Inexpensive way to tell if neighbor killed my grass

[bartleby1]

OP - sounds like you need a privacy fence or some form of definitive boundary if this is bothering you so much. Personally, I don't "get" the whole property line issue because I really don't care about my grass all that much but I know that these kinds of things bother some people and I try to respect that. I would think that a permanent boundary of some sort would solve the problem though.

 

[ceecee]

Yeah, me too. I mow a little bit over the property line with my neighbor, mostly b/c the neighbor's 13 y.o. son is the one who mows and he doesn't come close enough to the property line and leaves large swaths of uncut grass when he mows.

I do the same thing. The neighbor's son has been mowing for the last 3 years, he's 13 now and he never even gets close! We have a riding mower so I just go ahead and mow that part as well. I noticed yesterday while mowing we were really about 3 ft in their yard!

 

[Married2theYeti]

Too bad you aren't in the St. Louis area. My company does soil tests for around $25.00. You might not have to have a lawn care company come out to your house. We let our customers bring the soil sample to us and they we package it and mail it to the lab. That helps keep the cost down.

I can handle $25! What kind of company do you own/work for?

 

[missj1975]

I can handle $25! What kind of company do you own/work for?

I work for a distributor of turf care products for Golf Courses and Lawn Care Companies. The company that we send the soil samples to for testing is called Earthworks. I believe they have a website. Or you can search the internet for local Earthwork distributors in your area. Another company we use is called Soil First Consulting but we perfer Earthworks. Hope this info helps.

 

[mandysbus]

Yea, I've got a neighbor that thinks they are going to replace OUR fence between the yards because they dont like how it looks. Even went to get a permit at the borough hall (who will also be in trouble if they gave a permit to someone else to replace our fence). Every time they mention wanting to do it, DH reminds them that it is our fence. they just kinda blow it off though.

 

[runwad]

Oh my, MY neighbor does the SAME thing!

Since the day we've moved in here.. they mow the back part of our lawn. They planted a huge garden RIGHT on the edge of our yard (we have three boys, who play ball.. they might want to move the garden!). They have 2 acres.. we have a 1/2 acre.. really.. RIGHT on the edge, wasn't necessary. They hauled off a piles of sticks that I had in my yard. They've trimmed our trees. (that one was the final thing that got DH over talking to them.. asking if they understood where the property line was).

They owner of the land next to us drives through our yard.. because she says it's her yard. She comes over and asks what we're doing, if we're in the "questionable" area. She is nice.. don't get me wrong. She said the boys can play on any of her yard, just don't leave toys laying around. I do greatly appreciate that. So, I dropped the whole thing.

This year.. I just told DH.. they can mow it if they want. Save me some work. We're putting the house on the market this spring anyway.

I would say take a soil sample to your local extension office. They should be able to tell, at a fairly minimal cost.

I had to look and see if my user name was here cause this is my neighbors to a T...isnt that funny? Then I see you're in Kansas...I'm in OH...and our neighbor cut down a wild bush that we used for privacy from THEM. His excuse...he was trimming some of the dead branches off it and b/4 you know it he cut the whole thing down. I totally can't stand them. Oh and just last week his wife came in my yard and helped herself to some of my flowers. Yep dug out a few strands and took them back to her yard and planted them. Well I'm not very proud of this but I marched over there when they were gone and pulled them back out.

 

[neffernie]

I don't have an answer for you, OP, but I can feel your neighbor pain.

rant on

We currently having an issue with an oak tree in our backyard. It is quite large and has been there since before both houses were built. It seems some of the branches are touching their roof and they want us to pay to have a tree trimming service come out and take care of it. Well, we have offered to have them come out and cut the whole bunch of branches that cross the property line off but that isn't what they want. They just want us to pay to have the touching ones removed and leave the shade ones right where they are. According to the law in our area, once it crosses the line they can do whatever they want to and it isn't our responsibilty any longer.

It is just the audacity of it all that gets me going. They even tried to tell us the previous owners used to do it all the time. (Which I know is a lie because we bought the house from my parents when they moved out of state.)

BTW...they mow passed the line in the front as well, even though there is a fence in the back clearly marking it. It's just aggravating.

rant off

 

[msmayor]

I wouldn't waste my effort trying to figure out if the grass died from Roundup. It doesn't solve your problem of getting him off your yard.

If you can't do the privacy fence, do this:

Get an accurate survey of the property. Then, right on the line, install stone edging ALL the way to the sidewalk and create a planting bed on your property. Make sure its wide enough and high enough to make NO mistake that it doesn't need mowing.

He can't mow into your yard anymore because of the stone.

 

[lovepurple]

Even if you could prove roundup was used, that wouldn't prove he did it. We used to have a neighbor like that. We had our kids tell their kids that mysterious things were happening in our yard (the guy would clean his dogs poo out of his yard by flinging it into ours) and we were thinking of putting up cameras. The strange activity stopped, but we never actually put up any cameras.

