Grrr, the yard

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As most of you know, we live in a very small, very rural town in Backwoods, Alabama. Been down here for about a decade now. My family lives in one of the very few nice little subdivisions, the rest of the town is either old pre WWII era houses or antebellum style houses, or trailers or shacks. You can find one right next to the other in any combination around here. However, on my little cul de sac, it's all new houses built in about 00. Most of the neighbors are fairly snobbish, why I don't know, because we live in the backwoods country.

Either way, they all use yard men for cutting the grass. We used to use a yard man too, but can't afford one right now. Last year when my husband got laid off we cancelled our yard man who had kept the yard up for us because of money, and we had no lawn mower and no neighbors had one we could borrow either. We couldn't afford to buy one. So, they reported us and we got two tickets for it and had to go to court and got an $800 fine for it. And two years probation. For high grass, yes.

Well, we still don't have a lawn mower this year, and within the past few weeks the grass has grown. It's about 6 - 8 inches now. My 16yo son and his friend went to the friends house to try and load up a riding mower on the truck and bring it over. They are doing that as we speak, because we do want to cut our grass. We also don't want another fine because neighbors are a**holes.

So, not five minutes ago who knocks on my door but Brother Earl himself. He's the daytime cop here in town, and he's called Brother because he has his own church where he's a preacher at. He said we have been reported AGAIN. I said "Brother Earl, don't even! They gone to Billy Wayne's house right now to get a lawn mower and I'm not gonna sign a ticket or accept one, cause you know as well as I do thats just stupid." He agreed and said he'd give it a day or two and then come back if it hasn't been cut. He said he would let us borrow his but he lives out and has a riding mower but no trailer.

So, I'm ticked off! These people act like they live in Mountain Brook or Beverly Hills or something. It's the middle of the redneck backwoods country for Gods sake!

I have the perfect revenge for you. Bake up some cookies/brownies/cupcakes and send the kids around to the neighbors to sell them, and have the kids tell them that the money is to be used for buying a new mower. Have the kids go around on a daily basis until you have raised enough money to buy that mower. If any neighbors complain, point out that at least one of them got you in trouble over not having been able to mow your lawn the previous year, and none of them offered any help, so you need to raise money to buy a mower, to keep them from getting you in trouble again.

If they threaten to get you in trouble for sending the kids around selling baked goods, have the kids sell them to passers by from a yard table in your yard. Be sure to put up a flag at the table, and have a copy of the Constitution available, in case they try to stop you from selling from your own yard. Hopefully you will have raised enough money for a used mower before then, though.

Now, since money is tight, try looking at the Salvation Army and other thrift stores for a mower, Habitat for Humanity stores, and also, garage sales. Until you have a mower, consider using a scythe--I think that's how it's spelt. It's a yard tool on a pole that you swing to cut fields of grain, tall weeds, and/or tall grass. You can pick one up at hard ware stores, and occasionally at garage sales.

You may be wondering about my mentioning a Habitat for Humanity store. Many people don't know about those, but they have them to sell excess items that have been donated to the charity, so they can raise money for things they do need when helping to build or renovate homes for people. That is not so different to what the Salvation Army does with it's stores.

Now, start baking!

Ugh, I feel for you. Last summer our lawn mower broke down and our grass grew too high. We usually hire a landscaper to mow our lawn but we didn't have the money so we had to wait awhile. Before we could cut it I guess one of our neighbours reported us and we got a notice on our door saying we had to cut it or further action would be taken. People need to mind their own business and to stop bothering other people.

Life ain't fair, OliveOilMom! So suck it up and take your lumps. At least you're not being harassed by some passive-aggressive sociopathic landlord trying to get you evicted. You should learn to follow your own rules before dishing them out to others.

Is it to code where you live to xerify or otherwise completely denude your yard of plant life?

I never said life was fair. I never assumed it was fair. I assumed that with property that I own, I can do what I wish as long as it doesn't violate zoning, and I never had to sign a neighborhood association agreement.

No, I don't have a landlord, but I have had one before. We own our house. We only have to pay taxes on it. My neighbors have nothing to do with your landlord, nor does my situation.

I have also not dished out any rules to anyone that I don't follow. There is no statute that says grass must be a certain height in certain neighborhoods, but we simply didn't have the money to fight it. I am well within my rights to dislike my neighbors, and that in no way constitutes whining because I feel life is unfair. Not every situation applies to your own.

ETA; I went back and read the post that pissed you off. The situations are different. If I was renting this place and required by the landlord to do the upkeep on my yard, then I would be responsible for doing it to his liking. If I had signed a neighborhood association agreement when I moved in, then I would be responsible for keeping the yard to the standards defined in the agreement. If there were town statutes that prohibit grass higher than a certain length then I would be responsible for keeping mine under that length. None of those things apply in my situation.

Nobody is bullying me either. I don't see every situation where someone does something that offends me or inconveniences me as bullying. The neighbors aren't bullying me or my family, they are simply being nitpicky a**holes, which I can dish right back out to them. If I had left the yard as it was out of laziness or unconcern, then they would have a valid point. Nobody wants the neighborhood to look trashy. However, they all knew that my husband had been laid off and we had even asked several of them if they had a mower we could borrow, but no one had one, so they knew the situation, but still reported it to the police. That is what pissed me off.

The fact that there is nothing at all that requires me to do anything at all to my yard yet we had to go to court and pay a fine over it because we didn't have the money to fight it, and it would have been too much trouble on top of that is what pisses me off. It has nothing to do with fairness, most things in life aren't fair and almost everything to do with the cops and court system aren't fair. I'm not whining at all or feeling picked on or bullied. I just live near a**holes who I never signed an agreement with.

