Topic: GGGRRRRR Neighbours!!!

[eileen]

Can anybody help me please?  :-\

Our neighbour's garden backs on to ours and she has bindweed growing against the back of our fence.

Last year we thought we's solved the problem by applying a systemic weedkiller to the shoots that appeared under our fence but it's back again this year stronger than ever!!

It's bad enough that she neglects her garden and allows dandelions to seed everywhere but this bindweed is really getting us down.  >:(

Ian has tried digging as much as possible out without leaving any 'bits' but back it comes. We're thinking about putting a board 4-6 inches down into the earth against our side of the fence but would  this stop the problem or would the bindweed just go deeper and still appear?

If we miss even the tiniest bit then before we know it its choking the climbers I have on my side of the fence.  :(I
I'm at my wits end with this bl..dy woman!!! What's the point in having a garden if she won't take care of it?

Sorry to rant on but this is getting beyond a joke!!

Hope someone has an answer or it's the neighbour who'll be getting choked next GGRRRR!!!

Eileen.

[rosebud]

Hi Eileen our neighbour is just as bad drives us mad we have enough to do as it is, last year Ron put plywood between the fence the neighbour wasen`t very happy Tough,well dare i say it so far so good
oh dear hope i haven`t tempted the devil :o. no really it is the only way we could stop it welll as yet.the other side of him put glass between from old windows i would love you to see a photo of his so
called garden it looks like what we used to call a debri when i was younger, he is a horticulturist by trade but he has gone green and let his garden go back to nature.  He might be green but the air is blue when we are pulling the flipping weeds out that have seeded from his garden . By the way the glass actually worked faster than our wood.

[Les_Woof]

Eileen

You do have other options available to you.

I believe, although do stand to be corrected, that it is your neighbours responsibilty to stop growth coming over/through/under/around/etc your boundary.  

In law if you trim whatever comes into your property from an adjacent/adjoining proerty then the offcuts must be given back to the owner of the land from which they came, if not you can be said to be at fault (theft).

Her neglect to keep her garden tidy can lead to prosecution and she can be ordered to clear the garden.

The problem that she is creating is, and can be, described as a nuisance to yourself and as such can be enforced under the Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO).

I am not sure who you need to contact in this instance I think it will be your local council for this type of nuisance.  Nuisances such as graffiti/noise/verbal abuse/etc are dealt with by the Police.

Hope this helps, but she, and people like her, really wind me up and sometimes they need to be made away that they can not do just whatever they want.

Take care

Les.

[gilgamesh]

Talk to the Environmental Health people at your local council - usually the threat of a "tidy up order", which means "Do it or we'll come and do it for you - and charge you" works, except if your neighbour is like Mr. Trebus (sp?) on "Life of grime".

[eileen]

Hi Everyone,

We've already had the local council out to our neighbour. She promised them she would tidy the place up.
When they returned to check she had cut the grass and said she'd put 'weed and feed' down to kill the dandelions etc.
She also told the chap that she'd spoken to her neighbours and that they were now happy with her garden. SHE DID NOT!!!
There's not much more they can do, so I'm told, as she is not in a rented house (all our houses are our own) therefore they can only ask her to keep things in control, not tell her.

Since their visit I doubt if she's ever had the lawn mower back out of her hut. This happened weeks ago and at the time the bindweed was not in evidence.

Thanks  everyonefor all your input.

I'm going to  have to try a systemic glyphosate weed-killer and hope it gets absorbed enough to killl the whole plant.  I don't like using chemicals of any type as my own garden is completely organic and wildlife friendly but in this instance I feel I have to.

Cheers, Eileen.

[tina]

Oh Eileen, you must live two doors down from me, the other side of our lazy next door neighbour!!!! We have had exactly the same problem, and it has had me close to tears, after all I see no point whatsoever doing anything to the edge of our garden that joins 'bindweed city'.

We have spent the last three years doing the systemic weedkiller thing, to no avail.

Two weeks ago my hubby dug a trench up along our fence, and stapled thick black plastic all along the bottom. Quite a cheap solution, and although the bit that he hasn't done yet had major bindweed poking through, the plastic seems to have done the trick! Apparently bindweed has relatively shallow roots, so plastic has only gone about 18 inches below ground level.

Have a go, it certainly makes me feel less like moving house now (especially as we can go to our lottie to escape his noisy kids now as well)!!

Tina

[kenkew]

Being forced to 'tidy' your garden is a non starter. One bloke in our village claimed to be growing a 'natural' garden. Who's to say he can't? He was asked to prevent over-growth into next doors garden and he obliged by cutting a 'path' around his fence. This didn't stop the roots but his comment was that he wasn't in control of what nature wanted to do under-ground. His garden didn't contain anything in the way of 'rubbish' so he couldn't be forced to grow his garden in the way his neighbours wanted him to grow it!
With regard to 'cutting off and throwing back,' I think you'll find that particular law doesn't apply to grass and weeds, it was brought out initially to cover over-hanging branches, especially of fruit trees.
What to do? I solved this problem from a vacant plot on my last lottie. I dug a trench along that side and sunk plastic corrugated roofing down to about 15" and back filled with bits of rubble and subsoil.

