Trees/leaves

[In the Kitchen]

Is it against the law in any state to rake leaves back on your neighbor's lawn? this sounds crazy to me talking about leaves. My neighbor has 8 trees on his property. The property is only about 1/3 acre. I had to have my trees either trimmed or taken down. I only have ONE tree in front of my house. Others are gone. I truly feel if you have somethng on your property, you are the one to take care of it. However, my yard is covered w/his leaves. There are leaves from my tree included but the majority of the big leaves are his. Every year I have expense of taking care of yard waste. Last night I raked some of the leaves back on his property. My brother tells me he could take me to court for doing something like that! I told him they were his leaves. He said the law says cannot put something on another's lawn w/o their permission. His trees, his leaves.

He does try to clear them away periodically but they ony are back the next day. Now I can spend most of the day trying to clear all the leaves away. How do you people feel about leaf blower? I see them and the leaves blow every which way. No control. Trying to shred them w/mower has caused the mower to stop too often.

 

[thumpershere2]

Mulched leaves are great food for your lawn. I can see your problem tho, have you talked to your neighbor about the problem? A leaf blower will blow the leaves away but the wind will blow them back. Can you rake and then burn the pile of leaves? Maybe bag the leaves too. Alot of work but will take care of the leaves. Maybe neighbor would help out some.

 

[Loprraine]

"I only have ONE tree in front of my house. "

Me too, and every year I end up with about 20 bags of leaves. and that's after I've used some to cover the garden and flower beds. We're not allowed burning them, but the city mulches them and uses them on our footpaths in the woods..

 

[sparrowgrass]

Please, please, please, even if it is legal, don't burn them. We asthma sufferers have enough trouble this time of year without leaf smoke.

Talk to him first. I would be irritated if you piled leaves on my property without talking to me first, but if you asked me, maybe we could work something out. Fighting with neighbors is such an unpleasant way to live.

Leaves are just a part of fall. Grind them up with your mower, use them as mulch in your flower beds, compost them.

Bring them to me--I pile them in my chicken yard and the girls make compost out of them.

 

[Constance]

Our house is in the woods, so we don't even try to fight the leaves. My husband has a leafblower that he uses to clear off the deck and carport, and we don't worry about the rest. We do have a lawn in front of the house, but the leaves seem to gather mostly in the fence rows and perennial bed. Anything left gets mulched with the mower.

In regard to the legality of raking the leaves back onto your neighbors lawn...I remember reading something about an apple tree on your neighbors side of the fence; any apples that fall on your side of the fence are yours. I imagine that goes for leaves as well.

 

[YT2095]

I`m totaly with Thumpershere2 on this one.

on 2 counts actualy;
1) leaf mulch is Fantastic! you could even sell it.
2) you clearly mentioned Raking, a leaf blower is Not raking

 

[boufa06]

In regard to the legality of raking the leaves back onto your neighbors lawn...I remember reading something about an apple tree on your neighbors side of the fence; any apples that fall on your side of the fence are yours. I imagine that goes for leaves as well.

Yes, I agree with Constance on this. Years back, we had a mango tree in the frontyard of our family house. It was a very prolific tree, unfortunately its branches extend a little beyond our cantankerous neighbour's fence. So this particular neighbour started giving us problems by insisting that we should chop off the branches. My elder sister would retort by telling her not to complain as the leaves that dropped were very few and that she would get to eat the mangoes as well. Things eventually got really worse until the police got involved. What happened in the end? The police reiterated what my sister told our neighbour, ie. that there was no ground for complaint and that any mangoes that fall on the neighbour's side are hers to keep!!

 

[YT2095]

also, it`s perfectly legal to cut off the bows/branches that cross the boundry onto your land, but you MUST put what you`ve taken off back onto their property else it`s stealing.
it`s valid in the UK anyway, not sure about the US though?

 

[Katie H]

Raking? Leaf blowing, what's that? We live in town on an acre. The house has been here since 1880 and some of the trees are big, over 100-years-old. Lots of leaves. Did I say the trees were big? We've never raked here. Just let Mother Nature do what she does. As a result we have some of the richest soil I have ever seen. Black as tar and so rich if you planted a penny, you'd get a crop of dimes.

The city comes by regularly with a huge leaf "vacuum" and cleans up the leaves in the ditches and along the streets. Some folks rake, but most don't. I don't think the people did in the 1880s either. In a matter of weeks, we won't even know there were leaves in the yard when the weather turns to rain and snow.

 

[shpj4]

I know that it isn't fair that the leaves on your lawn belong to your neghbors trees. I would just rake up the leaves on your property so the glass looks good.

 

[amber]

Around here, we (including the neighbors) rake our leaves, bring them out to the curb, and the city comes by to vacuum them up, which they then use as mulch. I dont use leaves for mulch because I dont have anyway to break them down and they dont degrade in my mulch pile. I highly agree with mulch piles though! I toss everything in there, from tea bags, egg shells, veggie scraps, lawn clippings.

As for the original question, I wouldnt get too bothered by leaves from your neighbors trees, it's the wind that blows them, not your neighbors Such is life

 

[The Z]

I need to rake soon. Last year all the leaves fell from the tree. Then, before I could get a chance to rake them, a wind came and blew them all into the neighbor's front yard (actually not a 'yard', per se... it's desert landscaping). I felt bad but they were then all over the place and not a lot I could do about it.

If you're my neighbor..... I'm sorry. (can I have my karma now?)

