The fun never stops with these jokers does it?
We may have to have to current homeowner for permission to take a cutting, but there is this property on my mother's street that has this nasty hedge. It's about 4-5 feet high, has half inch to inch long thorns, and ugly dark yellow flowers that bloom around mid-late spring. Those flowers stink to high heaven and attract bees the way an accident attracts sleazy tort lawyers. I had the misfortune to have to walk past this thing on my way to school back in the 1970s and while the hedge has been battered by storms over the years, the memory of it remains. If you could get one of those shrubs and use it as a fence....bwaahaaaahaaaa!!

Dawn, you and I are thinking right along the same track. Only I was figuring on establishing a hedge of wild raspberry canes, which of course will spread all over their property too--almost as bad as bamboo.

My next door neighbor decided she was allergic to roses and incited one of her offspring to murder my climbing Queen Elizabeth rose. She took advantage when I was recovering from a hip replacement and had been unable to get out to train it properly. Six years of preparatory growth down the drain. I am convinced her "allergies" are mainly due to tree pollens out about the same time, especially from her own oak tree, which is dying a slow death from some sort of fungus disease. Our house will be in its path when it finally falls down, as one across the street did a few years ago.

I also had planted a nice flowering shrub to screen the area where we set out our trash. She planted a group of cheap nonflowering shrubs parallel to it, one so close to the one I planted that its roots invaded the area I had added soil amendments to--all of the other shrubs she planted, except for the one invading my shrub's root area, died. Now she has replaced that with a yew which will shade out the lower branches of a pine tree she claims she wants to remain, and which will almost certainly kill my origional shrub if I take no protective action.

At least the shrubs at the back of my property are finally high enough to hide the hideous chain link fence the neighbor back there installed (in place of a stand of forsythia planted origionally to shade his bank, caused by the slight elevation between our properties) so he wouldn't have to walk his dog/s. This is the same one that ripped out the most beautiful althea shrub in the neighborhood to put his shed in, directly at the edge of his chain link fence. He also chopped off all of the branches on my Allegheny viburnums facing hs chain link fence, although I had explained that its growth pattern would not be a threat to the fence. He was harboring a group of seedling maples under the high tension wires, and felt that this should be OK, since I had the Alleghenies. I don't think he believed me when I informed him they only grow to about eighteen feet. Their branches grow at strangely ugly angles after being carelessly pruned, so he will pay for his arrogance. The branches he had clipped off would have shaded his bare bank and lessened weed growth. He also ripped out some yews I had planted on the bank with the previous owner's permission to prevent weeds--they had grown to a size that would have made them useful for planting elsewhere, but he didn't bother to consult me regarding their disposition, either, although he was aware I had planted them there. I also suspect him of using herbicide every spring, although he denies doing so, because I have seen him out with a sprayer. I have noticed I become ill each spring whenever I small the herbicide, and have asked him to alert me to when he uses it so I can close my windows, but of course that doesn't happen, because he would rather just deny the obvious.

Most of my neighbors are pleasant, but there are always a few who have no understanding of gardening and create ugliness wherever they go.

Can you put a pretty fence around your garden? Your garden is a beautiful space that should be pleasantly enjoyed by you without negativity from others who have no concept of such things.

Wish I could put a fence up that would keep his rugrats out of my garden. But we share a driveway easement so they could just walk up the driveway a few feet and have access.

Yesterday they were going for a walk from their backyard and instead of using the trail, they stomped right through my garden through the stand of sharp lobed hepatica that I am trying to establish. I was up on my deck and saw them out of the corner of my eye as I heard butthead the father say, "now girls you know you aren't supposed to go that way."

I went out that afternoon and transplanted the first two of what will be many wineberry (wild raspberry) plants between our yards. At least that will keep them from cutting through.

I'd make a hedge of barberry bushes. Plant them close so they'll fill in quick. Can you install a fence to enclose your back yard in at least? You shouldn't have to go to that expense. Do any of the other neighbors have the same problems with this neighbor? What about putting NO TREASPASSING signs? Do you have a movie camera? Or does your digital camera take movies. Document every little detail or confrontation with the Father. Does the Mother ever confront you. Seems to always be the Father.

Kim let me kow if you are interested in an upright hardy cactus the requires a pair of heavy duty rubber gloves inside a pair of leather work gloves for handling. It is hardy
MAry
mgardosiksterrett
atverizondotnet