Sad new border

My new border is still very bare and I haven't even started putting the brick edging in, but i've planted some good shrubs, and clematis and honeysuckle alternately along the fenceposts.
Miss Bateman flowered beautifully in its' new postion, and the Arbutus was doing really well- until they caught the weedkiller that next door neighbour put on her very long grass about 2 days ago... I didn't realise what had happened until I saw Julie [next garden up] angrily rootling around. She has lost a lot of her lovely spinach [or chard-very pretty with red veins and tastes good too], a beautiful big greeny scabious, and a lot of the seedlings she was going to pot up for the fete this saturday.
When I looked a bit more closely the spirea is also affected, and one of the honeysuckles, and both the hibiscus.
To add insult to injury we think it was a systemic weedkiller that she used. :( :( :(

 

Aggghhhh! Weedkiller Idiots who overspray other's property are a pest. At one time I lived on a cornersite and the council would pray all the paths and edges with systemic and stuff that actually seemed to poison the ground. Fell out with them a few times over it.

Spray drift can go a long way even on a light breeze and it's much better to use a watering can (preferably a red one kept for the purpose) and a fine rose or weed bar. It goes exactly where you want it and there's no problems for neighbours.

 

Hi Liz, unfortunately I'm not in a position to hand out any advice as I am a newbie to gardening but I really do feel for you.
Are your neighbors still in good health? ;.)

 

p.s. What if you tried watering the leaves of your plants to get as much of the nasty stuff off of it?

 

OMG I know how you must feel, I only started the new border this spring myself, mainly using this year to see what grows in our soil and what doesn't so next pring I go on a shopping spree to fill up the border with things that I know will work!
Anyway, when hearing such tales as yours I am soooo happy that the neighbours to our left don't bother about their garden except mowing the lawn! No danger of them killing weeds! And to the other side we have high growing conifers sheltering any attempts - not that they do anything either, they need the lawn for the kids - suits me! Leaves us to grow things without danger of anyone destroying things!

I reckon for trying to "wash off"! the nasty stuff it would have been too late by the time you discover what went wrong :(

 

Oh Liz, I just had to reply to your sad post. I am realy sorry to hear what has happened to your new border. Its allways difficult when neighbours don't share the same passion as us gardeners. I had a similar incident with my neighbour a few years back..I have a Clematis Marjorie that I grew from a cutting, it was about 8 years old and streached 40ft along my front garden fence, (the fence is ours)for some strange reason despite loving the clematis and allways comenting on the flowers, sometime in July my neighbour who usually just trims off the bits that got in his way put his secateers through the bottom of the fence and trimmed away. Of course I had no Idea what had gone on , the clematis just shrivelled overnight..he had cut all along the bottom killing all the top growth..he did confess and was remorseful, he thought it was bindweed(they had moved to the country from a High rise towerblock) and had never had any experience of anything like plants and had no idea it was the same plant that produced the flowers they enjoyed so much in the spring, glad to say that after the ages it took to remove all the dead and dying top growth it did make a full recovery and now some years later has reached about 20ft. Its so difficult with neighbours, it made me a nervous wreck after that, they went through the weedkiller stage :eek: then the planting out rows of bedding plants (red ,white, and blue of course :rolleyes: and then Mulching the plants with my major hate SLUG PELLETS . I have over the years thankfully, with lots of patience managed to teach them new organic ways. But then they had a relapse the other night..I kept hearing a Crackling noise going off, on further investigation through a hole in the fence I could see that they have bought one of those ultra violet things that you have in comercial kitchens, hung it in the apple tree on an extention lead a few feet from there french Doors and were frying my moth population that I have so carefully attracted by providing the right enviroment..Had to come in doors, I thought I would have a heart attack if I watched a moment longer
Is there away that you and the other neighbour could have a diplomatic word about the indiscriminate use of garden chemicals, if they new the hurt they had caused they would br less likely to do it again.

Poppy33

 

What a nightmare neighbours are! Read this thread and went out to have a word with my roundup trigger happy neighbour! She sprays it on the long grass that grows in her garden between the posts on my fence. Why she can't strim it like any normal person would baffles me. Informed her of my intention to plant a new border between our gardens and asked if she could refrain from spraying and she actually got quite stroppy!! Politely reminded her that I paid for the fence and as plants are very expensive she surely wouldn't like to replace any she's killed. Oops! Suppose I won't be getting a Xmas card this year! :D

 

Good on you Windy Miller perhaps the sad tale of what has happened to Liz has prevented the same for you, and made us all aware of what can happen with these dreadful sprays.

 

If a neighbour sloshed industrial strength bleach around that stripped the paint from your car or the dye from your clothes - you could probably sue.
Why not prepare a list of plants damaged with their current replacement valuation? Get any other neighbour involved. Produce a serious looking letter requesting payment. Enclose photographs of damaged plants . Close letter with a reference to the small claims court. (or even go for an ASBO!) :rolleyes:

 

Thanks to everyone for their comfort. My neighbour isn't really a nightmare, I expect she will be upset when she finds out [she hasn't moved in yet and hasn't been round since the spray]. She's very friendly and has been feeling bad that her garden is untended, but I don't think she's a gardener at all. This is going to make it quite hard for Julie and me to complain!
Our gardens used to be all open, and people only started fencing in a few years back. The people who previously lived next door put their fence up because they had dogs, and it hasn't got fence panels, just sheep wire [5" square mesh] so didn't offer any protection at all from drift.

 

A couple of years ago, the local council decided to undertake a major renovation of all the council properties in our area. This included new fences all round but I'm an owner occupier so didn't expect to be included (didn't actually know about it anyway!!).

Came home from work one day to find this guy had pulled down the bottom fence and moved my compost bin to do it and was tramping all over my freshly dug veg bed which was - thankfully - still awaiting the seeding.

Turned out that the bottom neigbour is a co. tenant so gets new fence and I get one free! Which was okay except for a) the damage he caused and b) not obtaining permission to come on my property.

However, having got that sorted, I then waited to see what kind of fence was being put up to replace the shiplap one they'd taken down. It was pretty substantial but - it had two inch gaps between each panel. Didn't much like that and had to kick up quite a fuss to get them close butted for the very reasons you guys have stated here. Got my way but not without a lot of grump from the contractor who couldn't see why I should 'get away with it' and why I should be allowed to complain about the damage he'd caused in my garden! Words failed me!!

(PS having been doing all this work himself at the start, he now employs a whole gaggle of men and drives around in a posh new car!!! Hm! must pay well!)