That is a common problem for many people. Same thing goes on here. Just grit your teeth and continue to be nice. Not worth stressing out about it.

I would gladly trade you neighbors as we have mother on one side and daughter living on the other. What a pain! Just grit your teeth Jim..LOL

Best of luck!

I'm so happy for you that they're moving....is it the cranky lady who got mad when you were spraying? No matter what you do, these kinds of folks are always going to find fault; basically they are miserable with themselves. It's nothing you've done wrong at all, in fact, I can tell you've always taken the high road.

My offer still stands; move to central Illinois in my neighborhood. I'm so blessed with two wonderful neighbors; one of whom is like a sister. She even has a key to my house.
-terry

This is why my nearest neighbor is nearly a mile away; neighbors are often best appreciated from a distance.

Gads!! Neighbors can really be a pain can't they!? I am about sick of neighbors. It is surprising I don't live in the boonies.
About the tea, I aerate it which cuts down the stank considerably. Actually it smells nice. I just bought a big cheap aquarium pump. Works great and the teas brew a lot quicker. Plus, aerating the water declorinates it in no time.
I feel for ya!

Allison

PS: Alfalfa is just as effective if you dig a handful of the pellets into the top couple inches of soil and water in occasionally; triacontonol, the active ingredient, is highly water soluble and does not need to be brewed into a neighbor-alienating, foul smelling concoction to do the job.

I was thinking about brewing Alfalfa tea next Spring to use for the first time. I do apply Alfalfa pellets in early Spring like trospero mentions. I didn't realize the tea smelled so bad.

JIM

The "tea" that people brew for roses ends up smelling bad usually because it is allowed to steep anaerobically, and so it isn't surprising that it smells like a stagnant swamp, which, in effect, it is!

How long does the smell linger after applying this tea?

Few years back I was collecting rain water into a large drum container. This container had a lid on it with a hole cut just big enough for the rain spout to go through.
The neighbors complained that my rain water smelled bad...LOL

I guess the Alfalfa tea would really clean out there sinus...LOL

JIM

I didn't know that, trospero...I won't bother with making the tea then. I just assumed the pellets would take forever to have any effect, hence the tea.
I went outside a little while ago and don't smell anything anymore....
Yeah, sometimes I wish I lived out in the country again, except for the fact that our kids had no neighbors at all to play with when they were little....
Thanks for letting me let off a little hopefully-not-too-stinky steam!! :0) Phyl

Some neighbors are just overly contrary or perhaps you've got the ones we had when we first moved here 8 years ago. Nothing we did was right and they were very verbal about it.

The 500 roses I had in a circle in my front yard while I was preparing the rose beds was ugly and was lowering their property value.
{{gwi:308492}}
This was after I had removed the burn pile the previous owners had in the middle of the front yard. That hadn't bothered them according to the previous owners. Nor did the fact the previous owners had no lawn. He just kept the weeds mowed
They didn't like I cut down some trees to open my yard to the sun for my roses.
I cut up all the wood and gave it to my son who sold it for firewood. They complained about the cut up wood stacked around.
{{gwi:308493}}
A shed in my back yard that had been there for years, all of a sudden was on their property a bit. I moved it over and found it it wasn't after I had the property line surveyed
They called the sheriff everytime I did something they didn't like and were told I was breaking no laws.
I checked to see if I needed a permit to put up my hobby greenhouse and they immediately called the county planning and zoning commission to complain to no avail.
The frustration of not being able to get me on any violations really upset them
When I asked if I could tie onto their fence that ran between our back yards, they refused.
When I told them I was running another fence right next to theirs, I was told they setback their fence 18 inches and I should do the same with mine. I had the property line surveyed and put my fence right on the line. The lady kept pulling out the survey stakes and I kept replacing them with longer stakes pounded into the ground. I finally got one long enough she couldn't pull it out.
When I was pounding it in the ground she came over and yelled. I ignored her and the more she complained the harder I hit the stake.
My fence ended up 18 inches away from their fence and they complained they had to keep the 18 inch space clean of weeds and it was hard to get to.
"Too bad" I said, I had given them a chance to avoid this.
Then I was told no one could take care of 550 roses.
I put up an attractive vinyl fence between our front yards.
{{gwi:308495}}
They liked that but when I began rototilling the rose bed along the fence they complained that dirt was gtting on their lawn. I placed a barrier of Stryofoam sheets along the fence to keep the dirt contained and they complained about that saying it looked ugly and was lowering their property value.
When I mowed if I cut a little too close to their lawn, they complained.
Anything I tried was ugly and was taking away from their property value.
I finally got really mad one day and literally blew my top at him. As he walked away I had my stroke and ended up on the ground. I'd popped an Aneurysm in my head from a blood presure spike.
It got to the point I just did what I wanted within the law and at times even did things to aggravate them.
After that they put up an arborvitae barrier along their side of the vinyl fence so they would't have to see me getting around my yard on my scooter or struggling to walk up and down my driveway. They finally put their house on the market and moved.

