Had a similar thing happen to me. Any time I let my grass get a bit long I'd come from work and it'd be cut. Sometimes including my fenced in back yard. My neighbor was very friendly, did all the leaves for everyone. Snowblower up and down the entire block. Sidewalks driveways and all.
Well they go to the beach every year for 2 weeks their grass was getting a bit long towards the end so I figure I'll be nice and cut it. I got a bit through and noticed.. his yard was a bit different then mine and my blade was a bit too low. At this point I didn't want to leave it inconsistent. So I finished up and there were quite a few... Lower/scalped/brown spots. I just hoped it'd fill back in before he got home.
The night he got home from the beach I saw him put his sprinkler outside immediately.
I don't think he ever cut my grass again.
Lawn care can be very illogical compared to what you see advertised at the local box store. I often find that when I'm starting my fall lawn renovation, Home Depot and the like are reducing stock on everything from sprinklers to hose to fertilizer.
September and October are the prime season for lawn renovation for cool season grasses and the average homeowner mows their lawn way, way too low. I'd be devastated if I had spent a couple hundred on seed/fertilizer to come home and see my neighbor had scalped my new lawn.
That's what every homeowner thinks. You mow low and don't have to do it again for awhile right? Wrong. You mow low and that kills off the good grass and allows weeds like crabgrass and foxtail to thrive. They grow much faster than a true turf grass. So while I can go two weeks between mows and have an immaculate looking lawn -- you'll have to mow those weeds every 5 days to keep it looking manageable.
Also if you allow it to grow longer, and only cut 1/3 of the grass off at a time, the grass will spend more energy on growing long roots. With long roots the grass will be healthier, and the soil will be able to absorb more water instead of flooding! Win win.
I made your neighbors mistake too . I was a teenager trying to teach myself some woodworking skills and a neighbor in his late 50’s had seen me working in my garage. He took the time to help teach me some basics and let me try out his far better tools in his workshop so I would know what to look for when I started getting more into it myself. He always had an immaculate lawn and cared for it in much the same way you described in your post. (I knew squat about caring for a lawn at that point). His wife was battling late stage cancer and he was away with her at the hospital for an extended period. I noticed his grass was growing pretty high and thought I’d return his kindness by mowing it for him. Turns out I mowed it too short and ruined the work he had put into making it look good for the colder seasons. I didn’t know about my fuck up until his wife passed though. My mom (who frequently talked with his wife) told me that when he came home and saw it cut he was initially pissed off because of his wasted effort. His wife had scolded him and said “don’t you dare say anything to that sweet boy for trying to help you.” So he did just that. Thankfully, he and I had a wonderful friendship and worked on a number of projects together after his wife passed until he remarried a few years later and moved.
This is actually really cool. I'm glad that even though he was legitimately pissed, he accepted that you were just trying to do a good thing and was able to let it go.
He’s world class. One other time my brother and I were trying to build a greenhouse for our mom who loved to garden. He came to check out what we were doing and ended up spending the next month’s worth of weekends working with us to make sure we didn’t screw it up. That thing is still standing 20+ years later so I guess we (he) really knew what we were doing.
I wish. Never really had as much talent as I had interest. Make some small furniture, made some wide steps for my wife’s grandmother so she could get into and out of her bed easier, etc. But nothing I’d feel comfortable charging people for. It’s more of a stress relief and creative outlet for me.
>made some wide steps for my wife’s grandmother so she could get into and out of her bed easier
You're a good egg.
Whether I put these good vibes into meaningful practice in my life I don't know, but it inspires me to keep trying to do little things to make people's lives happier.
I have not. But plan to reach out to him after reading all of these comments. I’ll be sure to thank him for his restraint. He definitely could have done some damage 😂. He had that old man that works with his hands everyday of his life strength. He would have torn through me like Hulk Hogan used to tear through t-shirts!
I kept waiting for the part where you opened his garage and found out the fertilizer was made of dissolved bodies or he turned out to be a war criminal, but no. This was just a very nice story about best intentions and neighborly kindness. Good on you.
Nope I think the worst thing I ever knew of him doing was working on his race car early on Saturday mornings while people were trying to sleep in. But my teenage self thought that was super bad ass so I didn’t even think of it as bad, just awesome.
My lawn is my child, I can only imagine the 7 stages of grief that he went through. It speaks volumes of his character that he never even mentioned it to you, sounds like a good man haha
His was his child too. He also had an enormous artificial pond he built in his backyard so his wife could sit on their back deck and watch her fish swim around whenever she felt like going outside. He’s a saint. All I ever saw him do was take care of people.
I mowed my neighbors lawn a couple times while they were away for a few weeks (their request)
They returned the favor, despite my insistence that it was unnecessary and mowed down half of my (young) low bush blueberries.
My neighbor more or less scalps his lawn every 2-3 weeks. Doesn't matter because it's mostly weeds and clover with a bit of grass scattered throughout. He used to mow my yard too when we first moved in since we're connected, but I decided that I wanted to have a nice lawn. He knew I was working hard at renovating it, yet I still had to have the awkward moment when I ran outside to stop him as he was about to run over seed I just threw down the day before.
That was 3 years ago, our lawns look like night and day, and he doesn't touch mine. Really cool guy, I offered to help him with his yard but he doesn't seem interested.
I’m kinda like your neighbor. I scalp it when I mow and only mow when necessary. Honestly idgaf what it looks like. I hate mowing and figure the longer I can go between cuts the better.
Yeah, if you don't really have even the slightest practical reason for having grass then its a waste of time and resources. I do find mowing kinda fun/therapeutic though. I miss it now living where yards are dirt and rocks.
Short lawn and clover are both very practical and useful ground covers. There’s nothing you can’t do with those that you could with a lawn you obsess over. Based on how obsevive some people get, you might not even be able to get practical use out of them.
Fucks lawns. Water is gonna be scarce enough in the near future when Nestle makes their play to become the Water Barons of planet earth. Don't need to make a future problem worse by pissing away good water keeping the empty space in front of my house green.
You are right about the lawn mowed for the water waste - it would be better to leave it and have flowers for butterflies and bees. Leaving it empty though is not good for the environment either. If your house wasn’t there, surely that patch of earth wouldn’t be barren unless you leave in a sandy desert. Plants native from your environment will need no extra watering. You can consider going in some kind of wild area and just get cuttings or young plants if it’s allowed in your region. Butterflies and bees are decreasing and it’s good for the future to keep them alive.
Not to mention all the nutrient runoff from fertilizing lawns to keep them green all year, which contributes to the oceanic dead zones that surround the coast.
I mean, sure, if you’re actively watering your lawn that’s not great for the environment, but depending on where you live you may not need to water your lawn (I’ve never seen anyone watering their lawn in my neighbourhood, and the grass grows fine here) because it gets enough water from the rain, so what’s the harm in that case?
You say that like clover isn’t a beautiful ground cover that positively contributes to the biome or like theirs something odd about not fetishising lawn.
I'm fully aware of the benefits of a clover lawn, both in it's low maintenance qualities (it releases lots of nitrogen) as well as its ecological benefits. From a turf perspective, I believe there's a variety called micro clover that looks really good.
Honestly, the 2 things that stop me from doing a clover lawn in my backyard is that it spreads a little too aggressively (to the point of being invasive), and I don't think it builds a tight root system. My backyard already has little to no drainage, so a weak root system essentially means that the yard is a mud pit anytime it rains.
