I dunno, kabbes. My lawn has kind of turned into a big spot of dirt covered with a thin film of dead, prickly grass. I guess it’s still more comfortable than a concrete slab, but I’m not positive. And I wouldn’t, at least, have to pay someone $1 a square foot to re-sod a concrete slab, or $3000 to install a sprinkler system in said slab. Concrete and/or gravel is looking better by the day.
First they mow your lawn, then they shovel the snow. Next they’ll be asking to babysit your kids, for cripes sake.
The nice people are taking over, I tell ya. There goes the neighborhood.
Six years back or so I and my wife rented a house in Portsmouth, Ohio. All of our neighbors were great except the one to my left. He was, shall we say, a bit territorial. One of my kind neighbors once told me that he had to use territorial neighbor’s driveway to turn his car around. Apparently territorial neighbor saw this, jumped in his car, drove into the nice neighbor’s driveway, and then back out. It’s as if the US had made an overflight of the USSR and the Soviets felt obligated to respond.
So into this cold war environment I decided to mow my lawn. It was my first time mowing this yard and I have to admit, I was unsure where the boundry line was. Apparently I missed it because I soon had Mr. Territorial on my porch complaining that I had mowed his lawn. In my head I envisoned threatening to trim his bushes but I let it pass. He then took the opportunity to threaten my cats because he thought he saw one of them peeing on his bushes. Rather amazing ability on the part of my indoor cats. But fearing that one might escape at some point and then come to harm because Mr. Asshole found them first I told him that if he ever had a problem with my cats he had better come deal with me about it. I said it in that low quiet voice usually used by murdering psychopaths while I calculated how to kill him with my barehands. He left and never spoke to me again. I made sure he saw my wife and I practicing kata in our yard on a regular basis.
I talked to my landlady and discovered he called her on a regular basis. Whatever the basis for that was, she told me not to worry about it. And she told me the property line wasn’t really where he thought it was either.
I don’t miss him at all.
This has nothing to do with the OP. I just thought I’d share because it brought up these horrible memories and I wanted you to all suffer through them with me. So there. And don’t you kids turn your cars around in any of my threads either!
Better yet, leap out onto your front porch, stare closely at the freshly mown grass, clutch your hair, scream “Skippy? SKIIIII-PEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEE…!” and fall to your knees, sobbing, “Not Skippy!!! God, not Skippy!!!” face down in the stubble.
Hee hee… great minds think alike… but they don’t go mowing each other’s lawns.
Say it with pink flamingoes!
If it happened to me, I’d go over there the next time and cut down his trees and bushes! If he asks, “What’s up with that?”, just say, “Well, they looked like they needed to be pruned, and I thought I’d pay you back for taking such good care of my lawn!”
But seriously, it would be wise to nip it in the bud, or you’ll find your neighbor soon digging up your flowers/bushes and replanting them in a different area of your property. Then he’ll start watering them, and HIS garden, with YOUR water!
Question-if this guy was injured while mowing your lawn-on YOUR property, wouldn’t that also make you liable?
One of our neighbors is a lawn Nazi. He’s a single guy with tons of free time on his hands, whereas my wife and I both work long hours and have two preschool children. Needless to say, lawn care is not our top priority. Lawn Nazi has regularly made snotty comments in the past along the lines of “Some people care about how their houses look.” and “I’m not the only one in the neighborhood who feels this way.” Funny, he’s the only one who ever complains about it – the rest of the neighbors are perfectly friendly.
Last fall Lawn Nazi decided that one of our flower beds had too many weed sin it. So he came over and sprayed weed killer everywhere. This pissed us off on one level because with small kids around we really don’t want them exposed to unknown chemicals. It pissed us off even more when it became clear that he’d been so sloppy with the weed killer that he’s also managed to kill a huge swath of our lawn nearby. (I guess it was our fault for letting our lawn get so weedy … .)
After we pointed out the damage to him he got very sheepish and replanted the entire swath. He’s been much nicer ever since.
Here’s the kicker. We’re moving in two months. When we went to tell him we were leaving, he announced that he was too! He’s already sold his house to a nice grandmotherly woman. If only he’d cleared out three years ago … .
No, because he’s a trespasser. Under U.S. common law, a landowner only owes to a trespasser the duty to refrain from willfully or wantonly injuring him or her. (Which is why planting metal and rocks in the yard, knowing someone will very probably be hurt thereby, is a very bad idea.)
If a person intentionally comes into your yard without your consent and then is hurt there, you are probably not responsible. (Assuming the person is an adult; assuming the person was not invited; assuming the person doesn’t otherwise have the right to be there, etc. etc.) And trespass does not turn on intent; even if the hurt person came over to do you a favor, s/he’s still trespassing so long as you didn’t consent.
My neighbor stole my cat. Bought her a scratching post, anti-furball treatment, brushed out all the matted clumps in her coat. Yes, he cared for her better than I do.
But see, he was previously mowing the lawn for a break on the rent. Then he left the garage open and the lawnmower got stolen. Conclusion: he’s not too bright. So I had to go get the cat back. He insisted he didn’t know it was my cat. “I thought she was a stray. She was so skinny!”
I remedied the awkward social situation by letting him come over and play Halo on my Xbox. Hope this helps!
I am with the minority. I think you should just let it go - this time. It could very well be a one time only thing and not worth the confrontation, no matter how polite. If he does it again, just tell him you’d rather do it yourself.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Lawn Ranger mows again…“Hi Yo…Deere!! Awaaaaay…!”
Wait till late at night. Break into his house. Take out his garbage.
(bolding mine)
Nazi? Sounds more like a lawn Bible-thumper to me!
Weee. This is now the longest thread I’ve ever started. Thanks for all the insight (no matter how useful it will turn out to be, it was all amusing).
It’s a fairly new developement that still has mainly original owners in the houses, so the concept of the property line should still be fresh in people’s minds.
No, my lawn didn’t look perfect, but it was far from being a weedy overgrown hippy mess. It was slightly uneven in height.
The house next door is one of “those situations” were 3 or 4 generations chip in and buy a 5 bedroom house that they all live in. So there’s plenty of people to keep track of, and I’m not sure I could point out which one mowed my lawn if I saw them all at once, but he wasn’t the one that I usually identifiy as the “main owner”. So perhaps it was an honest mistake.
Of course, as long as he was mowing my lawn, would it have killed him to edge it, too?
I’m probably going to let it pass unless it gets repeated. At least they aren’t the neighbors who still have their christmas lights up 
-lv
I would think that if you went over and shaved his wife’s pussy…
I’d dissuade this neighbor politely, but firmly. And then keep an eye on him.
He may just be a nice (if rather thoughtless) person, but more likely he’s the kind of guy Pochacco ran into - a yard neat freak, or possibly worse.
I had neighbors like this once. The “lady” of the house popped up one day raking a scattering of leaves on our front lawn, so that they wouldn’t blow over onto their property. We later discovered this woman “picking up debris” (nonexistent) at the side of our house - coincidentally enough, right under our bedroom window. I phoned her later to ask her not to do that, and she screamed at me and hung up. The husband was into territorial rights (his, not ours) and on the day we moved in came over to tell me that part of our yard was actually on his property, so I should expect to see him tending plants on my side of the fence.
Pleasant but firm is the best course.
matt is dead right about lawns.
Jack–did you let this guy come into your fenced yard to deal with plants?!?
I got rid of my lawn last year, and I’ve been happy as a clam ever since. In front of my house you will find some cacti and low maintenence free brush. It is immesurably better than a lawn.