Neighbour's back garden like a jungle - recourse?

MrCostington

My mother's next door back garden is like a jungle as per title - pic to show I'm not exaggerating.

Man next door is 80+, as is my mother, he lives alone and in ill health. Not sure if kids/grandkids visit or what.

There is mice in my mother's house now, got to be connected I feel?

Any options to get this cleared?

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask.

johnnyskeleton

If hes in his 80s, could you offer to cut it down for him? You can get a reasonable strimmer fairly cheaply in any DIY shop, and a trip to the nearest waste disposal centre is usually cheaper if its just green biodegradable material

mickward

As Johnny said, politely offer to help him out when you are doing your mam's, if he is in his 80's and ill health it might be just the boost he needs to be able to get out into the back garden and sit in the sun!

It would be a nice thing for you to make the offer anyway!

cnocbui

Absolutely none of your business.

Claw Hammer

Tell you mother to buy a mouse trap and stop leaving crumbs around on the floors!

I think it quite nice / lovely colours. Poor guy is "up there" in years / maybe he likes his garden a bit wild

jaffa20

I see a hedge, some nettles I think and a rose bush... hardly a jungle.

blacksea

Looks like a rare good patch for nature and local biodiversity.

lawred2

legal discussion?

absolutely feck all to do with you or your mum

if you want that tidied up you may have to offer to do it yourself. He might still tell you to feck off and mind your own business though.

Not sure how a few shrubs means mice?

Jim_Hodge

Nothing extraordinary there. It's 'shrubbed'. A wildlife friendly garden can look worse than this. It certainly doesn't suggest it's a source for mice.

enricoh

You post this in legal discussion to see if you have any recourse on a 80+ year old in ill health who can no longer do his garden. Pathetic.

Supercell

OP offer nicely to help him clear his garden if he'd like. If he says no then that's the end of it.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119429326#Comment_119429326

Give over! He does say he's not sure if this is the correct forum.

Donald Trump

The only "legal" penalty/threat/recourse would be if it contained weeds you must control under the Noxious Weeds Act.............but it doesn't seem to have any from that photo. Even then, it would only be you reporting him for it. Nothing you could do directly on it

Other than that, his property and none of your business really as it's not doing you any harm.

Confused11811

You could speak with your neighbor and then contact these guys and see if a care and repair program for the elderly is running in the area.

https://www.ageaction.ie/how-we-can-help/care-and-repair

TBH the garden isn't that bad, if you're mother is having a mice issue it's probably more to do with a food source in her home. Older homes with subfloors are always susceptible to mice living there. Find where they're getting in see if it's possible to seal.

MrCostington

Thanks a lot for your help ... in case it's not clear, his "shrubs" are over 2 meters tall. I'm to buy a strimmer (well past that), cut his garden, get a trailer (and install a hitch on my car) and pay to dispose of it?

There is no talking to this guy, he was a **** when young, just an old one now. My mother is very upset about it. I'm on her side.

Be right back

To be honest, it doesn't seem to be encroaching on your mother's side of the wall?

endofrainbow

Local Community Centres and/or parish sometimes have a team that do just this for the elderly, might be worth a call?

gmisk

That is not bad at all...

phormium

It really doesn't look that bad, a 2m hedge is not that high, I have a hedge that is at least 3m. Could be a lot worse, could have leylandi planted over the wall!

I seriously doubt that garden is causing mice unless he's throwing out food which is drawing them but he could equally do that on a concrete path or lawn and it would have same effect.

If there is any of the hedge overhanging your mother's bounday you can trim it and offer back the cuttings which he hardly wants so then you have to dispose of them but I have seen a lot messier gardens, I was expecting pics of old washing machines etc with weeds growing in and around them!

Be right back

^^ or piles of rubbish bags!

Wildly Boaring

We've started to left all the edges of the garden grow for biodiversity.

Didn't realise the neighbours could be moaning about a garden that's nothing to do with them.

Jim_Hodge

I've planted an area at the bottom of the garden for wildlife and I'd be happy if it looked like that. It's not an eyesore. It's not a nuisance. It's not encroaching. It's not a source of vermin.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119429444#Comment_119429444

Only if you want his garden tidied up. I’m on the old guy’s side of this, it’s his garden. Good walls make for good neighbours, maybe your mum should consider having a boundary wall built.

bucketybuck

How exactly does that garden cause mice for your mother?

They go where the food is, not the shade...

Still stihl waters 3

Mind your business, he's got some nice rewilding going on there

That's a lovely bit of wild garden. I'll be aiming to get mine as proficient.

Would be great with a mini pond. Something like a half whisky barrel sunk in the ground.

Jellybaby_1

I have to say my garden is worse than that one, overgrown with large trees. I plan on getting two trees felled soon after the late nesting is over as we have loads and loads of wildlife coming into the garden, but not one mouse I can assure you. Mice/rats only come after food, unless he's leaving binbags of rotting food out, I can't see anything like that in the photo. What about other neighbours? They could be coming from somewhere else, check what else is in the neighbourhood gardens. Also we have some veggies growing in our garden and still no mousies!

HazeDoll

The only thing that will keep rats or mice around your house is access to food.

I live surrounded by wilderness and I don't have rats or mice because I keep floors clean and food safely out of their way.

OP, you must have had a very urban upbringing if you think that a moderately neglected back garden is going to encroach on your tidy life to that extent. However, your last post reveals that you don't like your neighbour and I suspect you're looking for something to get annoyed about.

Take a look around the backs of presses to see if mice might be making their way in. Get some plastic boxes with lids in Dunnes and start putting food away in them. Make sure pets' bowls are taken up when they're finished eating, even if there is food left. Sweep or vacuum the kitchen floor at least once a day and be extra careful to vacuum anywhere else food is eaten (for example in the sitting room while watching tv).

