Oh yeck.

Hopefully they won't get carpenter ants that will then migrate to your house.

I know that here if you complained to the city, they might cite you for having too tall of a fence for city ordinances. You just can't win.

You have to think about your blood pressure, and try to ignore it. But I hear you, you're thinking of the fire hazard.

Your oasis of beauty is a testament to the goodness of your soul. Try to rise above.

Too bad they won't move.

:(
Carol

I know, I know. The good book says 70 x 7 cheek turns but I passed 491 awhile back and there are those pesky 18" high weeds growing out of the gutters on the 2nd floor. It's just that self proclaimed victims and their transparent excuses are unfortunate bedfellows and a little effort would go a long way toward mitigating both :-(

Your yard is beautiful, and makes your whole neighborhood better. It looks like a resort, or a botanical garden. Sorry that your neighbor's renters are so trashy. It's hard to get through to people like that.

Our neighbors are like that Boxofrox, but the code officer in out town is making them clean it up...
Our town is striving for people to clean up there properties, so they have been going around and telling people to get there act together or get fined until messes are cleaned up...

Here a fence can not be higher than 6ft or they make you rebuild it to the correct height.

I know what your going through Boxofrox, I'd be worried about that dried tree wood, leaves, myself...
Hope things work out...

There were no fences taller than 6' in the making of this thread ;-) All fences you see in the first pic are theirs except for cedar/copper one. If that pile of kindling was in the backyard and away from the house and I couldn't see it from my front yard and doorstep, I'd be a lot less grieved. That window has a young child's bedroom behind it yet I'm the bad guy for trying to get them to recognize that :-( I have a pup/koi/garden/house sitter there for a week so I didn't want to saddle her with their vindictiveness. You can bet I will be all up in their grill if it is not gone by the time I get back. My wife has already made a preliminary call to the fire marshal who left no doubt as to how they will be handling it and the cleaning up of the disgusting mess will not be optional or have another year of shelf life. I tried the voice of reason but that was not in their vocabulary unfortunately :-(

I think getting the fire marshal involved is a great idea, when I was reading your post I was thinking of what I would do and calling the fire dept would be at the top of my list. Fire danger is nothing to scoff at.

Your garden is a beautiful oasis and I hope that one day you can enjoy it without any neighbor problems. I can commiserate because I have two neighbors who are currently making my back yard unusable. One has a dog that fence fights with my dog and barks endlessly, and the other has a junk pile against the fence that has become overgrown with blackberries so we have to fight to keep them from taking over our place as well. I'm saving up for a new fence and choosing plants to create a privacy screen, so that should deal with the dog issue, but I think the blackberries will always be a problem. Oh well, it's way better than not having a house or yard, that's for sure!

Good luck with your neighbors, I hope you can resolve everything so you can fully enjoy your garden and share lots of beautiful pictures with us!

I had neighbors just like yours. What a mess!! I should have known they were going to be that way when I first saw them coming up the street with all their belongings in shopping carts. I felt sorry for them at first....but then it didn't take long before I could see that they were nothing but lazy, ungrateful animals. They tried to set their house on fire twice, he was a drug dealer and pimp and she was a prostitute. She was always going out at night dressed in all these crazy outfits, as if she was going to a halloween party....LOL. And on top of that the local amimal shelter would give them a dog every week where they would either tie them to the trees or the mailbox, the barking was unbearable. I don't know how I got through that year without going looney myself. Thank God things never stay the same. They finally moved but not before they cause about $50,000 in damage to the house. The owner of the house that rented to these lunatics got a good ear full from all the neighbors.

If those people lived here our code officer would be writing them up and giving them a certain amount of time to get it cleaned up.
Here if your tree is ALIVE and looks bad, down it must come...
Good luck Boxo! Hope the Fire Marshall gets there butts in gear...

So yesterday, I came back from a road trip and half of them were out working in the front yard, mowing (with the mower I gifted them, weedeating etc. Imagined or no they seemed to glare at my arrival. So I just backed into the garage and went about my task of getting everything done so we can leave on Sunday. So this AM, I get out at 5:00 to fertilize the lawn and water all the beds, wash the car, do a water change on my pond and the neighbor comes to ask if they can borrow my extension ladder to get all the crap out of the gutters. Part of me wanted to say no because of the liability, part of me wanted to do it myself because of that and part of me wanted to make sure they used it and got it done because I have no intent on leaving it for them while I'm gone. So they will have done two tasks of lesser evil and I can only hope that doesn't forebode unwell for the worst of the eyesores ;-) But hey, it's progress !!!!!