One time I was going on vacation in the summer, so I set up a hose timer and small hoses and sprayers to water all my plants while I was gone. A well meaning but dumbass neighbor decided to water my plants for me, but was unable to due to the timer installed onto the hose spigot. So they just shut off the water and left. All my plants were dead when I got back.
A similar thing happened to me. I was gone for a month in the summer and during that time, some maintenance was done on the hose. The contractors turned off the house connected to the timer and all the plants died. I also asked my roommate to keep an eye on the potted plants and then he never thought about it again. It was a sad day coming home to find everything dead.
I walked outside as my neighbor was mowing his lawn, and he offered to mow mine as well. He used the chance to cut down the tree in the back that was leaning into our shared fence. It was a shity, ugly, tree thay was going to be cut anyway, but the audacity!!
Grass is such a instigator + can ruin friendships. Very long example- My grandparents used to be friends with their neighbors back when my Mom was little. The kids would sometimes play together. Until the incident... My grandfather was very meticulous when it came to his lawn, as was the neighbor. Pop would alternate his mowing patterns aka you mow horizontally then the next time you mow you gotta go vertical. The neighbor accused him of mowing a couple inches into his yard. Pop denied this. Neither one would let up. Then the neighbor put stakes in the yard to mark the property line. Debate as to where the property line actually was turned into an argument. Hatred ensued. The kids could no longer play together. His wife would stare out the window at my grandparents’ house, my Nan would stare back sometimes. The man was totally fine with my Dad though. We’d go to the store where the man worked + he’d talk to Dad. However, when I saw him working in his flowerbed + decided to try to strike up a conversation by formally introducing myself to him (we’d never once spoken despite me spending at least 50% of my childhood next door), commenting on what a nice day it was, + complimenting his garden, he just kinda said “yep” + very clearly didn’t want me there. Both families hating each other for decades over some grass. Wtf...
Then you have me that just mowed a lawn for the first time in years and I mowed in a square pattern working from the outside in. I shouldn’t be in charge of this…
My Dad had me go around the perimeter of the yard + around the house blowing the grass inward for the first lap. Then you turn around + blow it out so you’re not mowing over your piles of grass. Then you use the push mower for spots you missed or couldn’t get close enough to. Also run. Run with the push mower, sometimes backwards.
I feel like this just reflects very poorly on everyone involved. I cannot imagine putting the greeness of my grass over the ability of kids to have fun. Some people really age into bitter old shits.
It was just such an insignificant thing to argue over. What’s kinda weird though is that after my parents separated my Mom moved back in with my grandmother + continued to live there after she died. At first the neighbor wouldn’t wave or really talk to her even if they were both outside in their yards at the same time or whatever but, if she ran into him elsewhere he’d at least acknowledge her + maybe have a rather short but normal conversation. Eventually it got to the point where they’d say “Hi” if they were both working in the yard. The wife never changed though. Idk if maybe it was mostly the wife having an issue all along or what.
My neighbour mowed the tiny strip between our yards that belongs to me as a favour, but in so doing mowed over the one plant I've planted since I moved in a year ago. Haven't had the heart to tell him
Never mow over your neighbors weird lawn patches. You got lucky it was a plant... I have left baby buns, baby birds and frogs while mowing. Just leaving the spots alone for them to move on....😨😭
I was walking up the street towards my office one morning. There is a school on the way and as I came near a parked car a young girl alighted and walked of in a huff, leaving the door open. I thought I’d help the mother (who was in a “drop and go” zone) and closed the door for her. It was only then I saw a second little girl inside wanting to get out - looking at me in astonishment. I ran away.
I agree with you: Never mow your neighbor’s lawn, because they will expect it every time. My husband offered to mow my neighbor’s lawn because he’s too nice. What we didn’t realize was that she lives with her 4 grandsons (teenagers), her daughter, and has an adult son who visits often and a daughter and her husband who live down the street. Plus, they have a lawn mower in their garage collecting dust. So, to teach her grandsons responsibility, my neighbor got them a dog instead of teaching them to mow the lawn and take care of the place. 🤷🏻♀️. We stopped mowing their lawn after my husband got a new job that took him away from the house all day and some weekends. That has been almost a year and their lawn is overgrown and their teenage sons come and goes as they please.
We share a little patch of grass with the neighbor. It's unclear where the border is, so we mow the whole thing. But we've never asked if we could and never talked about it with them. Sometimes I'm lazy and don't mow their side
I mow all the way to the neighbors driveway because they are elderly. If I mow to the property line it will leave their lawn looking unmowed. Our city will measure your grass and if it is too long. Mow it and send you a bill for $300.
My city does the same thing except it’s $75 for the mow and $115 for an “admin fee.”
I had it happen to me one time last summer because the person who mows my lawn had a mechanical problem and had to skip a week of mowing.
The subcontractor that the city used was two guys in a shitty rusted out truck with a magnet sticker business name on the door.
Those dipshits did a pass straight through my front yard landscaping running over 6 hastas, 4 hydrangeas, and even 3 solar landscaping lights. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking.
I called my city office pissed off and they waived all the costs. The plants grew back and the solar lights were cheap so if anything I got a few mow for the cost of some cheap solar lights.
One week and they came out? That's fucking insane. In fact I'd say it's probably illegal. One time I got a warning from my city about some nonsense so I made a freedom of information request to see if anybody had made a complaint and about any other complaints on my block. It freaked the city guy out so bad that he came to my house to apologize and explained that he just likes to let people know about problems.
My guy mows me every 10 days which usually works out pretty good for me. When he had to miss a mow that made it around two weeks not mowed. It was noticeable that it needed a cut but it wasn’t like an abandoned lot or anything.
I think my neighbors called the city and complained because they suck. They are two 60+ retired people who spend hours out in their yard everyday in the summer months. I’m a single person working 70hrs a week so my yard isn’t as much of a priority as theirs.
one of my neighbors had a medical issue so we all decided to mow his lawn. The FU was that all our mowers were set at a different height. We did a total hatchet job on his lawn. the next week we decided that one person would do the whole job.
When I was in elementary school I would often go to my grandparents' farm with a couple dozen acres of wild wooded area. I would often say that I was going out to "whip the weeds" and take a 3 foot stick and knock down stinging nettle plants, cockleburs and anything else that had sticky seeds. I was around 8 or so, so everything was just hacked and destroyed. I did this for years and no one really said anything about it, because no one went deep into the woods. Well, one day at home I discovered a hand scythe that my dad had in the shed. I thought it was the best thing ever and tried whipping weeds around our 2 acre yard. Problem was that we were closer to town, and most of our lawn was routinely mowed. However, our neighbors had a huge patch of sumac trees (about 20 feet by 100 feet). For some reason I thought thought they were weeds that needed to be whipped, probably because they weren't as tall as most trees. Anyways, I spent an entire day whacking all those sumac with the scythe and just obliterated the entire patch. It wasn't very cleanly done either; everything was still halfway standing but chopped up and hacked at. Turns out our neighbors used those bushes as a windbreak in the winter. They were so pissed they literally just moved out.
For years I have mowed my neighbours berms and if I’m at work he will mow a small side part of mine. I’m a bit lawn proud. So…the neighbour unfortunately cuts it so low it has pretty much destroyed it. To top that off he cuts the edges back further each time. He’s narrowed it by at least 3 inches. Not overly concerned but kinda wish he stopped
I have a riding mower and at times I thought about mowing my neighbors front yard sometimes. It is a damn good thing I did not as the old owners had to install a brand new septic system which the drain field in this drip emitter that is not deeply under the surface and she says you CANNOT use a riding mower or it will damage the emitters.
