Well, I guess I'm confused, are you gardening on their property, or are they going to install their new fence on your property?

The only thing that can make good neighbors is a long distance. There is absolutely no limits what people can wage war about here in Denmark.The dumber the cause, the more bloody the war. Here we usually have hedges instead of fences. They are either too tall or too short. Cats, dogs, chickens, everything can be a good reason.

No they are going to tear down the chain link fence and put in the privacy fence this Wednesday.

LOL wieslaw, your right. Like I said, I don't with a problem them and we've never gotten into any argument. I know they don't like the fact, that I don't mow very often but other then that. I mean the lock on the gate and now a privacy fence in this heat with such short notice.

Are you worried that some of your plants or gardens will get damaged? As long as they're on your land, I don't see why they should be trampling on your garden.

I would be psyched if my neighbors put up a fence! The next door neighbors on both sides drive me crazy and since I've removed a lot of invasive shrubbery on the sides, it is much more open in back and I feel like I'm in a fishbowl. I like TOTAL privacy - there aren't fences big enough to fix the privacy problem with this house, so only a new house with a much more private lot will suffice!

When I first moved in there was no fence on either side but there was privacy fence across from me. I decided to put in a living fence, the privacy fence almost fell on me after two years so it was removed.

I took a good look around this evening and untied the glads which I am not worried about. If it wasn't for the heat, I move the nineback which I was planning to do this fall but it shouldn't be an issue with the fence. I'm just wondering how far out they plan putting this thing. Then it will be a great place to plant the canna that I still have in those tiny plastic pots.

Don't take it personally. I just put one up about 4 months after moving into my house. I do, however, have 3 dogs (one being a husky... no mere chain link would contain her! That is, if she wanted to jump it, she could without even thinking about it). My one neighbor seemed a little offended. The others, I didn't get a chance to say anything to (I rarely see them). However, because I don't know who paid for the chain link fence back when it was installed, who am I to take it out? I just had the fence guy leave it in and put the privacy fence on my side of the chain link. Maybe not the prettiest but I have no idea who paid for them. Like I said, the one lady was not happy about the privacy fence going up to begin with but now a few months later she's over it (or at least passive enough to not hate me to my face).

I'm a little confused. You keep saying the neighbor is going to put the fence "further out"... from where? Are you talking length-wise, as in he's going to make it longer? Because I would assume the existing fence is pretty much on the property line and can't be moved much otherwise it would be on your property.

I think this will be an improvement over a chain-link fence anyday. Just think of what a nice backdrop for your flowers!

Dee

Oh, I so agree with wieslaw. I cannot tell you the depth of my hatred for my former neighbors at our old house. No fence could ever have made them better....We tried, but it didn't really help. They just threw junk over it. And it did nothing for the noise they produced-from all out top of the lungs swearing at each other to the middle of the night drug and beer parties (mind you, this wasn't the "hood"-this was a fairly decent middle class neighborhood). We still swear they had some sort of "thing" on the cops, because for the number of times the police were there, we never saw anyone arrested-even when it was clearly called for. The worst of the worst as far as trash goes-except the daughter who we always swore must have been adopted because she was polite, quiet and apparently smart-we never saw her again after she went to college! The rest of them...the parents, son, son's girlfriend and their offspring...they all still live there and not one of them works.

Ugh.

Perhaps they just decided to have the fence put in, then realized that they should let you know a little late? Sometimes people get so wrapped up in thier lives they forget about things like that. We put in a pretty long hedge line this spring and didn't tell the one neighbor-of course, they are seasonal and hadn't been out yet. I kinda felt bad when they did come out, and asked about it. It's serviceberry and butterfly bushes-we did it for the wildlife as much as to screen their house from our view a bit, but I didn't even think about leaving a note in case they came out when we weren't home...

If you want to read about a really bad neighbor, check out this blog (link below). I read the original one way back when, before it was taken down and got a good laugh. I still think I'd have traded JD8 for my neighbors though. Thankfully the Old House is a memory and the neighbors at the Cottage are AWESOME.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bad Neighbor Blog

ecleticcottage...what part of wny are you from...your story sounds just like my family...i'm the smart daughter that went away to college and never came back lol
also grew up in the finger lakes are of wny...coincidence?? lol

The many 'bad neighbour' posts on here always make me feel sad... We have been blessed by good neighbours, both here and at our previous house. In both cases, the fences have been 4' chainlink and chatting over the fence with neighbours a regular event. Here, the neighbour to the north is also an avid gardener and our gardens sort of merge at the fence. We often exchange/share plants. The neighbours to the south are elderly and I fear that, when they eventually sell, we'll end up with someone who puts up one of those dreadful (IMO) wooden privacy fences. Both the north and south neighbours enjoy seeing our garden and I consider - and try to enhance - their view of the garden when planting/making changes. The people from the two neighbouring properties behind us are not outdoors much so we rarely see them - but their dogs are good buddies that we play with through/over the fence :-) The whole neighbourhood is like this - everybody stops to chat with neighbours when out and about; dog-walking most often ends up as a group event with multiple dogs/owners walking together. It's a great area to live and I'm sorry that so many of you don't live in a similar sort of neighbourhood.

