Obsessive compulsive lawn mowing neighbor?

How can I get my obsessive compulsive lawn mowing neighbor to stop mowing his lawn three - four times a week for hours on end with a noisy old piece of crap gas push mower? It almost ruins my relax time.
All the thought and advice are appreciate.

I think a good way to slow down the frequency of lawn mowing might be to ask these questions.

"Hey there, neighbor! I see you're mowing your lawn a lot. How much do you pay for gasoline?"

*wait for answer*

"And how much do you pay for water?"

*wait for answer*

"I can make both of those cheaper for you." *explain to them a bit how grass grows and how that relates to mowing grass higher and less often*

(I suggest using this article about organic lawn care for the basis of your discussion with your neighbor.)

I had a neighbor who did this. I never asked him about it, and I'm sure he had his reasons, but the conclusion I came up with is it got him out of the house and away from his wife; it gave him something to do.

You can't make someone do something they don't want to, but if you give them  some ideas so that they WANT to do it, then everyone is happier.
First you have to be friendly with the neighbor, don't treat them like the enemy. Don't criticize them for their lawn mowing.

When you are out working in your yard, planting a tree or whatever- say howdy.
Bring up permaculture, talk about how you decided to make your surroundings more useful by replacing grass with edibles.
Give them some ideas to chew on, maybe some veggies too.

Georgia Matthies wrote:How can I get my obsessive compulsive lawn mowing neighbor to stop mowing his lawn three - four times a week for hours on end with a noisy old piece of crap gas push mower? It almost ruins my relax time.
All the thought and advice are appreciate.

I sympathize

We have one of those neighbors! and we had to spend way too much energy convincing him that he couldn't mow OUR yard whenever he wanted.  He loves his riding mower and likes to mow his yard at dusk and after dark, quite loud and after my bedtime.

In the end, he was upset with us because we wouldn't accept his 'help' even though we showed him our plantings and talked about our future plans...he has not seen my scythe yet...we have him used to our electric mower  though.

Sounds as though your neighbor is just enjoying the ride?  ...surely no one's grass grows that fast?

You don't.  Earplugs are a wonderful solution.  :)

However, if you do approach, perhaps bring some cookies and learn about what his motivation is.

Good dialogue over some tasty treats seems to work wonders at times, rather than a more confrontational approach.  

Move.     When you choose a place to live it is almost worth the money to ask to stay in a tent for a week so you learn your neighbors  :-)

In my youger days, I rented an old farmhouse on 160 acres.  Unfortunately the house was situated on the edge of the property,  next to a development of prefabs on half acre lots.  The family closest to me seemed to mow their lawn every other day.  Used to drive me bonkers, between  constant mowing and each family member having personal 4 wheeler with a dirt track in their front yard.  I remember him mowing through a drought,  looked like a dustbowl.

Then, I learned to change my perspective about them, and it never bothered me again.  So much so, that I didn't feel even the need to try to change his lifestyle. He just didn't know,  and it was much easier to change my mind instead of his.

I didn't realize you knew my neighbor!!

I find that leaving my yard totally ragged and out of control makes him just as irritated as leaving projectiles for him to run over. He actually used to come over and cut my front yard too, despite me asking him not to. Then I made an elevated concrete walkway for the mail-lady to walk on that separated my yard from his, ostensibly so that she wouldn't get her shoes muddy when it rains. He finally got the point though, and stopped mowing my yard.
But seriously, what he does on his own property, as long as nobody's getting hurt I don't care. Some people get inordinate amounts of pleasure from cutting their lawns, and who am I to judge. He probably doesn't think too kindly of my bokashi system when I'm draining off the slime, but he's never complained.

I ignore my neighbor's continual lawn mowing with noisy equipment. He dumps the clippings on my garden. He ignores my rooster crowing. I ignore his yappy dog. Live and let live, is a great policy for me, even when others are sinning in ways that I wouldn't.

hau  Georgia, perhaps you might ask him if you could gift him a new muffler? or a mower overhaul might be needed if it is blowing blue smoke.
I had a neighbor like that once and I stood and watched him mow one day until he stopped and asked me if I needed something, at that point I said it sounded like his muffler was worn out and could I buy him a new one.
He looked at me rather puzzled then asked me if I was being a smart ass, to which I replied no, I just like folks to have mowers in good repair and I had noticed his seemed like it was louder than it was supposed to be.
Then I said wait a minute, I went inside my garage and got a spare mower muffler I had for our mower and took it over to see if it would fit, he was impressed that it was so shiny.
It did fit and I pulled a pair of slip joint pliers from my rear pocket and asked if he would like to try this muffler out to save his hearing, he agreed and that was that.
We were on good speaking terms because I was trying to look out for his ears.