The last time they were in the area they told another neighbor they wished they hadn't moved as my lawn and roses and the new vinyl siding on my house made my yard and home the neatest and best looking one in the neighborhood.

The moral of the story is you can't please everyone and sometimes you can't please anyone. Just do what you want and they'll either move or eventually stop complaining especially if they see their complaints aren't affecting you. The more they see you're doing what you want, the sooner stop complaining.
As far as the alfalfa tea smell is concerned, you're breaking no laws so put it down. Fish emulsion is just as bad as it leaves a fish rotting on the beach odor in the air for a day or two.
as far as spraying, just try to spray on calm days. I got a four foot spray wand so I could contain the spray better.

BTW, I have terrific neighbors now.

Jeff- I think you live next door to my mother! Oh, wait! *I* live next door to my mother! hahaha You've hit the nail on the head - she's a control freak and you can just ignore her or go along with her.

Karl - I can't believe that's why you had your stroke - you were so upset at your neighbors! I don't know what I would do if my neighbor made me so mad. Wait - didn't I mention I lived next door to my mother? hahaha Glad your neighbors finally moved. Funny that they love your landscaping now. They just couldn't see your vision.

BTW - my mother really is my neighbor, but we are separated by 100 acres! Whew!

I'll take complaining neighbors over the nice, friendly neighbors I had when I first bought my house. As kind and helpful as they appeared, there was one major problem ... they were drug dealers.

Lyn

I live in housing development where the houses are close together. I have lived here over 30 years and many of the people in the neighborhood have lived here for years and are nice neighbors. The home next to mine used to be a rental property and a guy who was on the sexual preditor list moved in...I was really concerned for all the little children who live in the neighborhood. All us got lucky and the house was sold and a nice young couple bought it. When I bought the house everyone had small children, now it is just old folks except for a few young families...I miss the sound of little kids.

The last time they were in the area they told another neighbor they wished they hadn't moved as my lawn and roses and the new vinyl siding on my house made my yard and home the neatest and best looking one in the neighborhood.

???

The idiots (I'm sorry to be uncivil, but really!) didn't have the imagination to realize that was almost certainly the most likely outcome once everything was planted and established?

I mean, come on! Who goes out of their way to plant 550 roses unless they do it with foresight, already recognizing the future workload they're placing upon themselves and thus deliberately choosing in advance to embrace that?

If they come up every year in the same places over & over you don't have "morning glories" (in the seed catalog sense of the term) for "morning glories" are annuals (although in the right climates they can be annuals that reseed themselves in perpetuity). There are perennial members of that group of plants. They have similar flowers, but often those perennial plants are more accurately known as "bindweeds".

Compared to some folks I know the issues we have had with a few of our neighbors are pretty small. Nothing like what Karl went through for example. But even though my neighbors have infuriated me at times overall living in a small town and having to deal with the people who live around me year after year has helped me learn to co exist with them. I'm grateful for that experience. It has helped me less emotional everytime a problem comes up. Although I do still lose my temper from time to time I'm better at biting my tongue until I can get a little perspective.