As I was working today, I recognized how well my design elements shield virtually all of this from my view once I'm behind the gate and no longer in the front yard or sitting in the living room window.

The mess is behind the wisteria that grows over deck by the pond.........this is the view from my BBQ chair.....

{{gwi:670944}}

I hope your neighbors turn over a new leaf, or at least clean up the fire danger and don't create a new eyesore.

I love your garden, do you mind if I show your pictures to my landscape designer?

The best case scenario just happened. I loaned the ladder yesterday and met the son in law who not only cleaned the gutters but when he returned the ladder we had a great chat and he understands (inspite of what his inlaws might think) that I am not the big bad yard nazi. I loaned him all the tools he will need to clean up the worst mess of all. Best thing is he will do it TODAY :-) Now I don't have to come back from vacation to it. This cozy little area along side the pond is about 15' from that pile of debris and will be much more enjoyable without the grief :-)

peachymomo feel free. I'm just an amatuer with imagination :-)

Boxo, I am so glad things are smoothing out. The garden photos are so stunning. It's also wonderful to see a happier resolution...and people getting to know each other's story. Sometimes bringin' in the flowers makes a bee see and work and do the thing they are supposed to...I'm sure they really appreciated the tools you lent them Boxo...I know right now they may seem like a horrid yellowjacket nest tenfold and a terrible thorn in one's side but hopefully things will keep on improving.

Bless and hope people's better nature will eventually win over for all involved. Who knows, maybe seeing your garden will totally inspire them to learn more about gardening. It used to depress me when one of my neighbor's never invited me over. I'd feel a tad bit hurt, but then get prideful and say bah and humbug back to them in my heart, lol! I still remember the time I got locked outside of my house and was forced to stay outside and borrow the neighbor's phone while still being stuck outside, playing with my sweet doggy until my Dad or boyfriend arrived to unlock the door, lol! It's a bit uncomfortable and you feel bad when no one invites you in, hehe! So you can imagine how happy I am with my new neighbors. I finally got the chance to visit and was invited inside, whoo-hooo! The neighbors who wouldn't invite me did move, and the new neighbor I got to know. Well, I hope everything ends up a Gran Torino in which neighbor will be a good neighbor after all. Just takes a lot of time, patience. Many can't and won't change, but hugs and best wishes, KG

Boxo, if any Garden can Inspire, Yours Will!!!! So crossing my fingers that YOURS WILL MAKE THAT INCREDIBLE MIRACLE-WORKIN!!! Hope in time that the neighbor's son-in-law can get to be a budding gardener in the making...who knows, the Good Lord always has a Gentle Surprise for all of us. Keep the hope Alive! yeah, I know sometimes it's plain impossible, but sometimes.....

Just wanted to say you have a beautiful yard and that I know how you feel. I'm going through the same thing right now. This family moved in about 3 years ago to the house on my garden side. The house is very small and has only two bedrooms, but they have 7 kids. Their backyard is a mess and they have weeds growing up near my garden fence so I'm trying to spray weed killer through the fence so it doesn't grow into my yard. Last year the dad got them a basketball goal and for some reason they decided to put it right in front of my fence. I came home one day and half of my Butterfly Bush was all smashed and broken. I realized they had thrown their basketball into my garden. I was so upset. My husband went and talked to them but nothing changed until this summer they finally moved it.

Also they have friends over by the dozen all the time. Unfortunately we have no fence in our front yard and they park their cars in a row right on the edge of our line. Their yard looks like a car lot and they have a broken down piece of junk van there also. They drive their cars through our grass to get in and out. We have complained to them several times about this but they just don't care. We try to park our cars in a way where they cannot drive through our yard but we are not always home.

I want to put up a fence there but my husband says it's too expensive. Then I saw I want to plant some of those trees that stay green all year (cannot remember the name) as a way to block the view but husband says no. I'm tempted to do it anyway, but I am afraid they will just knock them over with their cars on purpose. I am growing vines and bushes along our backyard fence to block them out. I need to post pics so you can see what I mean. I keep hoping they will move out but they are buying the house not renting.

I'm not sure it ever helps to know we're not the only ones ;-)

I often listen to myself whine and it sounds a bit like a Bobwa Wawa interview......"Boxo, if you could be a dog, any kind of dog, what kind a dog would you be?" Why I'd be a Whinereimer, Bobwa :-(

Your property, plants and roses are wonderful. Your extraordinary hard work has paid off, and I'm so sorry that you've been saddled with the neighbors from hell. There seems to be a glimmer of hope in the form of the son-in-law, and I hope this will be the beginner of better times. I hope your blood pressure hasn't gone through the roof!

Apart from the roses I admire your clematis selections tremendously.

Ingrid