<p>“We do have a noise ordinance though, and I’ve been tempted to complain about my neighbor who liked to cut his lawn at 7:30AM on Saturday morning.”</p>
<p>If its gonna be 90+ degrees outside that day, I’d certainly get up early to mow it.</p>
<p>Where I live, it’s not going to be that much hotter at 9 AM than 7:30 AM.</p>
<p>When I was in college, my mom and my sister were the only ones still at home–my dad had died several years before. mom worked long hours, just barely maintaining the house, which, though not big, was on a big property. She and my sister kept the front short enough, but the back had turned into a gorgeous meadow (we backed up onto undeveloped woods.) Next door neighbor, had known our family for many years, called the cops on her. Gave her a summon and a fine.</p>
<p>So, my older brother came home, rented a tiller to cut most of the tall grass down, but left patches he edged with fallen logs, to look like we meant it that way–so still some long grass, but nothing they could complain about.</p>
<p>Twenty years, and they didn’t have the decency to speak to her or offer a hand (four sons living at home). And for most of those years, they had a barking dog which they kept outside all night, and we never complained.</p>
<p>Never spoke to them again.</p>
<p>I shudder to think of living in a place where people can be “reported” for not maintaining their yard.</p>
<p>Absolutely appalling.</p>
<p>Our HOA (townhouses) mows everything outside the backyard fence, and any area that is not obviously a flowerbed in the front yard. If you pull down your fence, they’ll mow the backyard too.</p>
<p>Yesterday, instead of complaining, I simply went over to my neighbor’s yard and weed whacked part of it myself.</p>
<p>When my grass reached 5 in or so, my neighbor help mow it a few times over the years. Nice.</p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t. And thankfully I live in a neighborhood where if a badly kept lawn bothers someone, people help out. Or at least inquire if anything’s wrong.</p>
<p>When we had grass (bad drought killed them because we chose to not waste water keeping it alive), our neighbor and his kids mowed it for my mom. They knew she was gone for most daylight hours as she’s a teacher and I can’t control the mower we had the few times I was around. We thanked them with baked goods.</p>
<p>We had nearly waist-high weeds in front and back this year. So bad that a pygmy nuthatch built a nest in the weeds (it’s a tree nesting bird). My mom and I spent her entire spring break pulling weeds and ended up with enough yard waste to fill the bin three times. We have the largest size available.</p>
<p>As a teacher and living alone for several years while I’ve been at school, my mother has zero time to deal with the yard. I’ve been trying to help as best I can, but I’m not much better off than her with time available. Thankfully our neighbors are understanding… plus the only law is about fire hazard issues and that just concerns the hill that’s a part of the property. No restrictions on how one must upkeep their yard.</p>
<p>I’d be quite upset if they had a problem and didn’t talk to us first :(. There are often legitimate reasons for a badly kept yard.</p>
<p>Hopefully I’ll get some time here soon to finish the front yard at least for my mom. The plan is to drastically reduce the amount of space that has grass so we no longer have to spend so much money and time to maintain it. The back will get the same treatment. Too bad I can’t get rid of the hill.</p>
<p>Not every neglected yard has a kind but overwhelmed owner who could benefit from a spot of neighborly beneficence. Sometimes, it’s because the owners aren’t around and don’t give a fig.</p>
<p>A house across the street sold a few months back, but no one’s moved in. It looks abandoned, and windblown debris is piling up on the (gated) driveway. Needless to say, the front median hasn’t been mowed. I’m guessing the weeds are in the 2-3 foot high range. Trash is starting to accumulate. We offered one of the neighborhood gardeners $20 to mow it, and he demurred–said he couldn’t do so without the owner’s permission.</p>
<p>Darn tootin’ I want to report it.</p>
<p>Then there’s the house next door, which is rented out pending the owner tearing it down and putting up something new. The renters don’t have a mower, nor the cash to pay to mow the lawn. Again, weeds up to the 2 foot high range. The owner lives down the street, but the phone number he gave us months ago is now disconnected. We do our own mowing and did a bit of the front median, but doing the entire front yard and median would take hours–the previous owner used a ride-on mower for the job. Finally nagged the owner enough that he hired a couple of guys to do the work. It took them the better part of a day.</p>
<p>We keep the weedy part of our yard trimmed in the summer to keep down places where mosquitos can breed, so yeah, it chaps me royally to see this level of neglect.</p>
<p>I would hope our building inspection department has better things to do than worry about people’s lawns. The pesticides and chemicals that people use these days are pretty nasty if you live near water or wetlands and we have an ordinance that stipulates what chemicals you can and cannot put on your grass in our area. Not much for chem lawn to do legally around here. I would be an epic fail in suburbia as I’m not too into “manicured lawns.” But, if I lived in suburbia next to someone whose grass was too long and was visible I’d probably ask my H to mow it. I don’t “mow” either, never have and hope to never have to.</p>
<p>That said, if you live somewhere with a “grass height ordinance” I suppose you could report it as it’s well within your rights, I presume the city would come out and mow it all down as there must be some remediation contained within the ordinance otherwise it’s an unenforceable ordinance.</p>
<p>Now we can add in a line to the following ‘dialog’ on grass - when the grass gets too long - report your neighbor!</p>
<p>God and Lawn Care
GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milk weeds, and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees, and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.