As some have said, there are people who derive pleasure from mowing, don't get in the way of that pleasure, just try to make it more tolerable for you by looking out for the neighbors health needs on the hearing front.

Redhawk

Sympathies.

Offer to purchase the clippings by weight or volume, then point out that less frequent mowing would maximise their profit.

Bribing with fresh veggies or agisting cattle on their property could also work.

Offer to mow it yourself with an electric mower and take all their clippings home with you.

Or just quietly despise them while you watch everything with subtitles on.

I had a nearby neighbor in the city who we referred to as “obsessive lawn guy” because we would see him constantly doing something to his lawn, clipping, trimming mowing treating spraying or just on his hands and knees closely examining the grass. Fortunately he was a few houses away so noise wasn’t an issue. My suspicion is that this was his first house and he just thought this was what he had to do to preserve his sylvan patch. As to disturbing my rest, my ire is reserved for the nearby neighbors who employ yard services who not only obsessively care for their lawns, but who have lost human knowledge of the hand rake and depend entirely on gas backpack yard blowers, the modern bane on suburban peace and quiet. I would watch while the crews (all apparently now deaf due to no ear protection) would chase a single leaf across a yard using a back pack jet engine. With the last of the snow gone and everything blooming I expect the auditory attack on our peace to proceed soon.

i sympathize and see you have good responses already so please forgive me for suggesting:

challenge him to a lawn mower race - loser forks over his mower. just make sure you beat him.

or maybe yosemite sam has the right perspective:
and i'm kidding. good luck with your neighbor 🙂 🙂 🙂

I sympathize! It is horrible noise pollution, not to mention other forms of pollution. And so often!

I'm afraid I don't have any real solutions, apart from what was already mentioned: earplugs.

Most of our neighbours here on the countryside are really nice and very quiet. We do have one close neighbour though, who although nice, has two sons who a) drive like maniacs and b) like to rev their engines in their front yard, sometimes for an hour. I guess they're tweaking the engines or something (I know nothing about cars). She also has a dog who barks a lot.
My neighbour has asked me if the noise the boys or the dog make disturb us.
I always lie: "No."
Why? Because in our previous homes our neighbours complained about our dog. And I felt it totally ruined the joy of living there. We did what we could so the dog would bark less but in the end, dogs are dogs and they bark and we couldn't stop it completely. The feeling of being a disturbance to your neighbours was not nice.
I lie because I think telling the truth would only make her feel bad and in the end I don't think our neighbour could stop her boys from doing what they love. I know other neighbors have already complained about the boys' behavior and it hasn't changed, so I don't think voicing my real opinion would help either.

Another reason why I refuse to complain is: we make some noise too! I want us to be able live like we want. Our roosters and our kids make a lot of noise. She doesn't complain about that.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think it's worth considering the situation carefully from all sides before saying anything about it.

But it does suck, and you have my sympathies!

We have a neighbor that obsessed with his yard.  Every leaf has to be out of his yard in the fall.  He has the blower and so does his wife.  They are out there at least 3 times a day in the summer time moving the lawn.  This summer we did not have rain and the grass did not grow but our faithful neighbor was out mowing the dust around.  We did ask him about why he does it and he said "IT MAKES ME HAPPY".  Well,  the rest of the neighborhood could care less.  We have known this guy for at least 30 years and he cares nothing about the people around him.

He blows the snow -- I mean with the leaf blower in the winter.  WE HAVE OUR HOUSE UP FOR SALE!!!

Move.

I got the neighborhood dogs barking 10:15 PM  Never mind I have removed their crap from the yard too.

Luckily our neighbour is a mow it once a week kind of guy.. so are the others, unfortunately they all mow acre+ lawns so it takes an AGE.