Last edited by OliveOilMom on 16 Mar 2012, 5:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There is really no code, there is only a littering or public nuisance code and it doesn't say anything about grass in the yard. Not a block away there is a house where the grass grows two feet high and the yard is filled with junk cars, but nothing is done there because it's not on this street and not reported by these neighbors.

I'm just going to put out some extremely tacky decorations and also some things with themes they will hate, but they won't be able to do anything about it. If it wouldn't cost so much, I'd have the house painted a neon color with a clashing neon trim, just to piss them off worse. Yes, I would go to extremes. If I didn't like having a lawn, I would have the entire yard filled with gravel and park on it.

I don't understand; under what authority were they able to ticket you, then?

It's a real small town. People on the street called the cops to complain about it a lot. He came out and wrote a ticket and gave it to my husband. Under "offense" it said "grass higher than 12 inches". When he went to court, my husband explained that he had been laid off, couldn't afford the yard man and couldn't afford a mower, and was trying to borrow one. The judge gave him two weeks to get it cut. He finally found a friend with a mower to borrow, but it was old. He got the front cut and it looked nice, but it broke down before he could cut the back. The back is fenced in with a chain link fence. You really can't see it from the front and there is nothing behind us but woods and a place that was built to eventually be some kind of group home and nobody lives there yet. He came back out and gave us another ticket for not cutting the back. When he went to court, the judge fined my husband $800 and gave him two years probation. He was charged with public nuisance and littering. The lawyer he talked to said it would cost more to take it back to court than it would to pay the fine. However, if it's not kept cut now, and we are reported again, they can put him in jail and make him serve time. If they try to do that, then we will get the money and take the city to court and probably end up suing for damages. There is one lady who did that for the same reason, but she doesn't live in town she lives in the county, and it was a different judge. She won her case and they don't ticket in the county for that anymore. Then again, most of the places out in the county are really trashy looking to begin with, so it doesn't much matter.

I'm actually not the one with the landlord problem. I actually agree with your outrage about the neighbors.....And most of all with the municipality you live in that has such asinine laws whose purpose is not only collectivist, but an excuse by the city government extort money from people who own homes.

My point of saying what I said is that what goes around comes around. If you're going to be dismissive of someone elses hardships, then why shouldn't others be dismissive of yours? I hope you understand. Please don't take this personally.

Your neighbour's concern probably isn't so much the look and untidiness of the long grass, but the possibility that such long grass could become habitat to creepy critters, snakes and vermin. That's why the shire/council/county fines you when you're grass gets higher than 12 inches, it becomes a health and safety issue for the surrounding houses.

Get a pet sheep or a goat, then you'll have short grass in no time.

If she can't afford a lawn mower, she's going to struggle to afford a sheep or a goat, plus the vet bills.

I'm not dismissive of others problems. Those were two seperate situations. We own the property and there was no specific or implied agreement concerning any maintenance or grooming of the yard. There is also no specific law about it either. These neighbors never liked us, because we aren't very social with them as our interests are very different. Our kids have lots of friends here, but my husband and I only have a few. They do things like that to each other too. If somebody is parked on the street partly in front of their yard, but are visiting a neighbor and there is no room to park in front of the neighbors house, they call the cops. I've seen new neighbors get ticket after tickets when their guests park a few feet over the property line. I'm not talking about parking in the yard, or on the grass. I'm talking about in the street. I have seen people call the cops for someone having a large amount of scrap metal in their back yard that they were going to haul away. It couldn't be seen from the front, but someone saw it from the back, probably that old nosey stuck up lady at the end of the road who looks over fences and all, and called the cops. THen again, other neighbors do the same thing and nobody bothers them. The doctor doesn't cut his grass frequently, and he makes lots of money. He has a yard man who comes about once a month. His gets high and nasty looking but nobody says anything. Nobody said anything to the people who rented out those moon bounces and always kept them blown up on their property, front, back and side yards. It's pick and choose. That's my problem. We live in the middle of a bunch of rednecks, they must think that because it's the new subdivision on town that we are high on the hog right now. We aren't. We are still in the middle of the backwoods country where these same neighbors go to wal mart barefooted.

If there were some law in place about the grass, that would be different. If people were reported across the board for it, that would be different. As it is, they just report people they don't like.

No, there are woods behind us, and also overgrown yards with chickens and ducks and some donkeys junk cars. Across the road there are sheep and goats and cows and donkeys and it's not kept nice, plus it smells to high heaven. Another house over there has Christmas lights up all year and never cuts their grass. Ever. They just stomp it down when it gets too high. Those people are not on our cul de sac. Country people aren't afraid of snakes or vermin, etc. These people don't seem to comprehend any type of health hazard, so I know that's not it. It's just spite, that's all.

As for a goat, I don't have a fenced front yard so he would run off. If I put him in the back, the dogs would kill him. I have high content wolf hybrids.

You could burn off (should be legal if you live in a rural area). Fire brigade does it.

Your neighbors will probably hate you more though.

Or, you can just do what I do, brush cut with a commercial grade brush cutter. Money though (a few hundred for a good one). It'll keep you fit too.

A regular $125 Wal Mart lawn mower would do the trick, but I just can't afford one at the moment. I don't really want to burn in the front because we have zoysia out there. It grows slowly and parts have been taken over with weeds which grow faster, but I want to eventually kill all the weeds and have the soft zoysia lawn we had when we moved in.