ST. FRANCIS: It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord, The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
God: Grass? But it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It’s sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. The go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
God: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it – sometimes twice a week.
GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?
ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
ST. FRANCIS: No sir, just the opposite: They pay to throw it away.
GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, thy cut it off and pay to throw it away?
ST. FRANCIS: yes, sir.
GOD: These suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.
ST. FRANCIS: You aren’t going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
GOD:What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It’s a natural cycle of life.
ST. FRANCIS: You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD: No!? What would they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?
ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.
GOD: And where do they get this mulch?
ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
GOD Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?
ST. CATHERINE: Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It’s a story about . . .
GOD: Never mind. I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.
GOD Bless America!</p>
<p>^^ Yes that! Too funny.</p>
<p>Actually,people first get a request to mow within 7 days . If nothing happens ,they get a court summons .</p>
<p>Don’t people have more important things, about which, to concern themselves?</p>
<p>I have not reported a neighbor for this problem yet but I will if we have the problem we had before. One of the neighbors was not cutting part of his yard. The front section was 6 feet tall. I hate snakes and I know they are not going to hurt me but I hate them. While walking my dd home from the bus on two occassions the snakes came out. It also was full of mosquitoes because it was staying wet. It was during the West Nile outbreak in this area. He finally got the hint from someone this was not going to continue. We do not have sidewalks and need to walk near or in the yards sometimes.</p>
<p>MARYOC- no, not these days .I feel I am doing community service as I can’t work . Empty nest ,etc .I am sure other neighbors are glad I do this ,and if someone is not able ,the town helps out . Many of the homes cited are vacant .</p>
<p>I would never report a neighbor for something unless it was a dangerous criminal activity, and lawn maintenance doesn’t really qualify. Besides, the job of pompous busybody is already taken in my neighborhood.</p>
<p>You’d have a field day here, in NH… and would probably get yourself shot!</p>
<p>I really think this is one of those things that depends on the neighborhood. Like I was saying… in the neighborhood I grew up in, reporting somebody for an overgrown yard would be preposterous. You’d be shunned for decades. We have a rental property on our street that literally NEVER gets mowed, I’ve never laid eyes on the owners. Usually once every few months somebody caves and mows it themselves, otherwise it just looks like a jungle and nobody really cares that much.</p>
<p>But in the neighborhood my grandma lives, which is in the vicinity of where we are house hunting, part of what you are paying for when you move there is the gorgeous well manicured neighborhoods-- think Wisteria Lane. Those houses are expensive and part of it is because the neighborhoods are drop dead beautiful, and that’s one of the reasons why we want to live there. I wouldn’t be walking down the street with a ruler to measure, but if somebody was consistently letting their yard get overgrown with weeds to the point that it is attracting attention and detracting from the appearance of the neighborhood, I’d probably consider saying something to somebody-- and it would not be at all abnormal to do so in these neighborhoods, I suspect its expected because I have yet to see a single overgrown lawn, even on foreclosed properties. These people care about these things. In neighborhoods where people don’t, it’s a VERY different world, which I think is where most of you are coming from. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either type of neighborhood, as long as everybody is willing to accept the norms where they choose to live… be it in keeping up your lawn in a well tended neighborhood, or keeping your nose out of other peoples business if you don’t live in that kind of neighborhood.</p>
<p>I think we have a responsibility to our neighbors to keep our homes at least minimally maintained. There are certainly health issues (snakes, illness bearing insects, fire hazard, etc.) related to certain yard situations. Also, anyone trying to sell a home would be severely handicapped by a grossly overgrown lawn nearby. When we have been looking for homes to buy, we would absolutely consider the aesthetic of the neighborhood!
I would not “report” a neighbor unless it was a significant issue and without politely speaking in person first. I would certainly offer to assist an elderly or struggling neighbor if they needed help with maintenance. I love rain gardens, moss, and meadows. Those issues would not cause me any alarm, but I am surprised by the criticism of the OP regarding his/her question. Common sense and courtesy should prevail, but there are limited situations where I might report a neighbor.</p>