I live pretty rural. I try to leave my neighbors alone and they return the favor.  There is the seasonal flow of noise that I adjust to ...tractors in the spring....combines in the fall.....and, in later fall, the grain dryers.

Opposite: We have a neighbor who is obsessed with OUR lawn! During an extreme heat wave my husband accepted his offer to cut our grass as we live on a large corner lot. My husband enjoys working on the lawn, so he only intended this to be a one time favor. Now it’s like a Lifetime Movie: My Neighbor is Stalking My Lawn. He drives by and of if he sees a few blades sticking up, he rushes over and cuts it the entire lawn! My husband has said nicely “Thank  you, but we don’t need….” and it’s like he doesn’t hear. We’re sitting in the house and happen to hear a lawnmower start up and there he is, sometimes twice in a week and once even during an approaching thunderstorm. We have since realized that he suffers from OCD and now our lawn has become a focus for his disorder.

Denise Holt wrote:.... our lawn has become a focus for his disorder.

My sister's ex had a worse one....in the "careful what you wish for you may just get it" department.  Rather than asking her to grab a beer for him upon entering the house after a hard day at the office, he immediately would plug in the vacuum and start cleaning!  Like....every night! Seems like a dream partner for many spouses, right?  Did NOT sit well with my sister.....

Grass stops growing at 40 degrees, the temp. is 39 here now and he's out there mowing again.
there is nothing on his property to grow. I AM SURE if he had to actually push a lawn mower he'd never be out there.

These folks must be some of the folks talked about in this thread:


source


source


source


source

I knew a guy who fertilized his lawn so much that if he waited 3 days between cuttings he couldn't cut the grass. There was just so much clippings that it had to be bagged and mowers aren't capable of bagging that much clippings. The bagger on a push mower would fill up before you got thru one pass across  the lawn. The tires would leave green streaks on the driveway and the side walks. When the mower blades were shut down it would dump  clumps of grass in the lawn or on the paved surfaces. He used multiple lawn services trying to keep up.

Sounds like the way I mow my three acre lot, push mower at lowest possible setting. It’s much cleaner being mowed short, less tension.

I thought I was the only one dealing with this annoying and extremely overwhelming issue. I have actually never seen anything like this before. I moved from a very noisy neighborhood on a 4 lane street. My hubby and I decided to finally buy. This place gave the illusion of being so quiet and peaceful. The harsh truth was seen shortly after moving into our newly bought home. I work a lot and at a highly stressful job, so I needed peace at home on my days off. Nope! This guy across the street cuts his grass daily and sometimes more than once a day (and it's a very large yard so it goes on for hours). He also blows leaves and whatever else he feels needs to be removed from his yard. He goes over the same spots, over and over and over right on the edge across from my house. He burns his leaves/debris, and a huge explosion can be heard and also felt from inside of my house. There are many days he blows leaves/debris, then cuts his grass either 1 or 2 times with different mowers, and then burns the leaves/debris after... its complete insanity! (Funny thing is, he wears headphones to protect his ears and protect himself from the loud noise when he cuts his grass and when he blows things in his yard. If its loud to him, how does he think it sounds to me and other nearby neighbors?) Everything he does outside has to be something that makes a ridiculous amount of noise. I ignored it all until I couldn't anymore, and then I politely asked his wife if perhaps he could not mow every day, because it makes much noise. I got no response. So basically, they know, but don't care. Their own pleasure far surpasses any of the neighbors peace and convenience. I won't even get started on some of these neighbors directly around me and the blatant disregard and disrespect, but it's a lot of inconsideration here. This entire neighborhood is not at all as it "appeared" to be. It's actually been quite the nightmare here, especially with the amount of witchcraft being done by these neighbors (a different story entirely though). I have tried ear plugs, but they only filter out some noise; they do not stop vibrations from being heard (from motors/engines, music base, fireworks, etc). Finally, all I could do is get some headphones with anc (noise cancelation) and listen to music almost all the time I'm awake. I have a white noise machine I play at night to tune outside noise out. But constantly having noise inside my house to cancel the outside noise is just ridiculous! Unfortunately, we are not a place financially where we can sell this house and buy a new one, so I'm just trying to do what I can to keep myself calm. It's been over 3 years of this nonsense, and it's beyond old. If I had known any of this, I would have never bought this house in this dreadful neighborhood. This was supposed to be new beginnings for my husband and I and a place of refuge. It's been anything but that since we moved here. Lesson very well learned!!!

