Neighbours who don't take care of their lawns

bugger, I've been shamed by this. I own my home in a block of four and the gardens are allotment style with no-ones directly attached to their house. I inherited a mess and have created a lovely gravel patio in a spot attached to my house with climbing plants and pots but the main garden was overgrown. I tried to tackle it myself and was doing well until some dreadful unemployed anti social renters moved into one of the flats and made outdoor living awful. Happily, I have new neighbours who are taking so much pride in their garden I have felt ashamed of mine next to theirs. I paid my windowcleaner to strim everything level ( bargain at £15.00 as he is only 5ft5 and the weeds were 7ft plus!). Next is treating the weeds in the lawn and feeding and maybe a nice lavender border. Easy maintenance but being respectful of people around me.

 

As we sat on the lawn today in the sunshine sipping cold Sangria my wife turned and said to me ' I'm so glad you look after our garden' ' This lawn is much better than it was' 'I think you are very clever...and handsome.
I kind of blushed at that and said, 'Anything for you my princess' and picked a flower and put it in her hair...
Oh, getting a bit side tracked here,
Moral of the story is, you don't impress anyone with weeds

 

Not the usual occupation of a window cleaner, buy hey, at maybe he's diversifying.

I'm not sure if that would be funny or absolutely terrifying to watch from ground level. Hearing the stimmer coming, seeing the weeds rustle, but no sign of what's in there.

 

I'm saying Nowt about my grass - having only just been able to cut it after more than 4 weeks. It looks a mess, and still needs another cut.

 

It wasn't quite "Children of the Corn"!! As for diversifying he is painting my window ledges next.

 

nice 1!!

 

I'm pretty much of the opinion that lawns are a waste of time. Mine's pretty scuzzy but next door is scuzzier. It's all renting around here so the fact I actually cut mine (with a strimmer, it's just large enough to swing a cat) makes my maintenance above and beyond.

I think live and let live - honestly, is it anything to do with you what other people do in their property if it's not affecting yours? It's a bit like knocking on their door and asking them to clean their windows because you don't like the look of it.

Having said that... I did knock on the door and let next door know if they wanted to use the hedgetrimmer we'd borrowed they were welcome. And yes that's partially because the hedge borders our tiny garden and is very overgrown. I can cut our side but can't reach theirs without going in their garden. They don't have the money to spend on tools so it's even less likely to get done otherwise. When we moved in we cut it for them because we thought she was on her own, but then we realised since she has a partner so we reckoned he could cut it this time!

 

Just to set the record straight, because I've seen one or two comments along the lines 'its all rented so not maintained' on this here forum

Before buying my house where I am now, I lived in a rented house for 10 years, and gave the garden their my best shot. Renting is not always synonymous with neglect

 

my gardens bar the last two were always rented but i maintained mine to the best i could do or afford at the time

 

Very true but I CAN say that if we rented instead if owned I wouldn't make NEARLY as much effort as I do on mine. No sense in pouring money into a hole. Besides the landlord might see it as a way of getting more rent and boot you out in favor of charging someone else more!!

 

Not at all. It is more likely though, especially if you're low income and don't have relatives you can borrow kit from (like I do), then mowing lawns and trimming hedges is unlikely to happen.

An area with a high number of rented properties has a more mobile population, and if you're only in the house for a year, you don't own any tools to do basic maintenance it's just more likely that lawns will get overgrown and hedges will be rampant.

I rent and do what I can but i'm not planting anything expensive or doing any landscaping.

I think letting a house on a 6 month contract, with a hedge and a lawn, and expecting tenants to maintain with their own equipment is not realistic. But plenty of landlords here do it!

As an example here's looking left down my street


And here's looking right!



Of course landlords are unlikely to put in anything that's easy to maintain if it's not already there because landscaping is a cost that they don't have to undertake. So hedges are overgrown and lawns are an eyesore.

I think rather than relying on chance of a tenant with interest and access to gardening, it would make more sense to have a garden that's easily maintained. Or provide tools. Or build the cost of a gardener into the rent. But I'm just a tenant, what do I know :p

 

I only wish my landlord was like you! I actually have no idea who my landlords are - everything goes through the management agency.