The Weeds
That Devoured Westfield
Anastasia here, and I’m frustrated.
We used to have next-door neighbors who took great
pride in their backyard garden. From my kitchen window I could gaze out at a
cornucopia of beautiful flowerbeds as I scrubbed pots and pans. Unfortunately,
a few years ago these neighbors sold their house and moved away. More
unfortunately still, the people who bought that house have left the lovely yard
go to pot. (No, they’re not growing pot; that would be illegal in New Jersey.
I’m talking about the other type of pot, the kind that grows out of neglect.)
My driveway butts up against the edge of their
backyard. There’s no fence or wall blocking what has become a jungle of weeds.
Some of these weeds are seven and eight feet tall. By the end of the summer
they’ll probably grow another five feet or so. After all, weeds grow, well,
like weeds, right?
I could understand if these neighbors were elderly
and couldn’t keep up with the demands of yard work. If that were the case, I’d
do the neighborly thing and pull the weeds myself, even though circumstances
don’t allow for me having much in the way of free time (thanks to Dead Louse of
a Spouse leaving me up the wazoo in debt and two steps away from living out of
cardboard box if I don’t spend every available minute moonlighting to make ends
meet.) But these people are not elderly; they’re at least a decade younger than
I am.
They could hire someone to do the work for them.
Finances are not an issue for them. They have money to spend on fancy cars and
expensive furniture. Neither is time an issue. Not only is the husband a
stay-at-home dad, the wife’s mother lives with them. Both are able-bodied and
quite capable of pulling up weeds. So could their kids with next to no
instruction because there’s nothing but weeds in the yard at this point. All
the flowers are long dead.
I’ve tried talking to my neighbors. The neighbors who
live behind them have also tried because the weeds are spreading into their
yard. The weeds are also pushing up through the asphalt, destroying my
driveway, a driveway I can’t afford to repave (again thanks to Dead Louse of a
Spouse.) The weed seeds also blow throughout the neighborhood, creating more
yard work for all the other neighbors.
I have to wonder why people who refuse to take care
of their property buy homes in the first place. Why don’t they buy a condo or
move to an HOA community where their fees would pay for landscaping upkeep?
Have you ever had to deal with neighbors like this?
Anyone have any suggestions?
For those of you unfamiliar with the Dead Louse of a
Spouse reference, you can learn all about my circumstances in Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the
first book in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series by Lois Winston.
The book is currently featured in SleuthingWomen: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries boxed ebook set, for the phenomenally low
price of just .99 cents.
As a working mom I'm clueless about my husband’s gambling addiction until he permanently
cashes in his chips, and my comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves
me with staggering debt, our two kids, his communist mother, and a loan shark
demanding $50,000. And that’s all before I'm accused of murder!
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