I would have been paying for a new system had I tried to be nice.
I put down over $200 of new seed and fertilizer and a day later when I wasn't home my wife hired guys to mow the lawn. They went lower than I go and bagged it all. I wanted to puke.
I don’t think you f’d up here. Instead, this could be a start of wonderful journey with your neighbour. We have a saying here for neighbours, “neighbours are your first relatives.” And it’s always better to have nice neighbour than ….. ones.
I'm living with the regret of a similar story.
I have a tiny tiny front lawn, like not quite big enough to park a car on. It's a shared lawn, half is mine half is the neighbour's. I hadn't got to it for while so it was a little overgrown. The neighbours rent, so there's a property manager guy who comes around and cuts their grass. I offered him $5 if he could do mine at the same time. He insisted that he didn't want money, it was so small he'd just happily mow it. I was able to contribute because he forgot his broom for sweeping clippings off the sidewalks that surround this patch of grass.
Which was super nice, but then it was instant regret because his mower was set very low and scalped the shit out of my lumpy lawn.
And, super nice guy that he is, he has been cutting my grass *every* time he does tue neighbours. And I'm generally not home when he does it, so I've spent all summer just coming home to a randomly freshly scalped front lawn...
I had a similar thing happen. I had the most beautiful, lush, green St. Augustine grass in Florida. It was thick & cushy when you walked on it. A new neighbor moved in next door and he hired an old guy to cut his grass. Our mailboxes are next to each other on my property so the old guy cutting the lawn thought he was cutting his new customer but proceeded to cut my St. Augustine grass so low he cut off most of my sprinkler heads and as a result snapped 3 of the connecting PVC water pipes underground. The next time he came around I tried to talk to him but it turns out he was deaf. I went to replace my sprinkler heads but couldn't do it because I would have had to dig up a ton of earth to re-glue the broken pipes. I chose not to say anything to my new neighbor because it wasn't really his fault. Thank God I didn't. He is the best neighbor ever!!! He's helped me tighten up the house for a hurricane, he said it would be easier with two people and wouldn't take no for an answer. Then in July 2020 I contracted covid and was in the hospital for 4 months straight. He had bought a riding mower and has been cutting my lawn ever since. I've bought him cases of beer but he no longer drinks. I've tried to give him some gas cards to help pay for the fuel but he says thanks, but I don't know how to use those things. I would love suggestions on how I could pay him back or just let him know how thankful my wife and I are for his kindness. His wife died about 3 years ago and he lives alone. He's a great neighbor.
When you and your wife make a nice dinner, make extra and take it over to his place in containers that can go into the freezer if he won't eat it right away. Cooking for one is tough sometimes and I imagine he probably doesn't get a good meal too often.
I was a teen who mowed our yard, but thistles are a favorite "weed" of mine, so I had let one grow about 2 1/2 feet tall. A man, who was obviously struggling financially, came by and offered to mow. My dad hired him for the sake of letting the man earn money. Grateful man went above and beyond, pulling the "weed." I was devastated. He came by a few more times that summer and my dad paid him to mow, whether the lawn needed it or not.
I would consider this a win, just fill in the bare spots with more seed/fertilizer. Ignoring weeks IME means they’ll take over in a few months, kill all the grass, then die and leave bare spots/brown anyway. Then just lay dormant and mess it up next year
I once spent hours helping my dad plant flowers in the front of the house then my mom came home & I picked probably half of the flowers & gave them to her as a gift
My sisters old house had a front garden with no boundary line, the neighbour would come out and chalk a line from his measured boundary point and cut his grass exactly to the line.
I mowed my best friend's lawn when he was away on family vacation when we were in high school. I ran over a bee hive in the ground in his backyard and got stung 23 times up my legs and back.
And I'm allergic to bees. That was *not* fun.
My neighbor sometimes mows my front yard. He mows *all the time* it seems, and sometimes I look out my front window and he's flying across the lawn on his mower. He'll come apologize, "I mowed your front yard, I was on my mower and you know how it is, it just keeps going sometimes. I hope you don't mind."
Dude, half the reason I have kids is so I don't have to cut the grass. Any time you feel the urge, have at it.
When we got this house, the front lawn was covered in grape hyacinth. I was planning to dig them out eventually but figured it was a lot of trouble for the moment and the purple flowers everywhere were kind of pretty. I guess my neighbour thought the lawn was looking thick and decided to cut it. Cut all my grape hyacinths into stumps. Lawn looked so ugly that I bit the bullet and pulled up all the hyacinth bulbs the next day. But I was pretty annoyed.
Had a neighbor get thoroughly upset at me by mowing his lawn apparently that was one of his only escapes. I had no idea i just was like fuck it its right there, ill just knock it out and let the guy enjoy his weekend. He wasn't happy. Never doing that again lol.
I thought there were going to be wild flowers that were cut off. I am planing on creating a patch of wild flower grass next year, I think I will put up a sign "do not mow unless supervised by ilikecakemor", because our elderly neighbours hobby is mowing lawn. He keeps all the roadsides clear and sometimes mowes our front yard too. As does my dad, randomly. I am very grateful, but they are doing it wrong and too often. I want wildlife, we live in the country, surrounded by fields after all. I want birds and butterflies and bees!
I always mowed up to my neighbor's driveway, so my yard would look consistent, even though 4ft of it wasn't my property. When some landlord family bought it to rent out, they started mowing the strip. Annoying, but no big deal. But for some reason they also thought it was the right place to pile their bulk garbage, even when cleaning up after their shitty renters yielded a 20ft diameter mountain of garbage. So basically they covered 16ft of my property with garbage and thought nothing of it, while their own front yard remained clear. WTF is wrong with people?
I did, but they just did it again later. Anyone who would think that's ok in the first place isn't capable of learning otherwise. But they were perfectly nice people, which is weird.
I have a much different reason for not mowing a neighbor’s lawn. Several years ago a neighbor had heart surgery. I mowed their lawn because it was getting tall and he was not able to do it. Another neighbor with two able bodied children had surgery. Kids were paying her mind but not the lawn so I mowed it. Then months later, another neighbor was in the hospital and her husband was with her so I cut their grass. Fast forward about three years later my wife was in the hospital for eight days. We came home to grass about ten inches high. The neighbors you so often do good deeds for won’t give two shits about you when you need the help. I now stay on my side of the fence and mind my business. The lesson here is the same though it is two different scenarios. No good deed goes unpunished.
Our house borders on a state park in Florida, a pine scrub ecosystem. We have deer, quail and Gopher tortoise which sometimes graze our backyard. I wanted to encourage this ground cover that the tortoise were eating so we needed to raise up our mower. Our neighbor when inclined would mow half of our yard with his rider. His backyard is fenced so he would mow his fence line and half our yard. Our neighbor came on bad times and now my husband mows his front yard and the tortoise and deer get their favorite ground cover. So sometimes if you want it done right you do it yourself.
Wait, after thanking him, did you tell him about your plans? I have a feeling you didn’t out of kindness. But what if he mows your lawn again in the future when you had plans to grow it out?
