Fie

Fie on't! Oh fie fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed;

I was sure that I posted about our northern neighbour last year, but, of course, \ I couldn't find the evidence. However, every year until this year, she has purchased at least one new flower pot and hung it proudly from her little porch. And every year, she neglected to water it — at all! It dried and died in short order. This year, wisely, she put in a fake fern, but there are still neglected pots on the ground below.

So much for the northern neighbour, but we have a new southern neighbour. She's a teacher in her first house. We were expecting to see the pride of home ownership displayed. Well, there definitely is some pride, for she planted nice flowers in a bed out front, and she planted a nice row of flowers in a little raised border along her back fence. But then, she hasn’t maintained her plots well.

I splash a little water on her front patch when I am out giving my plants a drink, so it is doing alright. But that poor back border!

To be fair, her property hadn't been well tended for awhile, so it was already weedy. She and her friend did weed the raised border between the bricks and fence ↓ before planting, but the roots were there and the weeds grew back very rapidly. She made an effort to weed again, and you might possibly discern that the weeds in the very centre of the border are slightly less large than the others. But she and her helpers didn't get very far before they abandoned the project, and there has been no further work — not even watering.

We had also hoped that a new, young, fit neighbour would maintain the front lawn, most of which is hers. After my last mowing in early June, we informed her that I would be unable to mow until almost August. It got pretty ratty before she mowed, but she did mow — once. So, dear Sue has got down on the ground and at least trimmed the edges several times. 

That being said, I was, however, pleasantly surprised when I checked the easement outside of our back fences but, technically, within our property boundaries. For 20 years, I have been the only one to attend to the easement. Somebody has to do it, or at least should do it. Lo and behold, when I recently checked, she has mowed her patch.

Mine and even more so our northern neighbour is a different story. I last mowed six weeks ago before surgery, and it's awful. The weeds have taken over.

However, the most egregious issue is the bushes of trees or whatnot that are growing  behind the northern property. They emanate from growth on her backyard side of the fence. I can do the mowing, but I will have to get JJ to help with the bushes, which have escaped from her side of the fence. 

Isn't that awful?

The question becomes, once we have cut down the bushes should I just toss the debris into her backyard, or should I transport it all to the town yard for recycling. While she deserves to have the debris tossed into her yard, we would have to look at it for however long, maybe even until kingdom come.

Next week, I will be out of my recovery period and on one bright day will doubtless be out there mowing my back section ... and hers.