For me though it will always be a challenged tolerating neighbors whose kids run wild or 'adults' who are loud and inconsiderate. But hopefully working towards some kind of conflict resolution helps me evolve a little bit:)

Kate

Ok, I have to add my story. First, I live between two divorced older ladys who have owned the houses since they were built in the 50s. Both have fences that run the property line. Both fences are about 3' into our property. That means the mature trees on one side are ours but since it is on her side of the fence(our property) at a whim she will have them cut down to a few bare branches. I had a shade garden there......Camillas, staghorn ferns, You get the idea. No more shade garden there. The other side a hideous chainlink fence half way down the property jutted in a few feet. After 7 yrs we moved it onto the property line. That neighbor now hasn't talked to us for 3 years, and had her phone number changed and said it was unlisted. The area the fence was moved is all weeds and hill on her side she never goes there and it's out property, geez. I had it moved because I put in a trampoline and needed the space, (all the balls ended up on her/my side)not to be a jerk. On top of all this there was a mentally ill lady directly across the street that no one cared about so I got to watch her go downhill and die. Now her 95 year old mother lives there and I get to witness the horrible home care people sell her stuff off, neglect her, etc. no matter what I say to the family it continues. Then the 30 somethings move in the house mommy bought them and think they can do anything and own the block. Because the neighbors, including me, said something about the band and partying in front of house and booze bottles fighting and threats, taking up everyones parking spaces they have retaliated. And guess who takes the brunt of it? Me/Us. We are the youngest neighbors is my guess. So now their mother who doesn't live there comes and parks her extra car and leaves it for days right in the middle so no other car can fit. They called animal control on my Golden dog Roxy who is for my special needs child and wouldn't bother anyone. Still booze bottles on the lawn. And seemingly have everyone who visits park in the spots in front of our house. All us neighbors did was ask for some consideration. The neighbor down below I have told you all the story of all the building that has happened. Illegal yet not one enforces. I have very large lot and feel squished by all of this. Not fun.
Now for the good part. The band across the street is gone, I can handle the parking deal and a few bottles. I have a number to call for the 95 yr old to make sure things get better for her. The trees that were cut down helped me get started on MY landscaping, daunting task! I don't care to talk to the other lady but it's still a shame. If some of these events hadn't occurred I probably wouldn't have my raised rose beds, a whole new shade area with potting table :-), and for sure I wouldn't have the rose bed where my shade garden was.
It is true that way too much energy was spent on being furious. It isn't easy to get away from when it is so invasive. I felt either my husband, son or I was going to blow a gasket, as it were. (What saved us was the band leaving)
Karl is proof how difficult and serious this can be. I am so sorry Karl.

Allison

Hi Phyl, your neighbors sound a bit cranky. Next time you spray, and some fish emulsion. That should make them happy :)

Had to chuckle about complaints on the alfalfa tea odor. The town where I live is routinely saturated by the stench of manure from nearby cattle feedlots. I guess it has made us all very tolerant of bad odors or it has ruined our sense of smell.

My neighbor across the street has a big heart and is very helpful. He likes to mow his lawn at 6:30 AM, even during the weekend. I hear that mower and just try to ignore it.

I wasn't going to get into this, but, I will alittle.
3 years ago we had 6 tomato plants and many flowers along our fence. Woke up one morning and everything was dead or near death. Since our neighbor had brown weeds that looked like she was spraying weed poison, I asked her to be more careful with the poison she was spraying. Well, she said, I never sprayed any weed poison and called me names. I left it go. The following Spring/Summer the same thing happened. I left it go with her, but, contacted the police to see what could be done. They suggested I set up a hidden outdoor CCTV camera looking at our flowers and plants. The following year the camera caught her spraying our plants, ect. with the weed poison. I didn't want anymore trouble, so, my lawyer advised me to bring up the fact that we know she has done this and if done again, will be taken to court for damages, ect. We have had no more trouble with that anylonger. But, she complains about everything! And her mother on the other side of us complains about everything. Doesn't like the way I shovel our sidewalk in the winter. Yes, our sidewalk, all snow is removed, who cares how I did it...LOL... My rain water in a barrel stinks...lol...Nobody else could smell a thing. On and on and on and on. We just give them a big smile and say, yes maam. This season has been quiet, I think they finally have given up as we show them it doesn't bother us what they say or do. They are really grumpy and unhappy people. Everybody else on the entire block are great neighbors. Even the next block over everyone is great...LOL...Most neighbors just ignore these two. Everybody has had some sort of trouble with them.

