We’re having neighbor difficulties; I mean, that’s nothing new, but more so than usual. When we bought our 50+ year old house in Dec-2015, I was so excited. A house we could afford, one where I could see the all the potential we could give it, and 1.97 acres to build an entire fucking ecosystem. Only, it seems we’ve gotten ourselves into a backyard nature battle with one of our neighbors.
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Dreaming of Nature’s Potential
Don’t ask me why I wanted to build an entire ecosystem, but that was one of the things I was most excited about. Planting all the trees, shrubs, plants. I wanted to invite all the butterflies, bees, rabbits, fireflies, dragonflies, birds…you name it…to our yard. I wanted to watch nature flourish as the planet intended.
In hindsight, it seems super fishy that the guy who built a massive garage and did so much gardening would be willing to sell his house to us. There were some comments about “the neighbors” all being related, and having wild parties. And as an introvert who is all about staying in her own corner of the world, I just shrugged this information off.
Neighborly Troubles
Fast forward several years, and we’ve really had almost nothing but neighbor problems. For starters, both neighbors would mow 10 feet into our property every single time they mowed, which is like every other day. This was defeating our goal of naturalizing our yard to see what plants might be growing naturally.
Due to the adverse possession law in Pennsylvania, we always made it a point to mow up to our property line…even if the neighbor had already cut the grass there. We mow our yard really tall, at 4 inches, and the neighbors must strive for something like 2.5.
A few times, one of the neighbors made it a point to trespass through our property from hers to come talk to us, not by way of a driveway or anything. During these conversations, it became very apparent that she knew way too much about our lives. What time we woke up (4am at the time), left for work, came home, ate dinner, etc.
My mom always said that it’s good to have neighbors look out for your house, but this was too much, in addition to the trespassing.
The Willow Project
The next year, we bought 20 fast growing hybrid willow tress to plant at the back edge of our property. The trees grow straight up, grow about 2-5 feet per year, and when planted closely together form a privacy hedge. They arrived as tiny, little 3 feet tall sticks, but I had soooo much hope.
We measured in 5 feet from our property line, and planted all twenty of those trees in a beautiful straight line, wove irrigation line around them so we could water them the first year as they got established, and stood there and dreamed about the dense privacy hedge we had just planted.
THESE WERE THE FIRST PLANTS I’D EVER PLANTED THAT WERE MINE. Granted, I didn’t know about native gardening back then and these willows are definitely not native to Western Pennsylvania, but we had planted 20 trees. And trees would lead to birds, and bees, and wildlife. So much potential.
Encountering Resistance
A couple weeks later, we came home from work to find a note taped to our back door from our trespassing neighbor. The note stated something to the effect of: “we ran over your irrigation hose when mowing and would appreciate if you kept your items on your property,” with a comment about not replacing it because it was “on their property.”
Since our baby willow tress were five feet in from the property line, and the irrigation line wove six inches out from all the trees at this point (until we knew roots had started to establish), I knew the irrigation line wasn’t on her property and she had simply continued to try to mow as far into our yard as possible, despite our new baby trees.
I brushed this encounter off, not really thinking about it again until last year. Since then, we’ve continued our naturalization and ecosystem building efforts; learning about native plants somewhere along the line….which probably just added more passion to our lawn project.
Fighting for Nature in our Backyard
Last year, on Earth Day, we drove several hours round trip and bought $350 worth of native plants from Arcadia Natives. I was ridiculously giddy and we planted them in the coldest rain (the Boyfriend truly is an amazing soul). As we had plans to expand our fenced in area of our yard that summer, we specifically planted 3 Lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle) along the outside of our fence line. The thought was this beautiful vine would trellis along the fence and create this gorgeous backdrop of pink flowers between our yard and the neighbor’s yard, giving us both something pretty to look at.
One of the plants was planted about twelve inches from the property line. I know, cutting it close…but the plan was to trellis it along the fence line. We put a tree diaper around the plant, extending about 7″ from the plant towards our property line, and went about our day. The vine had about an 18″ trellis sticking up around it, so the Boyfriend said we didn’t have to worry about our neighbor mowing over it.
The Battle Begins
The neighbor was FURIOUS. She mowed over a section of the plant, destroyed the tree diaper, and when we went to place stakes around the plant so she wouldn’t destroy it in her carelessness, she stormed out onto our property and proceeded to tell us that the plant, and ALL 20 of our hybrid willow tress were on her DAMN property and she was not about to stand for it.
Suffice it to say, another property survey was completed, which stated that all of our willows, and our coral honeysuckle + tree diaper were on our property. She still asked us to move the coral honeysuckle, which we politely declined since the plant was squarely on our property.
Herbicide Havoc
None of this made her happy and she started spraying herbicide on our property line, and it was drifting (or she was purposely) spraying into our yard by upwards of 15 inches in some spots. I don’t know much about property law, but I do know that the line belongs to both of us, and that she’s not allowed to spray our yard.
We stopped weed eating around our new plants to try to protect them from this non-discriminatory “weed killer.” But have continued to mow our side of the property line to contain our “wilderness.”
Until recently. Our neighbor is still indiscriminately spraying her weed killer into our ditch (putting those chemicals directly into our waterways) and along the entirely of our property line. I think the only thing saving our coral honeysuckle at this point is the grass surrounding it. But this year, she has severely damaged almost half of our willow trees, with the other half being adversely affected as well.
Navigating Neighbor Dynamics
Living in rural, BFE, surrounded by farmlands…there are seemingly no local repurcussions for this maniacal herbicide use, all for her to maintain her monocultured, green yard, with little-to-no wildlife value.
THIS, however, is precisely the number one reason I always said I wouldn’t live in an HOA (homeowner’s association). But somehow ended up finding something nearly as bad. I don’t know how we solve this problem yet. The Boyfriend and I have thrown out a lot of ideas, but the first step is to re-survey our property, have the surveyor put up a line around the property and put up our “Private Property” signs.
Then it’s likely going to be a chapter of my life entitled, “Ginny embarrassingly gets smooshed while attempting to navigate local politics.” But we do need to figure out what the zoning ordinances are so we can protect our property. Maybe we will be allowed to put up garden edging along our property line and then plant a native wildflower meadow.
For now, we’ve certified our yard and gardens and are documenting everything while coming up with our plan. We’re not trying to cause any trouble with our neighbors, we just want to enjoy our property that we’ve bought and paid for.
Our Backyard Nature Rehabilitation
Even in the middle of these neighborly challenges and property disputes, our commitment to nurturing backyard nature remains unwavering. We’re actually spending quite a bit of brain power to come up with a solution that works for both us AND our neighbor. Despite these setbacks and frustrations, we still are super passionate about creating a thriving ecosystem on our property with our native gardening practices. Through the trials of chemical trespass, we’ve learned the importance of resilience, knowledge, and speaking up for our little ecosystem. Our backyard nature rehabilitation isn’t just about cultivating plants; it’s about fostering a sanctuary for wildlife and preserving the natural beauty of our surroundings, and working with the planet (instead of against it) as we try to fight climate change.
As we navigate the complexities of neighbor dynamics (and potentially local politics), the Boyfriend and I remain dedicated to protecting our chemical-free haven, even if one of us is slightly more vocal than the other. With each native plant nurtured and each wildlife habitat preserved, we take one step closer to realizing our vision of a vibrant, biodiverse backyard oasis. Through documentation, advocacy, and a commitment to education, we strive to inspire others to embrace nature and champion environmental stewardship in their own communities.