A lot of people do not like privacy fence because they like to have the view and it appears they have more land than they actually have. The others are just plain nosy. lol

eclecticcottage , how I wish that was true. I'm out watering my garden everyday or every other day. So no, it didn't slip either one of their minds. However, due to the heat, its taking them longer to put it up. They have removed the chain fence and put up some of the posts. They are bring out the fence a lot further then I thought. So now I'm trying to decide if the canna are going to planted by the new fence or a couple of dwarf fruit trees when its done.

Many states have a limit to how close to the property line a fence can be placed. I grow plants on my neighbors' fence with their permission and realize that the land along the fence is theirs as well. You may want to call your city planning commission to check variances to be sure the new fence is not on your property. If you know where the property line markers are and the variances you can determine that yourself.

Fortunately we have great neighbors. Still, I would love a nice wooden privacy fence that is well landscaped on the outsider just for the interesting landscaping choices it would give to my flat suburban yard.

What I mean't by further is that they are bring the fence all the way from the back yard to the front yard. Which is rare.

We have 6ft privacy fence on the north and southern lot lines of our back yard. The west lot line is post and rail opening up to the back end of two neighbors, so it does extend our view somewhat and I like the openness. The two sides that have privacy fence, were done after discussion with the neighbors who share those lot lines. One neighbor shared the cost of the fence and we hired out to have it erected and the other neighbor shared the cost and helped us with a simple straight line installation.

Our post and rail section already had to be replaced and our son did that. Since we were simply replacing with the same thing and in the same exact post holes, we didn't do more than let the neighbors know. They were fine with that. Now we have to replace the other sides and already anticipate that neither neighbor will object to replacing with the same fence in the same location, but may not be in a position to share the cost or the installation. Which is fine with us too.

As long as the lot line between the properties remains the same, and no one decides arbitrarily to move the fence further onto your property, then I guess all you can do is hope they are considerate enough to let you know when they are doing the work. If they dispute the lot line, then I would expect a new survey to be done to determine the actual lot line.

Oh, btw, you might want to ask them to clarify where the fence is going before they install it. There is usually town code that determines where a fence can go and how tall etc. How close to the street maybe.

I do not understand why people do not like privacy fence. I would think people would like the privacy in their yard. It is an extension of your house and just as rooms in your house are private I would think you would like your outside rooms to be private.

I don't understand that either. I like my privacy, in most every respect. Other neighbors may want to extend their view into my gardens but I have no desire to extend mine into their (ugly) yards full of turf grass and be subject to their nosy curiosity.

And some neighbors go beyond nosy and make malicious complaints about you!! I've got 2 neighborhood busybodies that have indeed, made complaints to the town about issues such as parking and an illegal apartment (which is now legal, thank you very much), with the full intention to make my life more difficult and stressful when trust me it was already stressful enough.

I can understand privacy fences on small lots but the lots here are 1/4 acre, which means there is plenty of room to use ornamental plantings to give any privacy that might be desired. And none of the neighbours we have had are offensive in any way, so we've never felt the need to shut them out. When we visit friends on properties with 6' wooden fences, it makes us feel imprisoned when we're in their yard! And it never seems to take long before wooden fences start looking dilapidated and decrepit.

Perhaps the fact that I grew up on 150 acres or so makes me want more open space around me and DH spent a lot of his youth on the prairies. 'Don't fence me in' and all that... :-) (Other than blinds in the bathrooms and bedrooms, there are no curtains on the windows here either - we much prefer to maximize the light available!)

Woody, I can understand that. I do have a 1/4 acre and find it very confining just to have this small a lot. I am also in an area with very flat geography, so with trees in every yard, I can't see the horizon from any of my windows. Come to think of it, I've never lived on a larger property than an acre, although I've lived in many houses. But despite that, I have always yearned for open space and a view from a height. I think that was why we chose this house, because all of the houses we were looking at had the smaller lots, but this one at least had a lot of privacy in the back without a house directly in our view. And I do appreciate the flat geography and smaller lot from a gardening perspective.