Sarah, welcome to the forum.

It is sad that you home buying experience has not turned out well.

I learned many years ago that neighbors can make or break a homestead. At my present location, I thoroughly checked out my neighbors  before I bought. In the end it came down to dumb luck.  Neighbors have changed at 4 locations. Somehow, all the new neighbors have been great as well.

John F Dean wrote:I learned many years ago that neighbors can make or break a homestead. At my present location, I thoroughly checked out my neighbors  before I bought. In the end it came down to dumb luck.  Neighbors have changed at 4 locations. Somehow, all the new neighbors have been great as well.

Perhaps they did the same thing you did.

That's just horrible Sarah, I had to move out of a small city I lived in due to noise, and my newly discovered hyperacusis, Sensitivity to sound, for me it was low frequency- I could hear pipes humming in my house that no one could, but the real problem was usually rap-style music I heard everywhere, especially a neighbor, I love base and drums, but what I suspect was the reverb would literally overwhelm my body and my head, I could feel it blocks away and not escape-ear plugs did nothing, massive anxiety, made me feel violent at times...

Now in the burbs and can hear the fridge anywhere in the house...lol, I've gotten used to that, but occassionally my nieghbor who mows twice a week can be a bit much-another source of low frequency anxiety.

I try to focus on hearing it, accepting that it's there and then ignoring it.

When it gets to be too much this site works great:
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php

You can customize red, pink, white brown noise etc...

I sympathize with those affected by these lawn obsessed noise makers. We bought next to an elderly couple 3 years ago  As we renovated our place the 80 yo male never failed to tell us how to do things the right way. Literally could not rake leaves in my own yard without his expert opinion. They offered to mow and clean our yard right off. I said yes once and he broke his mower blades on tree stumps he left when tending the previous owner's property. They wanted to burn our leaves too. When I finally said no thanks they seemed ok. But the criticism never stopped.
Today is the third time this week he is mowing and blowing his yard. Just dust in many spots. I too aim toward permaculu
ture practices and have a yard buzzing with bees. Bluebirds nesting outside ny window. Makes me happy. But still get pissed he's a massive nuisance and polluter.

This.

James Freyr wrote:I had a neighbor who did this. I never asked him about it, and I'm sure he had his reasons, but the conclusion I came up with is it got him out of the house and away from his wife; it gave him something to do.

I try to ignore my neighbors evil stares,and nosey obsession with my family and I
But they lawn their grass almost every week.And they stare at me almost constantly wondering where family members are they aren't afraid to ask that obnoxiously. But when the lawn mower sounds like a dog whining and I am so sick of the noise I can't sleep and I burst the locked door to see if a lost dog is in my house I kinda wish they could move out. And we all live so close when one person lawns their grass,another person copies.

If you're in a suburb situation, there might be regulations concerning hours where noise is acceptable.

In my area, noisy construction or use of machinery is restricted between 11PM and 7AM. I'm not going to call the cops on my neighbours, but sometimes people need a little gentle reminder of the covenants we all agreed to when choosing to live in a densely populated area. At the full end of the spectrum, you get japanese norms where people go to great lengths to avoid bothering their neighbours in the slightest way, because a community just can't function at that density without limiting one's individual freedom.

On the other end of the spectrum, in fully rural settings, you have to assume that your neighbours are going to be up early (and very late) doing actual rural stuff, and not having such regulations in place is part of the deal.  

Our "family farmer" has run into trouble because the area around his farm has gentrified (full of city people wanting "the peace and quiet of the country" who keep complaining about his farm not looking tidy enough, having temporary housing for wwwoofers, etc.)

It got ugly, but he won in court because our laws basically say "he's feeding people, that trumps your desire to have a pastoral background. Just shut up."

This is a big problem everywhere,i think some people  believe a perfect manicured lawn means your a better person than  someone who cuts it every two weeks or whenever its possible to do so.Perhaps the mower people dont have anything else to do so they feel good about getting something done.Therapy maybe?

I have these neighbors,cutting the soil must sharpen the blades or something,they love to see the dust fly.

If people would spend the amount of time and resources they do on grass and put it to growing food they would have abundance to give  to the needy,world hunger would be solved.