Since the woman is old, it would be a samaritan thing to rake up the leaves for her. Do the leaves come from a bunch of trees in the neighborhood, or just from your trees? Depending upon the woman's age and condition, raking might really be a hardship for her.

A friend of mine in Wisconsin lives across the street from a woman who is now 108 years old. The elder woman has outlived all of her relatives. The people in the neighborhood pitch in and do various outdoor chores for her, from taking her trash barrel to curbside to clearing snow from her driveway. She no longer drives, but she was driving until she was 104! She has a nurse who visits twice a week, who needs to park in the driveway.

Lorna

Lorna, I think you have a good heart. I agree, that would be a kind thing to do.....or just rake up your leaves whichever you would rather do.

I had an elderly neighbor once who was such a fanatic about leaves on the grass that she went out daily with a rake and a bucket and almost got them before they touched the ground.

One of my favorite topics! Raking and/or gathering neighbors' leaves.
If my health is good, I'm known to gather neighbors' bags of leaves
for my compost pile. If you and other neighbors have compost
piles, what a nice way to feed your piles and help an elderly neighbor
as long as she is comfortable with people on her property.

She's not elderly - she's in her 60's. She has made rude comments before and is not very tactful.

We were having a nice conversation, talking about kids, school, new neighbors, and plants. I pointed out a little flowering dogwood that I planted this spring and she said...."yeah, you know what i thought of when you were planting that? I was thinking, great, she's planting another tree whose leaves are going to blow into my yard. I have to hire someone every year to clean up your leaves."

EVERY yard on our block has trees. I just thought it was rude the way she said it.

OK, now I am beginning to rethink my response!!!

Ignore her and do your own thing.

Tell her trees are a good thing.

Oh, she's around my age! Oh dear, she sounds so cranky.
Sounds like she is someone that always needs something to complain about.

Oh no....I guess I shouldn't have called her OLD. She's not that old. Ha! Sorry!

She's just one of those people who never has a nice thing to say about anyone. She talks bad about the people who lived here before me - I knew them and they were nice people. So, I'm sure she talks about me behind my back. Oh, well.......she can be miserable - it's a free country.
I am going to try to be kind, though - you know the old saying....Kill 'em with kindness? I'll bake her something or give her some mums this fall. But I WILL NOT RAKE UP MY LEAVES until I have thoroughly enjoyed them. (smile)

It would be hard not to plant a weeping willow next to her property line. =D

She lives across the street.

The funny thing is, two houses down from her is woods! Behind her is woods!

Sheesh!

Thanks for making me see the humor in this. I can't stand when someone is mad or upset with me and her little comment yesterday ate at me all evening. Now, it is no longer a worry to me. :)

If she keeps it up, I will be forced to buy a dog - either a little yippy one that barks all the time, or a big one that will make big poops. Heh heh!
kidding

In our neighborhood, there are lots of trees, and, as in other neighborhoods, no one's leaves only fall in their own yards. Raking is part of living in a neighborhood. Also, part of my gardening is pulling or digging out all the locust trees that sprout up from my next door neighbors' tree.

My neighbor who is a friend from across the street did complain about all the raking in her yard due to the bumper crop of helicopters from our Maple tree this spring. We had too many of our own to rake hers, too, but she didn't expect us to. LOL

I'm sorry your neighbor is so crabby. When fall comes, you could just pretend like she didn't complain and not worry about her yard, unless you want the leaves for your compost. Oh, and I invite neighbors to put the leaves THEY'VE raked on my compost, or have gone out and asked for their bags and dumped them on. :o)
Sue

That is one of the best part of this Conversation side - relief from evil neighbours and annoying people!! lol.

Nancy.

Don't get a yappy little dog - it will annoy EVERYONE for many blocks, not just your crabby neighbor.

Just to echo what gottagarden said...yeah, dont get a dog. Theres several annoying ones in our neighborhood that annoy everyone-BUT the owners. Theres one small dog that makes a god-awful whine-bark that sound like a rodent being strangeled.
Try not to let what the neighbor said get to you. Trees cant help which way their DECOMPOSABLE leaves blow, and neither can you. Its not your responcibility to pick up after a TREE for goodness sake.
There was a crotchety old guy next to us that was horrible. He made a huge stink about my row of various trees along the property line because they were a few inches over on his side. He threatened to take us to court over it. He never did, he was just blowing hot air. The trees wernt hurting ANYTHING! His house& driveway was nowhere near the trees, which he insisted we pruned nearly monthly. So we took out many of the trees and put a fence up. And wouldnt you know it, he moved away only a couple of years after that!
Ps. have you baked her anything yet? because I have a great recipie for brownies with laxitives in it...;-)
CMK

LOL! Yeah, like I said, she might need more FIBER in her diet. Ha ha! Thanks for the laugh.

I would not rake those leaves! Otherwise, she wll be complaining every year if you do not do it and probably whining that you are not out there often enough to rake them.

Teresa

Well just for conversation I have a neighbor across the street. He has 4 big oak trees in his yard. I have No trees in my yard but I live down a slight incline from this neighbor. The wind of course blows all his leaves into my yard and since my hubby is disabled and I have asthma I have to pay someone to rake them every Fall. This man is in his 20/30's and does not rake up a single leaf ever that I have noticed. He doesn't have to because of the way the wind blows. I've never said anything to him but it sure is annoying I can tell you. So I wanted you to get another viewpoint on this.
Joann

ghoghunter,
Glad you posted, sharing how it is for someone in your situation.
All of us are going to be older someday, with health/medical/physical
challenges. It's sometimes hard for the younger generation to look
that far into the future and comprehend how it could be

Wouldn't be nice if there was someone in your neighborhood who
could rake your leaves for you, to use for their compost pile?

Take care!