Using ornamentals doesn't work very well when you have kids or dogs here. They do have leash laws and it is very freeing to be able to allow your kids or pets to play in the yard without having to worry about them. Of course, I am remembering back to when I was young and at least four houses that we lived in without a fence. All the kids in the neighborhood played in the streets in one neighborhood, to no ill effect. And the dogs ran loose without leashes. Of course, it was a different time then.

How fascinating that you lived on such a large space and that your DH grew up on the prairie! Was it a farm?

If one of my neighbors told me they were having a privacy fence installed, I think I would do cartwheels and shout for joy. I would box my entire 2.2 acres in myself if I could afford it. I am trying to do that now with hedging and plantings, which works reasonably well during the spring/summer/fall, and in the winter it doesn't matter that much since outdoor time is very limited.

PM2 - I grew up on a (small) farm; DH's time on the prairies was mainly summers spent with his grandparents in rural areas, but not a farm.

I don't have a problem with fences per se; just with 6' solid wooden wall ones that make you feel shut in. There are 4' chainlink fences all around our backyard - the north side fence we put up; the others belong to the neighbours. We have a dog - and regularly dog-sit for friends, so sometimes there are three or four dogs here; The neighbour to the south has one; the two properties to the west have two dogs each; the neighbour to the north has none, but sometimes dog-sits two Jack Russels. So fences are necessary to confine the dogs. But fences do not have to be walls!

Some views of the backyard:

From the living room window looking west:

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From the back porch, also looking west:
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Looking south across the backyard in early June 2008 before some of the trees were planted/grew large - you can see the neighbour's house...:
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A view towards that area from a couple of weeks ago (taken from a different position, obviously... You can also see the living room window where the first picture was taken from.):
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An autumn view looking north - you can see the neighbours backyard:
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In the north alley - my Late Dutch honeysuckle and the neighbour's rose:
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A 6' wooden fence would not enhance any of those views!

Woodyoak, your yard is very nice. With the on going drought mine looks like a dried husk.

I certainly understand the theory of a chain-link fence - visibilty, not a solid wall in your face, not big and heavy, etc. - but I would rather have a wooden fence, even a 6-footer. Maybe it had something to do with growing up in the inner-city, but chain link fences just don't cut it for me, not for where I live now. I lived on a street full of row-houses, and every single person had a chain link fence in front of their house and dividing their tiny front yards (and back yards!) So the street was one continuous chain-link fence, only broken up by the 3 Dutch Colonials between each set of rowhouses - and even most of the houses had chain link fences too!

Chain-link to me says urban, gritty, dirty. Give me a nice wooden fence as a backdrop to my plants any day!

Dee

I say to each his own, we put up a 6' wooden fence and bought a Doberman after surprising an intruder at 3 a.m. one summer morning. The fence was for the Dobie but I must say I really liked the enclosed feeling almost like a walled garden if you let your imagination wander.
I also like the backdrop it gives for vines and such and, I can still talk to the neighbors over the fence after finding something to stand on :)
Our neighbors also use our fence for a backdrop for their plants as well. On one side I have the benefit of one of our neighbor's beautifully scented Honeysuckle cascading over on to our side of the fence, on the other side our other neighbor has the benefit of several clematis and other vines spilling over to her side. So it's a win, win, for the three of us.

Annette

Well the fence saga continues. I was up early on Saturday morning and decided to get a head start on watering the plants. This way I don't get their way and I avoid the hot sun. As I hooked up my soaker hoses I noticed several rocks from my neighbor's yard in my yard. I kindly put them back(no I did not throw them. As fate would have it, they were gone for the weekend. Monday evening, I had to do some handwatering. As I'm start to water, I noticed several glad bulbs in the middle of the yard. The wife was outside so I made sure she saw me go back up to the fence line and place the bulbs in the dirt. I'm sure there will be more over the next few days and I'll bury them then.
Later on when I was taking to my other neighbor I thought I saw something thrown in the yard. She had thrown over a small clump of dry dirt with a weed attached. Then I found purple clover that had been dug up and left in my garden. No I don't have any purple clover in my yard. I usually have white but none since the drought. I put them in the lawn bags and I start to get angry. I decided to stay outside since it was cool (90 degrees) and work off my anger What I heard next made me smile.
This whole time I thought the husband was building the fence with the help of a friend. As it turned out, they hired some guy who is charging them by the hour and taking his sweet time in getting work done. The wife was frustrated that not much had been done. So now she's trying to find someone else. I know I shouldn't take any pleasure in this knowledge but it did dissipate my anger.