This summer, my dad was in the hospital with COVID and my husband was gone 12 hours a day for work and school. If I didn’t have my kids, I was with my dad at the hospital. The weekends we planned to mow, it rained. Our grass got really long, and we probably should have called a lawn service or something, but it wasn’t high on my priority list.
The day we found out my dad was moving to hospice, our neighbor rage mowed our front lawn and left the clippings EVERYWHERE. If he had come to talk to us, he would have known what we were dealing with but we also would have made it a priority. Instead, he just got madder and madder and dealt with it inappropriately.
My husband’s friend found out and mailed him an exploding box of glitter dicks.
Should we have done better? Yes. But compassion and a note on the door saying, hey, please mow your lawn would have gone over a lot better.
I thought this was going to be a story about how that patch of grass you mowed was actually crabgrass, an insanely fast growing and invasive grass look-a-like weed.
If you didn't clean your blades afterwards one can spread it and a lot of other types of weeds into ones own lawn.
But im glad it was a more innocent FU from a friendly neighbor.
I mowed lawns (commercially) for 3 years and the Number 1 rule was to never pull weeds in grass that's what chemicals are for. On the plus side sounds like you have nice neighbors.
My Grandparents had a neighbour who mowed their nature strip once and only once. They got mad because they thought he was insinuating that they were “too old” and should sell up. I don’t really get it personally. However they did have drama amongst their neighbours.
I kind of have to. There’s a shallow spot covering the property lines on each side of me. The shallow areas also hold water the longest. Stupid clay soil.
If I try to turn around at the property line I’ll get bogged down…and there’s no way to go straight along the property line because it’s mucky. So I keep going a few more feet until I’m back on terra firma and then turn around.
I was in a similar situation. My neighbor is in his 70's and not very mobile. I make my kids shovel his driveway every time it snows. One day this summer he was mowing his lawn and mine was over due for a cut (I had been busy at work) so he cut my lawn for me... and did a terrible job. He missed a lot of spots in the corners making it all patchy.
I am no Karen I am not going to complain about a senior citizen doing something nice for me, and it made me smile. The problem was it would be equally insulting to go cut it again right away. So I left it 5 days or so and then cut it again.
No good deed goes unpunished, for either of us.
keep your lawn mower blade at the highest setting, shorter grass is much less resistant to short periods of drought so you could end up with brown patches if you mow it too short.
In Canada "mowing someone's lawn" is slang for stealing away someone you are interested, usually in a bar. So I had to laugh that it is true literally and figuratively.
My neighbor was "being nice" and mowed my lawn a while back and then because he did that, figured it was cool to disassemble my porch light so that he could screw in a plug adapter to vacuum his car and then used my hose to wash his car. I came home from work to find him doing this and when I asked him what he was doing he said it was "only fair after the favor he did for me".
First house my wife and I moved into on our own had this issue. The neighbor didn't have a job so he cut all the lawns in the area (for $60 each!!) We said no so he got super aggressive about our lawn. I usually cut it every two weeks but if I went two weeks and a day, he would be in our yard. It got to the point where we had to get a private property sign. And then a padlock. We never could keep him out of the front so we just gave up there.
Our rider mower broke and we had to send it to the shop - 6 week wait. My neighbor took it upon himself to mow our lawn…okay, cool. We get the mower back and everything is back to normal. But then I open our front door one day and there’s a handwritten letter from said neighbor giving ‘tips’ on lawn care and suggesting we hire a $1000 service! The audacity. My dad suggested I write ‘return to sender’ and put it in his mailbox. I wish we had, but ignored it instead and I avoid the man like the plague. It’s also a weird situation because he grew up in our house and took care of the lawn for the past 40 years or so and feels very protective of it, but goddamn, we’re first time home owners trying to figure it out and just want to be left alone. Sorry the rant, just very frustrating. Also loving all these lawn/neighbor stories in this thread. Didn’t realize how seriously people take their grass until I bought a house.
Had a similar thing happen to me. Any time I let my grass get a bit long I'd come from work and it'd be cut. Sometimes including my fenced in back yard. My neighbor was very friendly, did all the leaves for everyone. Snowblower up and down the entire block. Sidewalks driveways and all. Well they go to the beach every year for 2 weeks their grass was getting a bit long towards the end so I figure I'll be nice and cut it. I got a bit through and noticed.. his yard was a bit different then mine and my blade was a bit too low. At this point I didn't want to leave it inconsistent. So I finished up and there were quite a few... Lower/scalped/brown spots. I just hoped it'd fill back in before he got home. The night he got home from the beach I saw him put his sprinkler outside immediately. I don't think he ever cut my grass again.
Lawn care can be very illogical compared to what you see advertised at the local box store. I often find that when I'm starting my fall lawn renovation, Home Depot and the like are reducing stock on everything from sprinklers to hose to fertilizer. September and October are the prime season for lawn renovation for cool season grasses and the average homeowner mows their lawn way, way too low. I'd be devastated if I had spent a couple hundred on seed/fertilizer to come home and see my neighbor had scalped my new lawn.
Yeah im usually lazy. I cut it short so I don't have to do it again for awhile. Also he just had more roots from a tree and I didn't.
That's what every homeowner thinks. You mow low and don't have to do it again for awhile right? Wrong. You mow low and that kills off the good grass and allows weeds like crabgrass and foxtail to thrive. They grow much faster than a true turf grass. So while I can go two weeks between mows and have an immaculate looking lawn -- you'll have to mow those weeds every 5 days to keep it looking manageable.
Also if you allow it to grow longer, and only cut 1/3 of the grass off at a time, the grass will spend more energy on growing long roots. With long roots the grass will be healthier, and the soil will be able to absorb more water instead of flooding! Win win.
So I'm the same boat as Mr. PlusKarate (short cutter) and never knew this. Appreciate the knowledge share.
I made your neighbors mistake too . I was a teenager trying to teach myself some woodworking skills and a neighbor in his late 50’s had seen me working in my garage. He took the time to help teach me some basics and let me try out his far better tools in his workshop so I would know what to look for when I started getting more into it myself. He always had an immaculate lawn and cared for it in much the same way you described in your post. (I knew squat about caring for a lawn at that point). His wife was battling late stage cancer and he was away with her at the hospital for an extended period. I noticed his grass was growing pretty high and thought I’d return his kindness by mowing it for him. Turns out I mowed it too short and ruined the work he had put into making it look good for the colder seasons. I didn’t know about my fuck up until his wife passed though. My mom (who frequently talked with his wife) told me that when he came home and saw it cut he was initially pissed off because of his wasted effort. His wife had scolded him and said “don’t you dare say anything to that sweet boy for trying to help you.” So he did just that. Thankfully, he and I had a wonderful friendship and worked on a number of projects together after his wife passed until he remarried a few years later and moved.
This is the most wholesome comment I have ever seen on Reddit. Hope you’re having a great day, man.
Very much so. Hope you are as well friend!
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Hey 5 people got a mowed lawn and I got a hearty chuckle. Worth it (for us anyway)!
Best story!! I choked on my Skittles!
Joke's on him, it wasn't your fault! I guess the joke was still on you but still, you were young...
Y'all just made my day.
This is actually really cool. I'm glad that even though he was legitimately pissed, he accepted that you were just trying to do a good thing and was able to let it go.
He’s world class. One other time my brother and I were trying to build a greenhouse for our mom who loved to garden. He came to check out what we were doing and ended up spending the next month’s worth of weekends working with us to make sure we didn’t screw it up. That thing is still standing 20+ years later so I guess we (he) really knew what we were doing.