[Les_Woof]

Hi Ken

It may not apply to grass and weeds but it will sure p1ss the neighbour off!  Well it would if they had any decency in the first place.

 ;) ;) ;)

PS, ken, have you worked out where you live yet!  

Les ;D

[Garden Manager]

I havent got QUITE  the same problem, eileen but I do understand. One of the gardens adjoining ours is a rented out property, therefore maintainance of the garden can be a tad haphazard depending on the tenants. Fortunately the current ones are good at garden maintainance, but there have been some bad ones, inspite of the landlord coming in every so often to cut grass and hedges. The main weed problem is the bindweed that took hold in the other garden and crept through to ours, it has without us realising it traveled virtualy the width of our (front) garden now, under the drive and everything! The other problem is over hanging trees which are nice trees but do over shadow a border i have down that side of the garden. I intend (as the law permits) to cut the trees back to the fence line, to try to give my shrubs some more light.

Another problem we have had is up along our back fence which backs onto farmland. This field lay fallow for many years in anticipation of a development which (thankfully) never took place.  In this time all sorts of weeds established on the other side of the fence and began to creep into the garden. We put a stop to this when we had the fence replaced, by burying vertically weed supressing membrane along the bottom of the fence. Some weeds do penetrate through the gaps but the weed block is largely sucessfull. To evidence this or nextdoor neighbours (who also back onto the field) had their fence done at the same time yet did nothing to stop the weeds coming through. The corresponding area of their garden looks messy in comparison.

Hope this helps

[RichardS]

Hi Eileen,

am afraid you're going to have to settle to a continued battle against the bindweed, and that's assuming that the neighbour does actually want to get rid of it or doesn't care if it goes... (if they actively don't want to get rid of it that could be another story - don't know where the law stands on invasive plants colonising other's gardens).

Firstly, a 6inch or whatever physical barrier below the soil will do nothing to stop the thing from spreading into your land.   It has exceptionally deep roots - I have pulled out 2ft deep roots from the allotment, and apparently they can go down a metre or so.

It's nearly impossible to dig out - snapped off roots come back with undiminished vigour.  Hoeing regularly to sever the newly emerging shoots after first clearance can apparently weaken it, but won't by accounts eradicate it.

Even the non-chemical gardeners I know have had to resort to chemical attack on this one, and that isn't unfortunately as simple as a quick spray with roundup...

Folks in uk.rec.gardening have reported success with the following method though.

To start with, don't chop it all down to ground level just yet.  You need some strong growth to get the systemic herbicide down to the root system.

Get a load of strong freezer bags that are free from perforations.

For each growth of bindweed put some glyphosphate into a bag, diluted to ONE HALF or ONE THIRD the recommended dosage. (Wear gloves whilst your doing this, glyphosphate isn't particularly harmful to animals, but some of the wetting and carrier agents in the formulations are).

Now put the growth tip of the bindweed into the bag so that it's immersed in the solution.  Tape up the top of the bag tightly and secure it to the plant (so it won't fall off).

This should ensure continued take-up of an adequately fatal dose of the glyphosphate and cause severe damage/disablement to the beastie.

The theory behind the over-dilution is that this has a long way to be taken down into the root system.  Normal dilution appears to kill the plant before it reaches the deep roots, so although it knocks back top growth and some of the roots it doesn't eradicate it.

Whatever you do don't use a more concentrated solution in the mistaken belief that it will kill it more surely and speedily, it will have quite the reverse effect.

Good luck!  

Look on the bright side.  Could have been Japanese Knotweed or Mares Tail!!!

[RichardS]

Sorry, re-read post and realised that I forgot to say glyphosphate == "Tumbleweed", "Roundup" and similar.  Domestic garden centre strength is perfectly adequate for this because you want to dilute it down anyway.

[kenkew]

Hi Ken

It may not apply to grass and weeds but it will sure p1ss the neighbour off!  Well it would if they had any decency in the first place.

 ;) ;) ;)

PS, ken, have you worked out where you live yet!  

Les ;D

Nah! Still don't know where I am. Les. Still, the sun is shining so I'm not too fussed. ;D

[gavin]

OT - but ........

My ex's neighbour asked for my advice on the best weedkiller for her back garden.  "The gardener's shadow," says I.

Couple of days later - "What was that you recommended?  I asked in Wilkos and B&Q, and they've never heard of it."

That'll teach me to be flippant ---- not!  :)

All best - Gavin

[Mrs Ava]

hehehe  ;D

[ptennisnet]

Thanks for the Bindweed eradication technique.  I've forwarded on to my brother who isn't a gardener but is bindweed obsessed.
We've ogt bindweed on our allotment :(  I'm hoping the hoe will keep the worst of it away.