ANYBODY WANT THEM??? LOL

phylrae;
See, things aren't as bad as you thought!
There's something to the saying that As bad as things are, they could be worse.
There are so many unhappy people in this world, and they try to make the rest of us unhappy too.
Don't worry, be happy!

ROFL . . . Obviously, a lot of pent-up neighbor-related frustration around here, and a real need to ventilate!

Actually, I identify with everything said above. I live across the street from a duo who exhibit a strange sense of superiority/entitlement. I try to be meticulous in the upkeep of my home and grounds; however, NOTHING occuring on my side of the street ever met with the approval of the lord of the manor across the way. Time and time again, just to keep the peace, I meekly humored him & attempted to accommodate his frequent, inane complaints. His objections ranged from the noise of blowers, mowers, etc, to the fact that I didn't use a headset to listen to the radio when I worked outside, to the laughter and chattering of garden club friends, to the motion sensors on lights in my side garden, etc, etc, etc.

I've no idea what these neighbors use their 4-car garage for, but 2 of their 3 vehicles were almost always parked on my side of the street. It's a public street so, in my view, I've no control over who parks there.

Around 11:00 one night about 4 yrs ago, there came a loud, frantic and incessant banging of a fist on my front door in concert with rapid repeat ringing of the doorbell. When I rushed to investigate, I was confronted by the lord of the manor across the way who was going nuclear on the spot -- absolutely APOPLECTIC! Why? Well, because I had the unmitigated effrontery to wheel my trash dumpster and recycle bin to the curb in front of MY house, & had left them there within a few feet of where her ladyship had parked (again, in front of MY house) her brand new, super-duper maroon BMW. I felt like Alice in Wonderland trying to make sense of the totally absurd! For a moment I actually (& idiotically) tried to think of an alternate place for the city to pick up my freaking garbage! When I recovered my senses, however, I found that my senses had sailed over the brink . . .

That evening, & for the very first time, his lordship found out what it's like when yours truly goes berserk. Unfortunately, nobody was around to shoot a video of his hulk in retreat, a swift step ahead of my indignant, bellowing, peace-disrupting, barely 5 ft self hounding him all the way to the curb.

From that day until this the folks across the street have been total nonentities in my world. How else does one deal with the absurd but ignore it? When the duo's vehicles are (rarely) now parked on the street, they are invariably parked at the curb in front of THEIR house. And I play NPR as loudly as I want when I'm working in the front garden. If anyone needs it, that headset radio must be around here someplace . . .

I feel bad for all you. I moved into town when I quit farming and I am the good neighbour who replaced the bad Neighbour. I had it made in the shade! My 3 teenagers were good kids and played with the little kids and helped the seniors on our street. We only do what we consider right but bad previous neighbours gave us a halo.
Today my neighbours who are close to my age, the husband weed whacked my yard and I helped his little granddaughter plant some pots with seeds I had and some annuals left over. We all had a grand time and a good visit. I shudder every time a house near us goes on sale but we have lucked out every time so far. I think I'm blessed.

Now I feel a little bit silly....hearing and seeing all your pictures (wow, Karl...that's all I can say, wow...)

I did forget that the people mentioned have mown their lawn on Sunday mornings @ 7 am.....but I have never complained to them.

I think they probably think I'm as loony about my roses as the guy across the street is about standing on top of his roof in the middle of the winter, blowing snow off his roof and then shoveling it off his LAWN onto the street! Nice guy, just not everyone's favorite when he stands in his yard for 3 hours every single day in the fall and blows all the fallen leaves off his yard onto the neighbor's yard. His house must be immaculate. Very OCD.

I cleaned the preceding neighbor's house 2x a month years ago. The husband knocked on my door one day to ask me to come over and show him HOW I polished his kitchen table and asked "about how many minutes does it take you to polish it"....I quit fairly soon thereafter. My son could never mow our own lawn to his specs.

Ok, I promise no more neighbor stories from me...at least I'll try harder. Our other neighbors get lots of bouquets from me over the years! :0)

I am very glad you are getting rid of these neighbours, they sound nasty and complaining.