 

[Benducci]

In some areas, if you can prove that you've done the upkeep on an area of property over a certain amount of time, you can claim it as yours. Kind of like squaters rights, I guess. Obviously mowing an inch or two over the line is no big deal, but if this guy is doing it by a few feet, the OP could have a property disput on her hands if she isn't careful.

true- it is not his property & he should not be mowing it, especially since he has been asked, not once, not twice but several times to now mow the area that is not his. If there is a property dispute, he might be able to claim the property as his by showing that he maintained it.

 

[polineedyan]

I agree with a lot of these posters. IF ONLY my problem were that my neighbors were OVER maintaining..
As a landscraper, I cant think of a way to tell if roundup was used or not. A soil sample would be your best bet, thru the county extension office, usually very inexpensive. But I dont think they test for roundup..
You could pull out the grass in one dead spot, if the whole area lifts, like a rug, then you have grubs. Its not quite time for grubs, though. Do you smell skunks alot? Its the skunks that kill the grass, you know..from digging up the grubs. In my experience, grubs are not necessarily the issue when someone "has grubs" its actually the preditory animals DIGGING for the grubs, and then urinating all over the yard.
You probably have skunks, or he sprayed the yard. Sounds like you need to call a fence company..

 

[surfgirl]

Every state is different, but I understood squatter's rights as:

1) maintaining someone's else property
2) the other person has not disputed it
3) it has been a decent amount of time (20 years?)

Having said that, I wouldn't allow a neighbor to abuse the property line issue especially since he has had issues in the past with a different neighbor.

As to the person who is going to sell their house... make sure things are okay with the neighbor. You have to sign a sheet at sale that there are no property line disputes. Don't create one before then. We had a neighbor who was mowing 2+ feet over the line (started about 6 wks before we closed on the sale of our house) and our realtor advised us to assume that he was doing it to be a good neighbor and not create disputes. Shortly after we left, the survey stakes were put up and left up for YEARS. Solved that problem!

Make sure he toes the line! (pun intended)

 

[Married2theYeti]

Due to restrictive covenants we cannot put a fence all the way down the property line. Since the back yard now has the shrubs along it, there is currently no overmowing back there. The LINE of dead grass is in the front yard. I can't imagine a skunk with a bladder that big to make such a long, straight mark! The reason I want to check for roundup is to have the documentation in case of further problems.

 

[Poohbug]

Can you continue your line of trees into the front yard?? I think I would try that. I would try to make a boundry whatever way I could and let go of the dead grass for now.

 

[ceecee]

Due to restrictive covenants we cannot put a fence all the way down the property line. Since the back yard now has the shrubs along it, there is currently no overmowing back there. The LINE of dead grass is in the front yard. I can't imagine a skunk with a bladder that big to make such a long, straight mark! The reason I want to check for roundup is to have the documentation in case of further problems.

It still wouldn't prove HE used it. Since a fence is out, the stone hedge sounds like a great idea!

 

[Married2theYeti]

Can you continue your line of trees into the front yard?? I think I would try that.

Yes, we can do that and may if it will look nice.

 

[ChristyJ]

Yes, we can do that and may if it will look nice.

From the sounds of things, this would be your best bet and might prove to be a less expensive fix than a lawyer down the road...

Good luck-we've had little issues through the years too with our back yard, so I feel your pain.

 

[Michelle67]

I tend to agree that it won't matter if you prove Roundup killed the grass, since it won't prove he did it. I think I would just start documenting everything on a calendar or date book and save it just in case the problems get worse. And I also think the line of pavers or wall bricks might be a good idea. If nothing else, it will tear the devil out of his mower blades if he decides to try to cross the line.

Wacky rude neighbors are such a pain! The PP about the neighbor who would throw his dog's poo over the fence into their yard reminded me of looking out the window at our old house and seeing my neighbor's grand daughter walking their houseguests dogs ON A LEASH into my yard to do their business! When I went out and told her this was not okay, she said she was just doing as she was told. Turned out her grandparents (who were not at home when this was happening during the day) had told the houseguests that it was okay to bring their dogs, but that they would have to pick up after them. Apparently they figured if they just walked the dogs into MY yard to go, they wouldn't have to scoop! Nice...

 

[Married2theYeti]

It still wouldn't prove HE used it.

No, but if it happens again or he tries to kill the shrubs we can prove a pattern. Also, he has a motive.

 

[mickeywho?]

We've had similar problems with our neighbours and a hedge did a great job of sending a message about the boundary. A word of advice: Plant the hedge about 2 feet within your property and keep a nice edging of mulch right up to the property line - hopefully this will keep him from trimming your hedge "off his property" - our neighbour tried this but my dh stopped him before he did much damage. As long as our hedge is over the mulch we know it's on our side. We've asked him to let us know if it's ever over and we'll save him the trouble and trim it ourselves.
Love the old saying "fences make great neighbours"