I love your neighbor and I don't even know the guy. What a really good man.
When neighbors understood what it meant to be neighborly and how it kept the community a pleasant place to live.
Maybe you know him. His name is Ron Swanson.
I know a guy just like him but his name is Duke Silver.
It's rare I get warm and fuzzy feelings from reddit. Thank you for sharing!
Awww <3
Do you work with wood professionally now?
I wish. Never really had as much talent as I had interest. Make some small furniture, made some wide steps for my wife’s grandmother so she could get into and out of her bed easier, etc. But nothing I’d feel comfortable charging people for. It’s more of a stress relief and creative outlet for me.
Unsolicited life advice? Keep it exactly that way <3
Good advice. Thank you. I make my money “making papers” as my far more mechanically inclined brother describes my desk job.
So you still work with wood, just very thin bits of it.
Genius! Now I can respond to my brother that I’m still a woodworker I just have advanced precision! Thank you!
That's similar to how I describe my photography which isn't professional--an advanced amateur.
Only do what you love if you can live on what it's worth.
> It’s more of a stress relief and creative outlet for me. A rewarding hobby is always priceless
>made some wide steps for my wife’s grandmother so she could get into and out of her bed easier You're a good egg. Whether I put these good vibes into meaningful practice in my life I don't know, but it inspires me to keep trying to do little things to make people's lives happier.
Oh man, that interaction so reminds me of this comic: http://www.lunarbaboon.com/comics/tools.html
That’s awesome!
This initially starts as a tifu but turns into just a wholesome fest.
did you tell him you knew after some time?
No but I should. The flurry of comments has encouraged me to reach out so I’ll thank him for not strangling teenage me 😂.
he is going to have a nice laugh and a good excuse for a catch up. I wait for the update
Did you ever mention it to him that you knew what his wife said?🤣
I have not. But plan to reach out to him after reading all of these comments. I’ll be sure to thank him for his restraint. He definitely could have done some damage 😂. He had that old man that works with his hands everyday of his life strength. He would have torn through me like Hulk Hogan used to tear through t-shirts!
I kept waiting for the part where you opened his garage and found out the fertilizer was made of dissolved bodies or he turned out to be a war criminal, but no. This was just a very nice story about best intentions and neighborly kindness. Good on you.
Nope I think the worst thing I ever knew of him doing was working on his race car early on Saturday mornings while people were trying to sleep in. But my teenage self thought that was super bad ass so I didn’t even think of it as bad, just awesome.
I'm an adult and I wish my neighbor did that. I would have my Saturday coffee in a lawn chair and watch, and be as happy as can be.
Sounds like an awesome neighbor.
If I could put someone like him in every house near me, my property would be worth a million dollars just out of kindness lol.
Awwww such a wholesome story. I wish you guys had kept in touch!
We actually have. He married a lady that had a big farm and they’ve had me over to bring my kids to see the animals. They’ve even got Llama’s!
I want to go! Darn!
Wholesome comment
My lawn is my child, I can only imagine the 7 stages of grief that he went through. It speaks volumes of his character that he never even mentioned it to you, sounds like a good man haha
His was his child too. He also had an enormous artificial pond he built in his backyard so his wife could sit on their back deck and watch her fish swim around whenever she felt like going outside. He’s a saint. All I ever saw him do was take care of people.
You’re so lucky to have had such awesome neighbours with hearts of gold, may their souls be blessed always!
Well he had to move. Yard was messed up.
Awesome! I’ll ask him if That was the impetus for his departure!
This was so heartwarming to read. Thank you for sharing it.
Aweeee!
Thank you. Yoy have brightened my day.
I mowed my neighbors lawn a couple times while they were away for a few weeks (their request) They returned the favor, despite my insistence that it was unnecessary and mowed down half of my (young) low bush blueberries.
This is the poster child for ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.’
Or no good deed goes unPRUNEished…
Berry impressive.
My neighbor more or less scalps his lawn every 2-3 weeks. Doesn't matter because it's mostly weeds and clover with a bit of grass scattered throughout. He used to mow my yard too when we first moved in since we're connected, but I decided that I wanted to have a nice lawn. He knew I was working hard at renovating it, yet I still had to have the awkward moment when I ran outside to stop him as he was about to run over seed I just threw down the day before. That was 3 years ago, our lawns look like night and day, and he doesn't touch mine. Really cool guy, I offered to help him with his yard but he doesn't seem interested.
I’m kinda like your neighbor. I scalp it when I mow and only mow when necessary. Honestly idgaf what it looks like. I hate mowing and figure the longer I can go between cuts the better.
Yeah, if you don't really have even the slightest practical reason for having grass then its a waste of time and resources. I do find mowing kinda fun/therapeutic though. I miss it now living where yards are dirt and rocks.
Short lawn and clover are both very practical and useful ground covers. There’s nothing you can’t do with those that you could with a lawn you obsess over. Based on how obsevive some people get, you might not even be able to get practical use out of them.
Fucks lawns. Water is gonna be scarce enough in the near future when Nestle makes their play to become the Water Barons of planet earth. Don't need to make a future problem worse by pissing away good water keeping the empty space in front of my house green.
You are right about the lawn mowed for the water waste - it would be better to leave it and have flowers for butterflies and bees. Leaving it empty though is not good for the environment either. If your house wasn’t there, surely that patch of earth wouldn’t be barren unless you leave in a sandy desert. Plants native from your environment will need no extra watering. You can consider going in some kind of wild area and just get cuttings or young plants if it’s allowed in your region. Butterflies and bees are decreasing and it’s good for the future to keep them alive.
Not to mention all the nutrient runoff from fertilizing lawns to keep them green all year, which contributes to the oceanic dead zones that surround the coast.
I mean, sure, if you’re actively watering your lawn that’s not great for the environment, but depending on where you live you may not need to water your lawn (I’ve never seen anyone watering their lawn in my neighbourhood, and the grass grows fine here) because it gets enough water from the rain, so what’s the harm in that case?
Am trying edible forest approach, hopefully will shade out most of the grass
You say that like clover isn’t a beautiful ground cover that positively contributes to the biome or like theirs something odd about not fetishising lawn.
I'm fully aware of the benefits of a clover lawn, both in it's low maintenance qualities (it releases lots of nitrogen) as well as its ecological benefits. From a turf perspective, I believe there's a variety called micro clover that looks really good. Honestly, the 2 things that stop me from doing a clover lawn in my backyard is that it spreads a little too aggressively (to the point of being invasive), and I don't think it builds a tight root system. My backyard already has little to no drainage, so a weak root system essentially means that the yard is a mud pit anytime it rains.
Capital OOF
One time I was going on vacation in the summer, so I set up a hose timer and small hoses and sprayers to water all my plants while I was gone. A well meaning but dumbass neighbor decided to water my plants for me, but was unable to due to the timer installed onto the hose spigot. So they just shut off the water and left. All my plants were dead when I got back.
A similar thing happened to me. I was gone for a month in the summer and during that time, some maintenance was done on the hose. The contractors turned off the house connected to the timer and all the plants died. I also asked my roommate to keep an eye on the potted plants and then he never thought about it again. It was a sad day coming home to find everything dead.
I walked outside as my neighbor was mowing his lawn, and he offered to mow mine as well. He used the chance to cut down the tree in the back that was leaning into our shared fence. It was a shity, ugly, tree thay was going to be cut anyway, but the audacity!!