I tell you what my parents did: they simply bought the field next to our house, and they bought the closest house.
Now the field is still a field, I mean none can build anything on it so we have a guarantee of peace, and the other house has been rented, so if the neighbours were to become nasty, we could snip the fingers and throw them out.

Oh... I have neighbor who was perfectly sweet..until her kids showed up! Now the kids are still nice but the little old lady has gone nuts for Ex.
I planted a Mr Lincoln (the love of my garden) right next to the fence (which is WELL on our property) she complained that i was going to weaken the fence O.o yet she put over a dozen annuals on her side (which is still our property btw.) so...she aggravated me so bad..i put a rasberry bush and some mint in two other places by the fence :)

"I was confronted by the lord of the manor across the way who was going nuclear on the spot -- absolutely APOPLECTIC! Why? Well, because I had the unmitigated effrontery to wheel my trash dumpster and recycle bin to the curb in front of MY house"

This is when you coolly look the good fellow in the eye and state calmly "Any repeat of this kind of offense and I will call the Police and have a restraining order issued on you." and shut the door.

All of which goes to show....do what it takes not to fight with your neighbors. They may be unreasonable (one of ours called the cops to report an abandoned car parked in front of our house....that belonged to my daughter who was on vacation). They may be dead wrong (one of ours thought that, because their property is subject to an easement for use by their adjoining neighbors, they had an easement to use my property). They may even be right (when we were first married more than 30 years ago, another of ours objected that our dog, who we had trained to retrieve the newspaper, was taking their paper. She was.). We have learned to be considerate. When their wishes infringe on our right to live as we please, we set down boundaries, explaining why and what we are doing, accommodating what we can. Neighbor doesn't like cars parked in our driveway? Too bad. We have friends. Neighbor likes to spray the property line with Roundup? Fine, so long as not one drop gets on my plants planted along the fence line. Neighbor doesn't like the view of my yard from their living room window? Fair enough. We do what we can, planting screening to soften infrastructure installed by the developer. Of course I wonder why they didn't do the same on their own property. But I screen nonetheless. It's all part of being a good neighbor.

Funny how barking dogs and trash containers get people nuts. We have neighbors who seems to think that leaving the emptied trash containers up on the street for an hour past trash pickup is a sign of poor breeding. Oh well. The green can is so heavy that I cannot wrangle it up the driveway. I get half way up, and it rolls me right back down. So when my gardener fills it, he also does the service of putting the green can up by the street. Neighborhoods used to be organized with those wonderful alleyways at the back of the property. We don't live in that world any more. As for dogs, there's a big difference between a young dog learning to enjoy staying in the yard alone for the first time and a dog that barks all day, every work day while its owner is at work. But not to my neighbors.

So much is in the attitude. I thought of my sister when I read Karl's story. When they were in the process of buying their house the current owners warned them about the awful next door neighbor. It turned out the next door neighbors are a dream. They absolutely love them. Funny how different people see things.
Nancy

so...she aggravated me so bad..i put a rasberry bush and some mint in two other places by the fence

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are really lucky--the lady one one side of our house lets us plant New Dawn and Robusta along her chain link fence--on her property!

On the other side, we have a young couple who said our rose garden was one of the reasons for choosing the house!

You all terrify me with your experiences. The house and yard behind us, backing up to the end of my garden and the house and yard to the garden side of us are both up for sale. The sweet elderly folks that lived in these 2 houses have passed away and I am holing my breath. There is only a chain link fence between back yards here so you can see and hear 5 houses away in all directions. I pray who ever moves in is as easy going as all my neighbors now.

I guess we're really lucky. We don't have any "bad" neighbors. At least not adjoining ones. Everyone sort of keeps to themselves. Our street circles around and down towards the canyon. We're right at the split. There's an easement road above us, so the closest neighbor on that side is on the other side of the road. She's a lady who apparently has some sort of lung disease. She hacks and coughs all the time when she's outside, and smokes her (I assume) "medical" marijuana, because I smell it quite a lot when I'm out in the yard. A younger couple up the road also smoke a lot of pot (I can smell it wafting down my way).... I'm sure it's not medical in their case tho. LOL

We do have a mean a$$hole who lives around the circle on the side road tho. He has a mechanics shop in town, and he drives a really old Ford pickup. He hauls a$$ up and down the road all the time and has nearly hit several people in the neighborhood... and sometimes it's intentional. He yells and threatens people (mostly the elderly neighbors) constantly. There's a guy who lives down at the bottom of the circle, and he's on a small stream and there's a pond there. Beautiful serene piece of property. He has a huge, like 5ft, metal windchimes hanging in one of the trees near the pond, which apparently is pretty close to that idiot's property. He complains about the windchimes because he can't stand the sound they make. He's even threatened to come and remove them. So far nothing's happened tho.

