As Big A and I were preparing to head to class last night, the Lawn Nazi's wife came by to tell us that our bush on their side of the house seems to be broken. Big A being the wife-appointed caregiver of the bushes, told her that he would check it out tomorrow as he's cutting the grass. She kept saying over and over about how over the winter, part of it was hanging down on their driveway due to the heavy snow and that she carefully had brushed it off so that it could stand back up. That was a little odd because we didn't really get any more snow than a normal winter and it's not a very dense bush so snow mostly falls through it rather than on it and that bush has been there for nearly as long as I have. I'd seen them out during the winter and neither had mentioned this so that we could remember to clean it off after it had snowed.
When we got home at about 8:30, it was still light enough to go check it out. We walked around the corner of the house and nearly stopped in our tracks. Half of it was hanging really low to the ground. Upon further inspection, Big A notices what looks like a fresh break near the root. I then go into the house while Big A continues to check it out and the Lawn Nazi's wife appears and again mentions about the snow and ice, etc. At this point, with her proclaiming a bit to often and the fresh break, Big A's suspicion has peaked. What I don't get is if they accidentally hit it with something, why wouldn't she have said so rather than blaming it on snow and ice. As Big A said to her, when he was mowing around it last week, the bush was not like this. The Lawn Nazi's wife then suggested that perhaps the last 24 hours of rain weighed it down and broke it.
The irony is that I'm sure they would love to have this bush removed. That allows them about 2 more feet of our property for them to use as they minutely wash and inspect their vehicles and boat and that's exactly why I'm keeping that and another big, slightly overbearing bush along that side of the house. I'm thinking this because as she was telling us about the bush earlier in the evening, she mentioned that perhaps just trimming it wouldn't be a good idea because then the bush may not be visually appealing. I'm not emotionally tied to this bush, it was only planted to hide the ugly gas meter, but just for this, I told Big A to remove only the part that is broken. I'm hoping it's a real eyesore. Pictures to come!
5 comments:
I've never had such problems with neighbors... I suppose you could try razor wire or an electric fence... or just being nice and long suffering...
In your line of work, Sage, I would assume people would go out of their way to be nice to you. Don't worry though. They're talking about you behind your back. :-)
If the split isn't too bad, you can repair them sometimes. I've put splints on fruit trees and eventually the wound heals enough to support the branch again though they are never as strong as before. I usually put a board on the underneath side of the splint and tape the branch above and below the break. I then wire the branch up to take some of the pressure off.
"Lawn Nazi". Sounds as if you and Big A have a bush war...Or a border dispute on your hands. You could plant a thorn bush. But, maybe ugly gas meter is the way to go.
A.I. - How about ugly gas meter combined with a badly trimmed bush? That should bug them whenever they look out their living room window. Won't bother me none. I can't see it and usually forget there's a bush there. :-)
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