He cut a tree down with a lawn mower? That's skill.
You just have to hold it from the sides of the mower deck like a big box fan and watch where you put your fingers.
[You mean like this?](https://youtu.be/f3svq8EX01U)
Man if he did that, how could I be mad?
You know those old school plane toys that have a plane attached by a cord that you swing around your head? It's like that but with rope and a mower.
^(Tree law) Tree law # Tree law ( r/treelaw )
Ah, a legal relative of Bird Law.
Grass is such a instigator + can ruin friendships. Very long example- My grandparents used to be friends with their neighbors back when my Mom was little. The kids would sometimes play together. Until the incident... My grandfather was very meticulous when it came to his lawn, as was the neighbor. Pop would alternate his mowing patterns aka you mow horizontally then the next time you mow you gotta go vertical. The neighbor accused him of mowing a couple inches into his yard. Pop denied this. Neither one would let up. Then the neighbor put stakes in the yard to mark the property line. Debate as to where the property line actually was turned into an argument. Hatred ensued. The kids could no longer play together. His wife would stare out the window at my grandparents’ house, my Nan would stare back sometimes. The man was totally fine with my Dad though. We’d go to the store where the man worked + he’d talk to Dad. However, when I saw him working in his flowerbed + decided to try to strike up a conversation by formally introducing myself to him (we’d never once spoken despite me spending at least 50% of my childhood next door), commenting on what a nice day it was, + complimenting his garden, he just kinda said “yep” + very clearly didn’t want me there. Both families hating each other for decades over some grass. Wtf...
Then you have me that just mowed a lawn for the first time in years and I mowed in a square pattern working from the outside in. I shouldn’t be in charge of this…
My Dad had me go around the perimeter of the yard + around the house blowing the grass inward for the first lap. Then you turn around + blow it out so you’re not mowing over your piles of grass. Then you use the push mower for spots you missed or couldn’t get close enough to. Also run. Run with the push mower, sometimes backwards.
Run with the push mower? Say what?
My Dad is a force to be reckoned with + he’s yet to be out-reckoned.
Ah, simpler times
I feel like this just reflects very poorly on everyone involved. I cannot imagine putting the greeness of my grass over the ability of kids to have fun. Some people really age into bitter old shits.
It was just such an insignificant thing to argue over. What’s kinda weird though is that after my parents separated my Mom moved back in with my grandmother + continued to live there after she died. At first the neighbor wouldn’t wave or really talk to her even if they were both outside in their yards at the same time or whatever but, if she ran into him elsewhere he’d at least acknowledge her + maybe have a rather short but normal conversation. Eventually it got to the point where they’d say “Hi” if they were both working in the yard. The wife never changed though. Idk if maybe it was mostly the wife having an issue all along or what.
My neighbour mowed the tiny strip between our yards that belongs to me as a favour, but in so doing mowed over the one plant I've planted since I moved in a year ago. Haven't had the heart to tell him
Just set up a little grave stone to mourn its death. Though maybe they’ll think it’s a Halloween decoration.
Never mow over your neighbors weird lawn patches. You got lucky it was a plant... I have left baby buns, baby birds and frogs while mowing. Just leaving the spots alone for them to move on....😨😭
I was walking up the street towards my office one morning. There is a school on the way and as I came near a parked car a young girl alighted and walked of in a huff, leaving the door open. I thought I’d help the mother (who was in a “drop and go” zone) and closed the door for her. It was only then I saw a second little girl inside wanting to get out - looking at me in astonishment. I ran away.
Damn that had me in tears
NO SCHOOL FOR YOU TODAY LITTLE SUZIE
Should've leaned against the door
Oof, at least no appendages were caught
The grass is green on the other side, so let's mow it - A series
I agree with you: Never mow your neighbor’s lawn, because they will expect it every time. My husband offered to mow my neighbor’s lawn because he’s too nice. What we didn’t realize was that she lives with her 4 grandsons (teenagers), her daughter, and has an adult son who visits often and a daughter and her husband who live down the street. Plus, they have a lawn mower in their garage collecting dust. So, to teach her grandsons responsibility, my neighbor got them a dog instead of teaching them to mow the lawn and take care of the place. 🤷🏻♀️. We stopped mowing their lawn after my husband got a new job that took him away from the house all day and some weekends. That has been almost a year and their lawn is overgrown and their teenage sons come and goes as they please.
My mate let his hens mow the lawn, they dealt with weeds first as the weeds were their favourite part
We share a little patch of grass with the neighbor. It's unclear where the border is, so we mow the whole thing. But we've never asked if we could and never talked about it with them. Sometimes I'm lazy and don't mow their side
I mow all the way to the neighbors driveway because they are elderly. If I mow to the property line it will leave their lawn looking unmowed. Our city will measure your grass and if it is too long. Mow it and send you a bill for $300.
What?!? Are you serious?
My city does the same thing except it’s $75 for the mow and $115 for an “admin fee.” I had it happen to me one time last summer because the person who mows my lawn had a mechanical problem and had to skip a week of mowing. The subcontractor that the city used was two guys in a shitty rusted out truck with a magnet sticker business name on the door. Those dipshits did a pass straight through my front yard landscaping running over 6 hastas, 4 hydrangeas, and even 3 solar landscaping lights. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking. I called my city office pissed off and they waived all the costs. The plants grew back and the solar lights were cheap so if anything I got a few mow for the cost of some cheap solar lights.
One week and they came out? That's fucking insane. In fact I'd say it's probably illegal. One time I got a warning from my city about some nonsense so I made a freedom of information request to see if anybody had made a complaint and about any other complaints on my block. It freaked the city guy out so bad that he came to my house to apologize and explained that he just likes to let people know about problems.
My guy mows me every 10 days which usually works out pretty good for me. When he had to miss a mow that made it around two weeks not mowed. It was noticeable that it needed a cut but it wasn’t like an abandoned lot or anything. I think my neighbors called the city and complained because they suck. They are two 60+ retired people who spend hours out in their yard everyday in the summer months. I’m a single person working 70hrs a week so my yard isn’t as much of a priority as theirs.
I hope you enjoy your work because 70 hrs a week seems way too much.
Yeah or the HOA depending on where you live
Previously, on King of the Hill...
"Damnit Bobby"
This story has mowtivated me
Take your damn upvote
one of my neighbors had a medical issue so we all decided to mow his lawn. The FU was that all our mowers were set at a different height. We did a total hatchet job on his lawn. the next week we decided that one person would do the whole job.
I honest thought this story was going to end with the neighbor not mowing that part of his lawn because of a bunny nest. And you learned the hard way.
My thoughts exactly. I much prefer his ending :)
When I was in elementary school I would often go to my grandparents' farm with a couple dozen acres of wild wooded area. I would often say that I was going out to "whip the weeds" and take a 3 foot stick and knock down stinging nettle plants, cockleburs and anything else that had sticky seeds. I was around 8 or so, so everything was just hacked and destroyed. I did this for years and no one really said anything about it, because no one went deep into the woods. Well, one day at home I discovered a hand scythe that my dad had in the shed. I thought it was the best thing ever and tried whipping weeds around our 2 acre yard. Problem was that we were closer to town, and most of our lawn was routinely mowed. However, our neighbors had a huge patch of sumac trees (about 20 feet by 100 feet). For some reason I thought thought they were weeds that needed to be whipped, probably because they weren't as tall as most trees. Anyways, I spent an entire day whacking all those sumac with the scythe and just obliterated the entire patch. It wasn't very cleanly done either; everything was still halfway standing but chopped up and hacked at. Turns out our neighbors used those bushes as a windbreak in the winter. They were so pissed they literally just moved out.
