Ink, there is much you don't know about the situation, and I would ask you to refrain from comments about my attitude until you know what I know. These children are being done a disservice by their parents, and my tax dollars are paying the price. Their son needs honest to God parenting, and I think then, he would be far more manageable. His step-dad works most of the day and most evenings, as a pizza dlivery guy. his mother doesn't come out of the house unless it is to smoke. She now has the county providing a 40 hour a week caregiver for this child, because she simply doesn't interact with him. Last week, he was outside in his underwear for nearly 30 minutes, running through the historic park flanking the birthplace of our 18th President; mom and caregiver were inside. When they came to look for him, he ran into the highway. Neither picked up their pace from a leisurely stroll to save him, and he was nearly hit by traffic. This week, he grabbed a knife, attacked his 9 year old sister and is currently in the local Children's hospital for mental health emergency treatment. I'm not disputing the child has issues, and it would probably be safer for them to have a fence for the boy. But I know from my own experience, a high functioning autistic child with a parent who is active and involved and willing to provide structure and discipline copes far better than one who's parents are only out for freebies at the taxpayer's expense. My daughter doesn't need a fence, because I go outside with her, watch her, and interact with her. She is continually reminded of the boundaries and behaviors that are acceptable and she mostly stays within those boundaries. Tomorrow, the neighbors promise the fencing company will be here to start the fence install. Once it is done, we are going to backfill so that the gap between our lawn and the fence is leveled a bit, and then I'm going to be focused on keeping my area nice, and my children close at hand. And hopefully, the fence will be beneficial to this child, because with parents like those, that kid needs all the help he can get. Hopefully, in the future, the parents will learn not everything is handed to them and that sometimes, you have to work to earn the things your family needs. No one is "entitled" except perhaps our military. And if some think that means I have a bad attitude, then so be it.

When our neighbors put up a similar fence I went over and asked them what they were going to plant, if anything next to it and asked them if they had any preferences for things they didn't want me to plant next to it. I asked them if they would object to me hanging anything on the fence, like bird feeders or trellises, etc. We talked about it because even though the fence belongs to them, my property was within a few inches of it and they had to know that I was going to plant things there. They appreciated that I consulted them about it and that I cared about how they wished to maintain their fence. When their family and friends were visiting and cooking out in the back yard, I made sure not to run the mower or to make a lot of noise that would interfere with their get-together. I never chose those times to trim trees, or to spray paint my shed, or to smoke a large hunk of meat. I never looked over the fence when they were outside, but if I was doing something, like painting my house on a ladder, if I saw them outside, I greeted them in a friendly manner and went about my business. When my neighbors decided to use Roundup on a gravelled area on their side yard that was adjacent to one of my flower beds I explained to them why I didn't want them to do that. The man explained to me that he had a prosthetic limb and couldn't pull the weeds, so I offered to pull them for him so his yard would look nice. I pulled his weeds in that gravelled area (about 12'x40') for nearly 8 years. We lived in Westminster, Colorado when we had these neighbors and as many people will know, in Colorado they have ordinances about keeping the snow shovelled off your sidewalk. We knew that with his bad leg and his wife severly overweight, that he wouldn't be able to shovel his walk. So DH went out to shovel that first big snow and went all the way up to the corner. But the next morning we heard the 8hp motor of a snowblower and there was our neighbor on his riding snow-blower, and he did the whole street. It's been said that good fences make good neighbors, but I think that good neighbors make good neighbors. I'm not naive, I know that some people are just bast*rds, but sometimes one act of kindness can beget another. It's worth a try. Cheryl

Why not kill the vine with kindness? Fill jars with dilute Roundup solution (3 parts water, I part Roundup), place ends of vines in the jars through holes in the lids and seal the jars by twisting the jar, not the lid. The jars can be hidden by shrubs or other vegetation. The vines will gladly take up the Roundup/water solution and be grateful for the additional water. Top off the solution in the jars as needed with additional solution as the vines take in the water and transport the roundup into their roots. Next year, the vines will be very unhealthy if they even survive the winter. Repeat the second year if necessary. All the roots are probably interconnected, so all parts of the vine in your yard and the neighborâÂÂs yard will eventually die. Commiserate with the neighbors when they express sadness over the unexplained death of their beloved vine.

I don't have much solution to add, gardening or visual trickery with green things are not my fortes, but just a word from my experience - even if you don't like the fence, do be considerate in how you remedy the aesthetic situation -- remember that the fence is someone else's (potentially expensive) property, and that ESPECIALLY if they put the fence inside their property lines, you are accountable for damages. So things like climbers, which can cause structural damage -- trying to rot it -- think twice. :) About half the yards in our neighborhood are fenced. We are the only ones for about 4 houses in either direction with a fenced yard (we put it up when we got our dog). It's cedar and was about a $5,000 investment. The people behind us don't like the fence for several reasons including the stain color clashes with their exterior paint (they say), it makes it hard to retrieve their cat (which is always in OUR yard, funny how that part of it is OK with them), etc. To show their disdain, they decided to pile their cord of wood up against our fence, for one so we couldn't get to the wood to stain it, and for two -- because they're a-holes. Well their wood leaned too far and broke down part of our fence. We built about a foot inside our property line. All things considered, they're now accountable for about $3,000 even though it's just two sections of fencing that are damaged.