<p>It’s good you cut the bamboo every week. My parents have bamboo that WAS threatening to take over the universe. There’s literally a herd of deer that live in it. It’s a little better now, but that stuff is nasty.</p>
<p>If city code enforcement departments worked as they’re supposed to, no one would have to rat out his neighbor. Unfortunately, in my city, at least, budget cuts have decimated the code enforcement department and it has been turned over to private citizens who have been trained by the city to issue “warning tickets” for violations. </p>
<p>We used to have great code enforcement. Each enforcement officer patrolled a segment of the city and kept on top of violations. Yards were maintained, houses were painted and in good repair, people didn’t park their cars on their front yards or keep them up on blocks in the driveway. Not anymore. The system stopped working precisely because citizens don’t feel right about “ratting out” their neighbors. It’s a shame because housing values, already sunk to record levels because of the economy, are dropping even more because of code violations.</p>
<p>Wow. I would never call the police on a neighbor who had not mowed his/her grass. Come to think of it, when this issue arose in the past, the rest of the neighbors just mowed the grass/shoveled the snow for the “offenders,” even if those offenders were able-bodied and capable of doing their own yard work.</p>
<p>Then again, we know most of our neighbors pretty well. I always thought we just lived in a typical suburb - never realized it was actually Mayberry.</p>
<p>Bamboo?
The plant that is so invasive that you have to move to get away from it?
I have some polystacus nigra that is in pots. I make sure to move it every year.
I bought it because H really liked it, but thank heavens I read about it before I put it in the ground. I divided one little plant into three huge pots. When I get tired of harvesting it for tomato stakes I am going to sell it .</p>
<p>Our bamboo doesn’t really seem that invasive. It is at least ten feet from the perimeter neighbors yard. I’ve asked our landscapers if we should remove it and they say no. It’s really cool looking. I know its reputation but we have very capable landscapers who keep it looking quite nice and well within the boundaries of our yard. Certainly, my neighbor lives in dread of it. But I’m not really seeing the big deal. </p>
<p>OTOH, this neighbor has several completely dead ash trees on the edge of her property that could fall on my yard. When she calls about the bamboo, I ask what she thinks of the dead trees swaying in the breeze.</p>
<p>I dunno. I just don’t like people who spend a lot of time scrutinizing their neighbor’s yards. Interestingly, my neighbors with the greenest thumbs, the most lovely yards have been the most laid back in terms of their neighbors’ yards. Usually, it’s the neighbors with sort of ratty yards who seem the most likely to get in your face.</p>
<p>We don’t like yardwork and we generally pay someone to do the work. That in itself seems to offend some neighbors. I think it bugs them we can afford to pay to have it done and so they like to find fault with the work. </p>
<p>Don’t mean to sound as if I dislike my neighbors. It’s a small neighborhood and genuinely like most of the folks.</p>
<p>I know sometimes there’s true dysfunction in a household and the yard goes to the dogs and impacts home values. Have never experienced that but can imagine it’s really annoying. I doubt if I’d ever call the “authorities” though.</p>
<p>The problem with HOAs isn’t that they have policies and rules that govern the appearance of your house and yard and take away much of the control you have over your own property. If you want to have someone tell you what color curtains to have, or tell you you can’t put Christmas lights in the window or whatever, you have a choice not to live there.</p>
<p>The problem is that it allows the neighborhood busybodies to get themselves elected to a position on the board, at which point they turn into petty little tyrants who will make your life miserable as they fine you and file complaints against you for every misplaced blade of grass . The self-righteousness and god-complex some of these people get just defies description.</p>
<p>There are different types of bamboo. If yours isn’t on top of a water line and if you break off the tips of wayward shoots, you can keep on top of it.</p>
<p>The kind I have is “running” rather than clumping & I don’t trust myself to keep it from spreading. I have enough to keep me busy by pulling up all the squirrel planted oaks from th neighbors yard.</p>
<p>The problem is that it allows the neighborhood busybodies to get themselves elected to a position on the board, at which point they turn into petty little tyrants who will make your life miserable as they fine you and file complaints against you for every misplaced blade of grass . The self-righteousness and god-complex some of these people get just defies description.</p>
<p>This was a big problem for my mom in her condo.
It’s one thing to pay for regular maintanence as part of your contract, thats to be expected. But where my mom lived, the board voted as one, except they also got involved in power squabbles. They had new landscaping put in every year ( and ripped out the next) because the various companies they hired never installed what would be appropriate for the area, they just put in what the board wanted. They also installed new carpet every year in the common areas, whether it needed it or not, and while they had a shared pool area, since most of the residents used the pool at the local health club instead, they decided it was too much trouble to take care of.
It was a pretty scmancy building, and while I cautioned my mother against buying there, she bought one of the cheapest units in the whole place. Many of the others didn’t even live there year round, but just when they came to the area on business. They took the added expenses in stride, but the increased maintenance costs were difficult for her to keep up with, yet was not evident at purchase. But really, a place that told you what color you could paint your interior walls?</p>
<p>We also changed our mind about buying a house once because of a neighbor. His yard was immaculate but he came out and yelled at the home inspector when he arrived to do the home inspection. I’ll take a nice neighbor with a messy yard over an uptight neighbor with an immaculate yard any day.</p>
<p>^ lol </p>
<p>We had neighbors about ten years ago who were fanatical about their yard. She called him “the wacker” because that’s what he loved to do, comb his yard day and night with the weed wacker. When we finally gave up on doing our mowing ourselves and hired a service he about had a stroke. Told us that commercial mowers carried disease and that the disease would spread and infect his grass. They also had some interesting political views . . .</p>
<p>^ Hmm… there was a woman who would always call up the Senator I was interning for last year and rant on and on about how they’re poisioning our water with the flouride (“it’s killing ALL the young men and soon there won’t be ANY of them left!”). She also had a thing about tasers. For some reason, that’s who popped up in my head when I read your post lol.</p>
<p>We have an organic lawn service for the feed & weed bit. No toxic chemicals for us.</p>
<p>A friend in another neighborhood got cited for having a “natural” branch fence around some flowers. I guess to them it looked like a brush pile around weeds? I thought it was pretty.</p>
<p>familyof3dogs, in our town burning refuse is not allowed. Driveways are allow only directly in front of a garage or on the side of a house, and there are rules about how much impervious surface a yard can have (never more than 50% in a residential neighborhood.) You don’t have to have a Home Owner’s Association. Though I agree for minor infractions neighbors are reluctant to report to the city.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t do well in a suburb. I relate too much to the “God and Grass” story a few pages back. I absolutely love dandelions and we enjoy watching the Monarchs hatch on the milkweed.</p>
<p>I never think good thoughts when we drive through suburbs with their patches of green rectangles…</p>
<p>But to each our own. We don’t let our “lawn” get 12 inches high (except for the milkweed), but we do enjoy wildflowers in it. Our primary mowing source is our herd of ponies. Once in a while we use our mechanical lawn mower. Ditto that for their pastures.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine turning someone in - even if their lawn is one of those green rectangles artificially kept up. 
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.</p>
<p>Very few people in my neighborhood let their grass go very long without mowing, but I don’t know who I could call that would actually care, much less do anything about it. I don’t live in a subdivision, our HOA is voluntary, and there are not many “rules” that I’m aware of other than limits on building setbacks, side yards, and height of the structure.</p>