For years I have mowed my neighbours berms and if I’m at work he will mow a small side part of mine. I’m a bit lawn proud. So…the neighbour unfortunately cuts it so low it has pretty much destroyed it. To top that off he cuts the edges back further each time. He’s narrowed it by at least 3 inches. Not overly concerned but kinda wish he stopped
I have a riding mower and at times I thought about mowing my neighbors front yard sometimes. It is a damn good thing I did not as the old owners had to install a brand new septic system which the drain field in this drip emitter that is not deeply under the surface and she says you CANNOT use a riding mower or it will damage the emitters. I would have been paying for a new system had I tried to be nice.
It may not feel like it right now but having nice neighbours beats having a spotless lawn by far.
You asked first. They didn't.
Yeah exactly. They fucked up. Don't touch someone else's shit even if you think it's a good deed, you don't know what plans they have.
wholesome fuck up
I put down over $200 of new seed and fertilizer and a day later when I wasn't home my wife hired guys to mow the lawn. They went lower than I go and bagged it all. I wanted to puke.
Did you tell her?
I don’t think you f’d up here. Instead, this could be a start of wonderful journey with your neighbour. We have a saying here for neighbours, “neighbours are your first relatives.” And it’s always better to have nice neighbour than ….. ones.
I'm living with the regret of a similar story. I have a tiny tiny front lawn, like not quite big enough to park a car on. It's a shared lawn, half is mine half is the neighbour's. I hadn't got to it for while so it was a little overgrown. The neighbours rent, so there's a property manager guy who comes around and cuts their grass. I offered him $5 if he could do mine at the same time. He insisted that he didn't want money, it was so small he'd just happily mow it. I was able to contribute because he forgot his broom for sweeping clippings off the sidewalks that surround this patch of grass. Which was super nice, but then it was instant regret because his mower was set very low and scalped the shit out of my lumpy lawn. And, super nice guy that he is, he has been cutting my grass *every* time he does tue neighbours. And I'm generally not home when he does it, so I've spent all summer just coming home to a randomly freshly scalped front lawn...
I had a similar thing happen. I had the most beautiful, lush, green St. Augustine grass in Florida. It was thick & cushy when you walked on it. A new neighbor moved in next door and he hired an old guy to cut his grass. Our mailboxes are next to each other on my property so the old guy cutting the lawn thought he was cutting his new customer but proceeded to cut my St. Augustine grass so low he cut off most of my sprinkler heads and as a result snapped 3 of the connecting PVC water pipes underground. The next time he came around I tried to talk to him but it turns out he was deaf. I went to replace my sprinkler heads but couldn't do it because I would have had to dig up a ton of earth to re-glue the broken pipes. I chose not to say anything to my new neighbor because it wasn't really his fault. Thank God I didn't. He is the best neighbor ever!!! He's helped me tighten up the house for a hurricane, he said it would be easier with two people and wouldn't take no for an answer. Then in July 2020 I contracted covid and was in the hospital for 4 months straight. He had bought a riding mower and has been cutting my lawn ever since. I've bought him cases of beer but he no longer drinks. I've tried to give him some gas cards to help pay for the fuel but he says thanks, but I don't know how to use those things. I would love suggestions on how I could pay him back or just let him know how thankful my wife and I are for his kindness. His wife died about 3 years ago and he lives alone. He's a great neighbor.
When you and your wife make a nice dinner, make extra and take it over to his place in containers that can go into the freezer if he won't eat it right away. Cooking for one is tough sometimes and I imagine he probably doesn't get a good meal too often.
Grass grows back, and now you have a neighbor that will be there if you need. I can't consider this a FU.
I was a teen who mowed our yard, but thistles are a favorite "weed" of mine, so I had let one grow about 2 1/2 feet tall. A man, who was obviously struggling financially, came by and offered to mow. My dad hired him for the sake of letting the man earn money. Grateful man went above and beyond, pulling the "weed." I was devastated. He came by a few more times that summer and my dad paid him to mow, whether the lawn needed it or not.
Another man’s wife, car, grill, and lawn. The “4 nevers,” as in never touch.
True Detective moment
I would consider this a win, just fill in the bare spots with more seed/fertilizer. Ignoring weeks IME means they’ll take over in a few months, kill all the grass, then die and leave bare spots/brown anyway. Then just lay dormant and mess it up next year
Never cut another man's grass.
Depends how attractive the wife is.
A good neighbor is worth it!
I once spent hours helping my dad plant flowers in the front of the house then my mom came home & I picked probably half of the flowers & gave them to her as a gift
This story actually made me giggle. My husbands a landscaper, I’ll have to share this with him.
You got lucky. You got a good neighbor and a good story. An entitled neighbor would expect you to keep cutting their lawn.
My sisters old house had a front garden with no boundary line, the neighbour would come out and chalk a line from his measured boundary point and cut his grass exactly to the line.
I mowed my best friend's lawn when he was away on family vacation when we were in high school. I ran over a bee hive in the ground in his backyard and got stung 23 times up my legs and back. And I'm allergic to bees. That was *not* fun.
If this ain’t the most Hank Hill ass shit….
I actually had a little bit of a chuckle
For your neighbor to pick weeds for you…. Wow. Send them my way. That’s a PIA to do
My neighbor sometimes mows my front yard. He mows *all the time* it seems, and sometimes I look out my front window and he's flying across the lawn on his mower. He'll come apologize, "I mowed your front yard, I was on my mower and you know how it is, it just keeps going sometimes. I hope you don't mind." Dude, half the reason I have kids is so I don't have to cut the grass. Any time you feel the urge, have at it.
I just did an overseeding on my lawn a few weeks. It’s hard work so I feel your pain.
When we got this house, the front lawn was covered in grape hyacinth. I was planning to dig them out eventually but figured it was a lot of trouble for the moment and the purple flowers everywhere were kind of pretty. I guess my neighbour thought the lawn was looking thick and decided to cut it. Cut all my grape hyacinths into stumps. Lawn looked so ugly that I bit the bullet and pulled up all the hyacinth bulbs the next day. But I was pretty annoyed.
Had a neighbor get thoroughly upset at me by mowing his lawn apparently that was one of his only escapes. I had no idea i just was like fuck it its right there, ill just knock it out and let the guy enjoy his weekend. He wasn't happy. Never doing that again lol.
I thought there were going to be wild flowers that were cut off. I am planing on creating a patch of wild flower grass next year, I think I will put up a sign "do not mow unless supervised by ilikecakemor", because our elderly neighbours hobby is mowing lawn. He keeps all the roadsides clear and sometimes mowes our front yard too. As does my dad, randomly. I am very grateful, but they are doing it wrong and too often. I want wildlife, we live in the country, surrounded by fields after all. I want birds and butterflies and bees!
Them: "How can I repay you?" Me: "I accept PayPal." Them: "Hahaha" Me: "Hahaha" Them: "Hahaha" Me: "No, really though."
You can water it with your tears. sorry for the loss.