Signed,
Earl Hickey

 

[Constance]

Katie, we have big old oak trees like that, and I love them.
Kim says they are 80-100 feet tall...I thought taller. They surround three sides of my home like ancient guardians. A friend of ours happened to be up in a chopper looking at oil wells, and said she couldn't even see our house. All she could see were tree tops.
We live on top of a hill, and when a storm comes up, I sit at my patio door watching the trees bending in the wind, and think that must be their secret. With all the tornados that have gone over our heads, they would have broken long ago if they hadn't been so flexible.
Sometimes I wonder what they have seen. This particular area was a pretty wild place during the 20's-40's. There's still part of a sidewalk in front of my house that was part of "the West City Curve". They had taverns, gambling, bordellos, and Charlie Burger. Charlie ended up being the last man hanged in the state of Illinois, for killing the West City mayer by throwing dynamite on his front porch.
Supposedly, there are gold coins buried in my fencerow, and I think that may be true. But I'm not digging up my trees to find out.

 

[VeraBlue]

It's part of being a homeowner...maintaining your property. If a bird dropped dead out of the sky and landed on your lawn would you toss it back into the sky, or dispose of it?
If a branch fell off his tree and damaged something on your property, you could have a case due to his neglect. But, leaves leaving a tree are at the mercy of the wind, which is considered an 'act of god'.

It's unfortunate that you even have to ask this here. That tells me that the neighbour situation is one that you cannot simply ask the neighbour to help you do the raking. Something along the lines of 'if you help me get rid of the leaves, I'm make you a tray of brownies' could do the trick. I suspect that isn't in the cards, however.

I do admit, I like the idea of raking them into bags, and then stealing over there late at night and gluing them back onto the branches. Problem with that is eventually, they'll fall off again and probably blow right back into your yard.

 

[bullseye]

ITK, I sympathise in that I am at the leaf nexus of my local area. If there is a leaf within 1/4 mile, it will end up in my yard. I'd love to gather up all my near neighbors to gather them up, but I have just resigned myself to dealing with it. Mulch, blow, rake, mow; I do it all. (Oh, yeah. Add: ignore until Spring.) Leaves end up where they will.

 

[crewsk]

ITK, we've just encountered a similar problem. Hubby went outside today to burn some more of the brush off behind our house (we're getting it cleared off to either put up a fence or a row of trees) & the people who live behind us trimmed a tree in their yard, pulled up 2 old wooden posts & threw it all in our yard!! Hubby can't decide whether to just drag it back into their yard or just have a "chat" with them about it. It's extremly obvious where the property line is between our houses so they had to know what they were doing. If they had asked first, chances are it would have been fine with us for them to put the stuff over here since we're burning that area anyway. It would have taken them less than 5 minutes to ring our doorbell & ask.

 

[In the Kitchen]

Understanding

crewsk: that is just the problem. If only people would just explain reason and know what they plan on doing. But to just discover what they have done instead of explanation makes you feel they are taking you for granted.

As for this neighbor who has the leaf blower. His house is on corner lot and next to his property is our driveway. He blows all the leaves to the front of his yard until he is over by our driveway where he blows them next to our driveway. Naturally they are going to 'blow' over here when he puts them next to it. We worked all day gathering the leaves together for the yard waste man to pick up tomorrow. Most of the leaves are from his trees. I only have the one now. So I feel pretty bad about spending money to remove the trees which had caused me problems from last storm and trim only tree to maintain it. Having trees on the property is not cheap. Person who lived there before had the trees trimmed every 3-5 years. Knew how to care for her property. They have the where with all but use it on other things. Sometimes you have to deny yourself vacations and different pleasures to take care of what you own. I wasn't in very good mood after we finished. Heard her playing w/her dog in the yard which made me even more mad. I had to fix the supper after doing all the work her husband gave me. They just ignore us. I used to care for her dog when she went on vacat ions. I don't do that anymore since she leaves the dog in t he yard w/o water or doghouse when it is cold. I put rug down t here and t hey threw it out. Her sist er told me 'you don't tell her what to do'. She is dog lover too.

I will stop bringing my cloud around all of you but I t hank you for taking the time to make me feel that my gripe is justified. You see my point.

Oh about mulch. My brother took 15 barrels of leaves w/o any rocks to use for mulch. We would try to grind them up but t he leaves are so deep the mower always would die on us. Guess we have to buy proper eq uipment for mulching 3-4 feet of leaves.

Says to love your neighbor. I have hard time with the ones around here.

 

[In the Kitchen]

Am I Wrong?

Yesterday, when the man for the Yard Was te (neighbors leaves) came to pick them up, he leaves 10 bags. I call the company, tell me there is limit. Great! Now I have to pay additional amount for next month to have his leaves picked up. What does he do w/his leaves? Blew them into the street and along our driveway! Well, today we have ice storm so they are not going to blow anywhere. At least not today.

So after draggin the bags into the garage, closing the door which locked. Tried to go into house and the dog had jumped up against the door and locked it. My neighbors were both home but do you think I was going to ask them for help? Not after the action I took. That is sure to make them feel necessary. I walked down the street to some guys who were digging in their yard. (don't know them) Asked to use their phone but not before I asked one of them to jump the fence and crawl though dog door. He told me he couldn't get in there. So after I made call to my brother and got answering machine I was waiting for good 30 minutes drove me wild. I climbed over the fence, not easy w/stupid slacks and crawled throught the door myself. Was I relieved to achieve that. We have to lock everything as other neighbor was going through our yard and leaving the gate open w/o concern for the dogs. Talk about shock to see gate open. You think people were born in a barn.

My question: do you think thsi happened because I don't want to pick up his leaves? My gosh 8 trees is overkill. Besides how many squirrel nests he has. I like the birds because they don't build nests in my chimney.

thanks for the time. I am writing all this because as I said it is sleeting and our driveway is all downhill. Fun. Hope you don't get this weather. Supposed to be 6-8 inches snow before it all ends.

 

[VeraBlue]

Litigate.