Tell your mother to enjoy her own garden and stop getting upset by her neighbour's.

CJhaughey

You are far from a good neighbour if you are looking for recourse to force an elderly man in Ill health to maintain his garden to your liking.

The best thing you could do is to look in a different direction and leave the poor man alone.

Curse These Metal Hands

If you have it to spare, and if he wanted, you could offer to pay for a one off cut to help him get back on top of it. Really wouldn't cost that much and you wouldn't have to worry about strimmers and trailers etc.

Foggy Jew

OP. Take the crotchety old basket out, stand him blindfolded up against a wall & shoot him. (Typed in the most sarcastic font available). FFS. He can do whatever the hell he wants in his own back garden.

if you are not part of the solution - then you are part of the problem.

Either give this elderly man a dig-out or quit complaining.

StupidLikeAFox

Take him to court OP, take him for every penny he has. That sick, elderly pensioner needs to be taught a lesson

John_Rambo

We'd a similar situation a few doors up from us belonging to an elderly person about ten years ago, I can understand your concerns, but as long as there's no rubbish being dumped it's fine. Our elderly neighbours back garden was just like that, massively overgrown, lots of pollinators. We all offered to tidy things up for her but it turns out there was a bees nest, hedgehogs & a foxes den in the garden which she still gets a lot of enjoyment out of (she doesn't feed them). We cleaned her windows and someone gave her a pair of binoculars from Aldi.

This is fairly typical of suburban living, lots of wildlife. Breeding foxes = No mice. No rats. Win win. She & I have hedgehogs in my garden and they mill the slugs.

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119430834#Comment_119430834

This reminded me of the time my dad had mice in his house, they actually chewed up through the base fabric of his couch and up between the cushions, the attraction was the many many biscuit crumbs he had dropped over time which had made their way into the gap between the cushions! Clean up the house first before worrying about next door.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119430950#Comment_119430950

What bit of he doesn't like the neighbour and never liked the neighbour didn't you get?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119431456#Comment_119431456

To be fair, the op did ask “any options to get this cleared” in his/her opening post, did you get that bit?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119431461#Comment_119431461

I did, but I read on and got the true story. The garden's not that bad and he has a long running gripe with the old fella. He says he wouldn't pay to clear it. He just wanted o out pressure on the neighbour. Hence the OP is in Legal.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119431485#Comment_119431485

Sometimes Jim, the best advice is not the advice the op wants to hear. But it’s good to talk.

magicbastarder

we've 25m long back gardens here; my next door neighbour had not been down the end of hers in 8 years till a couple of years ago. didn't cause us any hassle, we just lopped the occasional overhanging branch. i helped arrange taking down a large ash tree self-seeded too close to the house, she paid for it. what i see in that photo is not a patch on what our neighbour's garden looks like.

anyway; say you get the neighbour to clear it. it won't stay cleared, it'll grow back.

CreadanLady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119429444#Comment_119429444

It isn't encroaching on your mother's side. Whatever about the character of the man, his garden and what may or may not be growing in it, is literally none of your business and none of your mothers business. If there are mice, then that is because you mothers house is providing a food source and shelter for them.

You can ask to cut it, but neighbour has every right to tell you to go fúck off with yourself.

Stop being nosey neighbours.

GreeBo

tbf it looks a bit like the wooden fence is being pushed over by the hedge to me.

Its not a crazy garden by any means, but I can sympathise with your mother also.

Curse These Metal Hands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119431456#Comment_119431456

What relavence does that have to what I said?

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119431633#Comment_119431633

the fence looks like a chain link fence to me?

HazeDoll

I'm sure you've tried mousetraps etc. The thing is, every mouse you kill just creates a gap in the population for the next mouse. They reproduce at a staggering rate, you could never keep up. The only long-term solution to your mouse problem is to find how they're getting in and remove the food source that is sustaining them.

If the mouse issue is a red herring, as I suspect, and your real motivation is your dislike of your neighbour, I advise you to take some deep breaths and remind yourself that some things are beyond your control. You can't force your neighbour to turn his back yard into the gardens of the palace of Versailles. So now you have a choice; stay annoyed and bitter about his landscaping choices, or accept that it doesn't actually affect you and you can choose to be ok with it.

It's amazing hw many problems if away of you choose to be ok with them.

Stay annoyed, letting the days of your life pass in suppressed anger while the object of your wrath is bliss fully unaware of it, or enjoy your own garden.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119432119#Comment_119432119

Possibly, but either way, it doesnt look vertical in the pic. but the pic itself is at a wonky angle so hard to be sure.

Claw Hammer

In warm weather like this a few litres of Roundup can do a lot6 for an overgrown garden.

magicbastarder

yeah, it'll fill it up with dead plants and vegetation.

phormium

That was a lesson I learned very early in my gardening life, kill big huge tall weeds with weedkiller and all you get are big huge dead weeds! Take forever to die down, in fact by the time they would the new ones will be growing again.

Spook_ie

Get a cat for your mum, bit of companionship and if she keeps it a little hungery and not turn it into a fat cat it'll keep the mice down.

Thoie

To get the mice cleared, your best bet is to spend a weekend with your mum soon and empty and clean out every press and cupboard, vacuum everywhere and search around for holes around pipework etc. It's been suggested to me before that if mice are getting in around pipes, to stuff the holes with wire wool, then expanding foam/polyfilla over that, as they won't eat through the wire wool.

If you're unable to do it yourself, then a combo of Rentokil, a cleaning agency and a handyman would work. None of these options involve the elderly neighbour, regardless of his temperament.