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Bad Manners and Brimstone
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#Post#: 35373--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: wonderfullyanonymous
Date: July 26, 2019, 10:14 pm
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I, too, am one of those people who love weed flowers. I mowed my
lawn the other day and left a 2 foot tall Queen Anne's Lace in
the middle of the front yard. I also love dandelions, clovers
and other wild flowers.
If this was your property, this could be considered destruction
of property, whether they are weeds or not. Make a police
report.
#Post#: 35379--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: LifeOnPluto
Date: July 27, 2019, 1:49 am
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I am so sorry this happened to you.
It certainly seems dodgy that your plants died so quickly. I'm
assuming there was no heatwave or anything which could have
killed them off?
Also, how high is the fence between you and your neighbour's
property? If it's low enough for someone to feasibly tip poison
onto the other side, then it does seem likely that poison is the
culprit, sadly.
As for what to do, I'm kinda stumped on this one. I'd actually
be quite nervous about confronting someone who thinks it's
perfectly acceptable to destroy my property like that. But at
the same time, I'd hate for them to get away with it.
#Post#: 35388--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: Aleko
Date: July 27, 2019, 7:26 am
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Don't call the police. You have no proof that the plants were
poisoned at all, still less that they were poisoned
deliberately. They may well just laugh in your face, and if they
don't, what can they do other than go and question your
neighbours? Which will be at best quite pointless, because if
they did knowingly kill your plants they can simply deny it, and
nobody is going to do a forensic study to disprove their denial:
and at best will turn innocent well-disposed neighbours against
you.
Even if this was the result of poison, it does not by any means
follow that anyone maliciously poisoned your plants. It may be
that your neighbour went to poison the plants on his side the
fence and didn't realise that the poison would drift in the
wind, and kill stuff on your side. Or he may have assumed that
you too saw them as weeds and would be glad to be rid of them.
Or they may have been a chemical event quite unrelated to
gardening.
I second Eilsabunny's and Hmmm's approach of saying "An awful
thing seems to have happened to kill my flowers! Have you had
any problems in your garden? Did anything weird happen while I
was away that might have killed them?"
#Post#: 35417--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: Hello Ducky
Date: July 27, 2019, 10:56 pm
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I would absolutely report this to the police if only to have the
documentation. Bonus if they come to look at the damage while
the neighbor who shares the fence happens to be at home and sees
them.
Anyone bold enough to do something like this (if it was
deliberate) isn't going to hesitate to take matters into their
own hands again if something else they don't approve of occurs.
I learned that from experience. >:(
#Post#: 35419--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: Isisnin
Date: July 27, 2019, 11:30 pm
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You can go to the police station and make a report. You can
request that they do not investigate and that you just need a
record of the vandalism. If nothing else happens in the future ,
the report doesn't matter. If something happens in the future,
like a repeat incident (heaven forbid!), the report would
illustrate the on going issue to the police should you do even
up having to need them to investigate.
Do you know anything about the neighbors on the other side of
the fence? They could be the likely culprit. Do they seem to be
the type? Are they compulsive about their yard? And could they
even know what you have on the other side of the fence? One
neighbor has a stockade fence that that doesn't let me see what
is on the other side. And I'm not so sure seeds could fly up
that high and over the fence. So do you have any idea who else
could have done it - or if it was something else?
Hopefully some roots are still ok and if you leave them there,
you'll get some flowers next year.
EDITED to say: "do NOT investigate"
#Post#: 35422--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: Aleko
Date: July 28, 2019, 12:17 am
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--- Quote ---
> I'm not sure seeds could fly up that high and over the fence.
--- End Quote ---
Take it from me: they can. My garden is surrounded by
10-foot-high walls, but Iceland poppies have self-seeded on it
and are ramping everywhere. Come to that, we regularly have to
go up on the roof of our 3-storey house and hang out of the
parapet to clear our rainwater hopper, in which vegetation of
all kinds will seed and thrive if left unattended. OP should
take it as read that her thistles will have been merrily
spreading seed to all her neighbours' gardens.
#Post#: 35432--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: DaDancingPsych
Date: July 28, 2019, 10:17 am
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I have been thinking about this post a lot. I can easily see
scenarios where the neighbor meant no harm or even thought that
he/she was helping. Assuming that there have not been any
previous issues, I think I would error on the side of trying to
work with this neighbor. Talk with the neighbor see if it was
indeed them and get an understanding of their side. It is
disappointing that the plants were killed, but it would be
productive to have a plan moving forward that works for all
parties.
#Post#: 35450--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: Pattycake
Date: July 28, 2019, 6:57 pm
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--- Quote from: Aleko link ---
>
> [quote]I'm not sure seeds could fly up that high and over the
fence.
--- End Quote ---
Take it from me: they can. My garden is surrounded by
10-foot-high walls, but Iceland poppies have self-seeded on it
and are ramping everywhere. Come to that, we regularly have to
go up on the roof of our 3-storey house and hang out of the
parapet to clear our rainwater hopper, in which vegetation of
all kinds will seed and thrive if left unattended. OP should
take it as read that her thistles will have been merrily
spreading seed to all her neighbours' gardens.
[/quote]
And birds "deposit" them too. I have what I have discovered to
be yarrow growing in front of my place. I never had, nor has any
neighbour, yarrow growing anywhere before. I thought it was a
weed, because where ever did it come from? Then I bought yarrow
to put in a pot a couple of years ago, and as it grew, and as
the front yard weed kept coming back, I realized it was the same
darn thing! so the only conclusion I can come to is that either
a bird or some other animal deposited some seeds at some point.
#Post#: 35454--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: Diana805
Date: July 28, 2019, 9:04 pm
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Had you ever considered "deadheading" the thistles when they got
to the seeding stage? Thus you could enjoy them blooming, AND
you could help prevent their
spreading where they are not wanted. It wouldn't be a perfect
100% solution, but it would be a step in the direction of
preventing them from seeding your neighbor's garden.
#Post#: 35475--------------------------------------------------
Re: Yard, neighbors, courtesy, and possible vandalism
DIR By: peony
Date: July 29, 2019, 7:42 am
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It's your right to keep your property the way you want it, and
thistles are lovely plants. However, are a few thistle plants
worth getting on neighbor's bad side? I am thinking that if it
was deliberate they may have been concerned about them
spreading. Stilll, they had no right to do what they did and I
don't think your concern is out of line at all.
Years back, my mother had a grape vine growing on a fence
bordering her neighbor's back yard. We didn't think anything of
it, but one day my mother saw some of the vine had been cut away
from the fence. It was the neighbor's fence, not my mother's,
and we thought the neighbor didn't like that the vine was
twining around her fence. We cut the rest of the grapevine off
the fence and pruned it for some distance so it wouldn't happen
again. One day my mother came home to see the offending vine had
been sheared away down to the roots. For no reason. (Honestly, I
don't know how it was done without trespassing into the yard,
unless the neighbor had long orangutan arms. IDK, we've never
seen her.) My angry nonverbal response was not
etiquette-approved. But my point is that if your thistles were
purposely poisoned perhaps it's better to assume they were
trying to do your a favor and get the "weeds" before they
spread, and act on that assumption. I would bring over some
cookies and talk to them first, just casually, to see why. And
if they claim they were poisoning the noxious weeds for you, you
know they were not deliberately being nasty. A neighbor feud
could make the rest of the time you live there very
uncomfortable.
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