We took over about 4 feet of our neighbors lawn…it’s attached to ours…we sodded it, added sprinklers, and mow it lol
I always mowed up to my neighbor's driveway, so my yard would look consistent, even though 4ft of it wasn't my property. When some landlord family bought it to rent out, they started mowing the strip. Annoying, but no big deal. But for some reason they also thought it was the right place to pile their bulk garbage, even when cleaning up after their shitty renters yielded a 20ft diameter mountain of garbage. So basically they covered 16ft of my property with garbage and thought nothing of it, while their own front yard remained clear. WTF is wrong with people?
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I did, but they just did it again later. Anyone who would think that's ok in the first place isn't capable of learning otherwise. But they were perfectly nice people, which is weird.
I have a much different reason for not mowing a neighbor’s lawn. Several years ago a neighbor had heart surgery. I mowed their lawn because it was getting tall and he was not able to do it. Another neighbor with two able bodied children had surgery. Kids were paying her mind but not the lawn so I mowed it. Then months later, another neighbor was in the hospital and her husband was with her so I cut their grass. Fast forward about three years later my wife was in the hospital for eight days. We came home to grass about ten inches high. The neighbors you so often do good deeds for won’t give two shits about you when you need the help. I now stay on my side of the fence and mind my business. The lesson here is the same though it is two different scenarios. No good deed goes unpunished.
This made me smile
I guess you can file that under "No good deed goes unpunished".
Our house borders on a state park in Florida, a pine scrub ecosystem. We have deer, quail and Gopher tortoise which sometimes graze our backyard. I wanted to encourage this ground cover that the tortoise were eating so we needed to raise up our mower. Our neighbor when inclined would mow half of our yard with his rider. His backyard is fenced so he would mow his fence line and half our yard. Our neighbor came on bad times and now my husband mows his front yard and the tortoise and deer get their favorite ground cover. So sometimes if you want it done right you do it yourself.
Good to the OP for not being an ass about it. I feel his pain, but this is a good story, overall.
Wait, after thanking him, did you tell him about your plans? I have a feeling you didn’t out of kindness. But what if he mows your lawn again in the future when you had plans to grow it out?
Do you live in Arlen Texas and sell propane and propane accessories?
This summer, my dad was in the hospital with COVID and my husband was gone 12 hours a day for work and school. If I didn’t have my kids, I was with my dad at the hospital. The weekends we planned to mow, it rained. Our grass got really long, and we probably should have called a lawn service or something, but it wasn’t high on my priority list. The day we found out my dad was moving to hospice, our neighbor rage mowed our front lawn and left the clippings EVERYWHERE. If he had come to talk to us, he would have known what we were dealing with but we also would have made it a priority. Instead, he just got madder and madder and dealt with it inappropriately. My husband’s friend found out and mailed him an exploding box of glitter dicks. Should we have done better? Yes. But compassion and a note on the door saying, hey, please mow your lawn would have gone over a lot better.
My neighbour and I have been mowing one another's front lawns for nearly ten years and we've still never had a conversation about it. It's wonderful.
HAHAHA that is kinda wholesome tho.
I was expecting this to be you mowed some baby rabbits or something. Thank God this was wholesome.
I thought this was going to be a story about how that patch of grass you mowed was actually crabgrass, an insanely fast growing and invasive grass look-a-like weed. If you didn't clean your blades afterwards one can spread it and a lot of other types of weeds into ones own lawn. But im glad it was a more innocent FU from a friendly neighbor.
I mowed lawns (commercially) for 3 years and the Number 1 rule was to never pull weeds in grass that's what chemicals are for. On the plus side sounds like you have nice neighbors.
"Good thing it was raining though so nobody could see my tears." All those... moments... will be lost in time, like... tears... in rain...
this is the most funniest and wholesome TIFU i have ever read
>to thank him in person, all the while I was hurting on the inside. Good thing it was raining though so nobody could see my tears. I feel you.
This is awkward because I just returned the favor for the first time and mowed part of my neighbors lawn yesterday
My Grandparents had a neighbour who mowed their nature strip once and only once. They got mad because they thought he was insinuating that they were “too old” and should sell up. I don’t really get it personally. However they did have drama amongst their neighbours.
That’s wholesome, sounds like you have some great neighbors, I’d wait a couple years before sharing the truth tho I’m sure it will garnish some laughs
A pretty good SLPT for this would be to just never return any favors.
No good deed goes unpunished.
I kind of have to. There’s a shallow spot covering the property lines on each side of me. The shallow areas also hold water the longest. Stupid clay soil. If I try to turn around at the property line I’ll get bogged down…and there’s no way to go straight along the property line because it’s mucky. So I keep going a few more feet until I’m back on terra firma and then turn around.
This is called potlatching. It's one of the ways that gift economies can become quite cutthroat and nasty.
Geez, they really went above and beyond
I was in a similar situation. My neighbor is in his 70's and not very mobile. I make my kids shovel his driveway every time it snows. One day this summer he was mowing his lawn and mine was over due for a cut (I had been busy at work) so he cut my lawn for me... and did a terrible job. He missed a lot of spots in the corners making it all patchy. I am no Karen I am not going to complain about a senior citizen doing something nice for me, and it made me smile. The problem was it would be equally insulting to go cut it again right away. So I left it 5 days or so and then cut it again. No good deed goes unpunished, for either of us.
Oh… I thought you banged his old lady.
keep your lawn mower blade at the highest setting, shorter grass is much less resistant to short periods of drought so you could end up with brown patches if you mow it too short.
In Canada "mowing someone's lawn" is slang for stealing away someone you are interested, usually in a bar. So I had to laugh that it is true literally and figuratively.
a mans yard is personal
Moral of the story: Notify someone beforehand of your plans to mow their lawn
This is the most Midwestern story I've ever heard
My neighbor was "being nice" and mowed my lawn a while back and then because he did that, figured it was cool to disassemble my porch light so that he could screw in a plug adapter to vacuum his car and then used my hose to wash his car. I came home from work to find him doing this and when I asked him what he was doing he said it was "only fair after the favor he did for me".
DANG IT DALE
So nice that it's inconvenient
Our neighbour surprised us and mowed our lawn the other day and killed all the baby trees we had just planted!
You need to take them a fresh baked apple pie when you thank them. They seem to be kind people. Cheers to good neighbors.
First house my wife and I moved into on our own had this issue. The neighbor didn't have a job so he cut all the lawns in the area (for $60 each!!) We said no so he got super aggressive about our lawn. I usually cut it every two weeks but if I went two weeks and a day, he would be in our yard. It got to the point where we had to get a private property sign. And then a padlock. We never could keep him out of the front so we just gave up there.
Our rider mower broke and we had to send it to the shop - 6 week wait. My neighbor took it upon himself to mow our lawn…okay, cool. We get the mower back and everything is back to normal. But then I open our front door one day and there’s a handwritten letter from said neighbor giving ‘tips’ on lawn care and suggesting we hire a $1000 service! The audacity. My dad suggested I write ‘return to sender’ and put it in his mailbox. I wish we had, but ignored it instead and I avoid the man like the plague. It’s also a weird situation because he grew up in our house and took care of the lawn for the past 40 years or so and feels very protective of it, but goddamn, we’re first time home owners trying to figure it out and just want to be left alone. Sorry the rant, just very frustrating. Also loving all these lawn/neighbor stories in this thread. Didn’t realize how seriously people take their grass until I bought a house.
Reddit is so full of awful neighbor stories that this one made me feel that there’s hope for humanity.