I feel for those of you who have to live near idiot neighbors tho. I wouldn't be able to handle it. I'd want to move, myself!

We live out in the 'woods' but we do have a few neighbors whom we have amicable relationships with. We mostly keep to ourselves, but will talk over the fence with the neighbor on one side about his chickens or whatever. He sees me out every day fussing over my roses and is polite enough not to mention the treks outside in my p.j.s in the morning or my talking to my rosebushes. Luckily for me, whenever I have dumped alfalfa tea, he doesn't say anything.... his chickens stink a bit too....so we're even.

I have lived here the longest....23 years....so my yard is more 'established'. I am the ONLY one who gardens, or even cares about the appearance of their yard. Only one of my direct neighbors comes over and wanders through my gardens and she is very complimentary. She thinks I am amazing, that I can grow roses up here! (I have people stop by the road and look at my gardens and some will politely ask if they can come up for a tour which I am so happy to give and share my knowledge of and passion for roses.) The only downside of that couple is that years ago when I was single after my divorce, the guy (who wasn't married at the time) had the hots for me and he and all his boozing buddies would cat call at me from his porch when I was out working in the garden. When I ignored him, he started spreading rumours about me, that no decent woman would want to be called.
(I did child daycare in my home and he told everyone that all those cars coming and going from my home each day were 'clients'...if you get my drift.) I took the high road and have never said a word. But my new DH certainly set him straight!

Mostly I have to look at weed-infested, so-called lawns and junk cars everywhere because both sets of neighbors like to 'tinker'. Whenever I try to take a full garden shot, there are always cars in the background, and a portly guy with his butt-crack showing...beer in hand. LOL

Celeste

"Mostly I have to look at weed-infested, so-called lawns and junk cars everywhere because both sets of neighbors like to 'tinker'. Whenever I try to take a full garden shot, there are always cars in the background, and a portly guy with his butt-crack showing...beer in hand. LOL"

Celeste
----------------------------------------------------------

This made me chuckle...LOL...Pics of roses and buttcracks...LOL

JIM

That IS funny (sad) Celeste....
Gary LOVES it when friends or neighbors come back to look at the gardens (or his Harley)...he just loves to talk about both!
Our other next door neighbors are just wonderful....always talking about our flowers....I bring them vases several times a year and even know some of their fav colors!
:0) Phyl

We moved to our home when I was pregnant with our daughter, so we've lived here now 23 years last May. We bought the eyesore property of the rural neighborhood, and my strapping DH immediately started cleaning it up and hauling out old junk, mowing the lawn, tearing out multiflora roses, barbed wire fences, etc. It earned him the undying gratitude of all the other neighbors who were tired of looking at the property (we have 2.5 acres). My DH is one of those men who also takes his tractor out in the winter and plows out the driveways for folks and mows lawns for one of the elderly men in the neighborbood. He's also buried his dog. I really married a good, kindhearted man.

We're blessed to live on a road with 3 great neighbors. Two of them have lived here forever like us, and one of the elderly gentlemen pulled my daughter's first tooth when she was 6. She wouldn't let her daddy do it, but trotted off to Harry's. He complied, and sent her home with the admonition that daddy was to take her out for a snowcone to make it better (he did).

My other neighbor has a key to my house. My grandson has medical problems which sometimes require us to go to Chicago at a moment's notice, and I can always count on her to step in and take care of my kitty. We can always share problems and stories over a glass of iced tea, and she's there if I need her, and vice versa.

My other neighbor is wonderful also. Our kids grew up together, and we've shared a lot of hard times together. We are the same age, and have gone through lots of the same everyday struggles that life throws at us.

I really feel blessed to have these people in my life; they're family.