slowly he was fixing up the exterior of his home and now this. It was clearly evident that he was working on the garage but not fast enough I guess.
So he obeyed and went to Sears and bought several gallons of paint that costumers had returned and were on the reduced rack...
Yep you guessed it he is now the proud owner of the most colorful garage on the block!

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I wonder if your anonymous letter writer isn't the same person who has the landscaping business. $150/month is outrageous! We live in a neighborhood that uses a service to come around and police for violations of covenants. We have received one letter for having a small trailer(landscaping type) in the very back of the driveway. You can't really see it unless you are looking for it. But that is what this company is hired to do. So we moved it. No trailers allowed. And this letter was not anonymous, it was from the HOA. Your busybody neighbor needs to mind their own business, this is what HOA are for. They will let you know if you are in violation.

Sorry you have persnickety neighbors..

Just read another post that says they thought it was the landscaping business. Why not call them, acting interested, then ask them if they left the note? You don't have to be rude in tone, but you may catch them by surprise. That would be fun..

 

[pha1226]

there are way more important things than a beautiful lawn

ITA - and the things people do to acheive a beautiful lawn can be very harmful to the environment.

 

[Belle5]

I would copy the letter and type up a nice response, thanking them for their concern and that there have been health and financial concerns over the last several months but you will do your best to keep up the clean image of the neighborhood. Explain you have given this to each home in your area because you do not know who the concerned party is, sign it and drop off a copy at each house on your block. Kill them with kindness, because their is no better revenge than "GUILT". Not only will it be calling out the bad neighbor, your other neighbors who haven't had the chance to get to know you, will now have a window to stop by an say "nice to meet you, can I give you a hand?"
Good luck with all that is going on in your life, and here is to hoping that your busy body neighbor finds something new to get their britches bunched up over. But if not I have a slightly used sign you can have.(lol)

This is the best advice I have read in regards to your problem. This is a very mature way to handle things, IMO. You will most likely make some good friends just from folks stopping in to tell you that they were not the ones who wrote it (they will probably have a good idea who did) and to welcome you to the neighborhood.

 

[OnourwaytoWDW]

We opened up our store in fall of 05. We were working non stop sometimes dh would stay up all night to finish things here and there. Oops, got pregnant and that was NOT in the business plan!
Spring of 06 and my blood pressure wasn't that great. I was working 10-7 everyday, some days more. Dh was working 9-7 everyday. We worked together on Sat and Sundays at the store. Our lawn was not anywhere in our mind.
Then one day I joked to dh that if the front lawn doesn't get mowed, we're gonna get reported. We laughed.
Until 2 days later we got it! A letter from a neighbor said "Would you folks mind putting your garage cans in your garage, mow the lawn and pull the
weeds. Put away your scarecrow, it's not fall time."
We have a front area underneath our window that has two patio seats and a little table. DS made a "scarecrow" of sorts with some dress pants and a shirt. It sat in that chair through Christmas. We even joked when grass started to grow on it.
I went off!! I was crying and telling dh that I was going to make a sign and put it by the "grass man" that said mind your own business.
I was more hurt that someone that doesn't know me, know my situtation, would have the balls do to this. What if I was dying, what if I was taking care of my ill child, or whatever.
Bottom line, it's none of their business. People like that aren't worth it.
If they were watching my house that closely, they would see we are NEVER home! My dogs live there. They can't mow the lawn.

But still, I would have loved to put a sign pertaining to stop being nosey or whatever.

Dh on other hand was more mad than me.

But we got over it and sure the weeds are still there. And sure it doesn't get mowed everyday. Yes, the grass man is gone. My 2.5 yo daughter is a firecracker and my 10ds is the best ever.
Now dfil mows it
Sorry, no place else to put the garbage cans. Get over it.

 

[sunnyday123]

My nephew got one of those nasty paint your garage letters from the city.. Mind you it was not like he was neglecting his house. He had put a new roof on the garage as well as a garage door and side door to the garage. Then he gets a letter that said paint the garage and you have 2 weeks to do it or pay a fine. He as mad. Slowly he was fixing up the exterior of his home and now this. It was clearly evident that he was working on the garage but not fast enough I guess.
So he obeyed and went to Sears and bought several gallons of paint that costumers had returned and were on the reduced rack...
Yep you guessed it he is now the proud owner of the most colorful garage on the block!

i luv your nephew!