Long grass = moaning neighbours

[Jax]

My front lawn is getting abit long now but its filled with wild flowers. I love them and it looks so colourful better than boring green. Neighbours have started to complain now that the grass is long. Im leaving it as long as possible for the flowers especially as the bees love them and we have masses of bees. Even when I do cut the lawn I am only going to do a rough chop, not really short.

Do you leave your lawns to go abit wild when its flowering or do you keep it short?

[BigShot]

I take it you don't leave the grass long enough for it to go to seed and spread to the neighbours' borders... if that's so, I don't see a problem. I'm guessing you're in one of those neighbourhoods where a hard-core of busybodies think it's their business what others do with their gardens.
Ever see the film Hot Fuzz?


Tell them it's not a lawn... it's a very small wildflower meadow and that's how it's supposed to look.
Besides... there are few feelings quite like going barefoot in long grass.

[Nicos]

Stick up a sign saying "Wild flower Garden- Enjoy!"

I don't cut mine too short as it dies off too quickly- and I've noticed moss seems to grow more when it's short ( and damp)
It's lovely seeing the flowers- but maybe you need to dead head anything like dandelions just to keep the peace????

[Dane End Dolly]

Tell them it is a wild flower meadow and that it is frightfully fashionable at the moment, and mention that it is all the rage on gardeners world, hopefully that will shut them up.

[SarahStrawberry]

I don't think anyone should have the right to tell you what to do with your grass. We have wild poppies in ours and they're lovely to look at blowing in the breeze.

Life would be very dull if we were all the same and behaved the same way

[ginger ninger]

If it's your own house it's got naff all to do with them. If it's a rented property then they could get a bit funny about it. But as others have said tell them it's all the rage. We have a bit of scrub land near us where some one pulled an old building down, we got lot's of wild flower seeds and sowed them last year...it looked lovely. Most peeps said it was much better than looking at weeds.

[rana]

If that's all the neighbours have got to moan about they should think themselves lucky. Far better than having a concrete or asphalt used car lot in the front garden which most people opt for these days.

[BigShot]

...or the one I pass on the way to the plot. You can see the dog muck all over it from some distance.
Absolutely disgusting... and all over it.
*bleargh!*

[Florence Fennel]

Ask them if, when the time comes, they would like to cut it for you Jax. They'll soon stop passing comment.

[Two_Sheds]

I get told my garden is untidy because I don't cut the lawn either: the guinea pigs do it so it's a bit patchy

[zazen999]

It's not a lawn - it's a bee friendly wildflower nectar hub. Innit

[Glutton4...]

How many times have I clicked on the 'Like' button in this thread!!!?

It's got chuff-all to do with your neighbours. At least it is beautiful, and beneficial to insects. Anyone can have boooooooring yawny lawns to look at! (My Dad has always wanted a huge lawn (so he could have a ride-on mower), now all he does is moan about how much time it takes to look after it! )

[Jax]

It has dandelions on that I will/am dead heading but I have lovely little violas and purple flowery things all over it. I have a long stretch of grass then an inny gravel bit and another grassy bit sooooo, to keep the peace I am going to cut the long bit at the end then keep the little bit as a wild meadow. It is masses of busy bodies here. My neighbours are lovely but abit funny sometimes, they like things done in a certain way. My landlord quite likes it wild, as long as it gets cut at somepoint.

[FoxHillGardener]

Why not cut a flat bit round the edge so it's obvious it's meant to be like that . Or a cross on the diagonals as a path? A sort of meadowy knot garden

[rana]

FoxHillGardener is right, it will look rather good if a strip or edges are neatly cut. A few years ago I left the back lawn to grow through to late summer but kept two neatly mown paths running through. It looked great.