Advice on Seriously neglected Neighbour Garden with Bamboo

RockyRock

Hello dear members, need some valuable advice from you all on a seriously neglected garden of the neighbour who also has some kind of bamboo in it. I recently bought the property slightly below market value and now need your valuable advice to deal with this and control measures I can take for my property to avoid problems going forward. I learned from the current owner that the neighbour's property got the bamboo on the other side from my property for about 30 years now and the level 3 survey conducted on my property confirmed that there is no bamboo infestation in my property boundary yet but he warned it could arise in the future... And the neighbour absolutely don't care, non-cooperative and lives alone by himself in the property. I plan on installing bamboo barrier inside my fence line and the property patio line to avoid the roots going into the patio and property foundation. Which is the best I can do at this point and would love to hear your thoughts on the bamboo type and what more I can do practically and also from legal front to deal with this problem. Appreciate all your valuable inputs.

elsien

What do you mean by the neighbour is uncooperative - refusing to do it themselves, or refusing all help to deal with it?
My neighbour wasn’t touching their garden for various reasons, but they did allow me in with the weed killer to attack the Japanese knot weed. 

Plan B – Report him environmental health if he’s got rats nest in there, which would seem very likely.

RockyRock

Hi @elsien, thanks for your reply, I got this property a week ago and have not personally spoken to the neighbour yet but from the conversation with the previous owner, I understand that the neighbour refuses to do anything himself and also refused any help offered as well.

Also, this was already reported to environmental health who visited the property but did nothing saying they did not find any rat droppings in the neighbour's garden.... 

I am going to have a conversation with the neighbour myself but based on the conversation with few other people in the street, it's very unlikely to help.... So wanted to explore options to safeguard my property...

531063

You could try throwing loads & loads of salt over fence when he's asleep

-taff

If his bamboo starts invading your property there'll be stuff you may be able to do about it but as it is, you bought the house knowing what the neighbours garden looked like. Your plan of preventing the bamboo growing under the fence seems sound, perhaps ask a knowlegeable person what type of bamboo it is so you know if it runs or clumps.

subjecttocontract

Go to the local pet shop with a cardboard box. Ask them to fill it with rat droppings when they clean out their pet rats. Bring it home, sprinkle said droppings around and then photograph the evidence and get Environmental Health back. Complain to your local Councillor(s) that they are not doing a proper job and you expect him to get the matter sorted. Send the photos of next doors garden to your MP and ask him if he thinks this is socially acceptable in 2025. Get your local newspapers involved.....You can always provide photos to them, even rough out a story line that they might edit and print. There's a few starters for you.........I'm sure you can come up with more, you're only limited by your imagination. Make enough noise, ruffle a few feathers, make a nuisance of yourself and you will likely see some action.

Dustyevsky

subjecttocontract said:

Go to the local pet shop with a cardboard box. Ask them to fill it with rat droppings when they clean out their pet rats. Bring it home, sprinkle said droppings around and then photograph the evidence and get Environmental Health back. Complain to your local Councillor(s) that they are not doing a proper job and you expect him to get the matter sorted.

Hard luck if your councillor is a woman, or if you have honesty as one of your virtues, though!

If the bamboo's been there 30 years, and it's not in your garden, the chances are it's clumping, but the barrier idea is very sound. I'd have a chat with other neighbours affected to see what they do too. It may be that they spray a bit of glyphosate at midnight now and again, and it's not even noticed. I did that with a weak solution on one neighbour's rambling roses years ago. Stopped them invading without killing them, or causing bad feeling.

-taff

I think I'd be more worried about whats growing on the bamboo because it looks like a climber of some sort. It also looks like its been choped back by the fence...

Did the previous owners mention they did anything when you bought it?

elsien

-taff said:

If his bamboo starts invading your property there'll be stuff you may be able to do about it but as it is, you bought the house knowing what the neighbours garden looked like. Your plan of preventing the bamboo growing under the fence seems sound, perhaps ask a knowlegeable person what type of bamboo it is so you know if it runs or clumps.

Gardening part of the forum might be able to help with that.  Also identifying the climber. There's also brambles in there which are likely to be making their way in the OPs direction as well. 

ArbitraryRandom

If the bamboo was planted 30 years ago, there's a decent chance the neighbour is on the older side and not able to manage such an overgrown garden (not that being older and being unable to manage a garden go hand in hand, of course). 

Also the neighbour being 'uncooperative'... I'd probably factor into that the source of your information - over an extended period it's very likely the relationship between the neighbour and the person you bought from had soured. Especially if it reached the point they had to sell their house 'below market' presumably at least party because of the bamboo/survey. If you're planning on being in this house for an extended period (it's not a short term investment to flip) then I'd be wary of doing anything to immediately taint your own relationship (especially given the neighbour would probably expect anyone moving in to immediately start 'nagging' about the garden). 

If the bamboo isn't currently in your garden then, as others have said, it's unlikely to suddenly be a major issue this year.   

If it were me, I'd introduce myself to the neighbour and not mention the bamboo to start with - take some cake maybe.

Do any preventive work you want to do on your side, keep an eye on the problem, sus out for yourself what the neighbour is like... then decide on your longer term course of action. 

RockyRock

Thank you so much for all your valuable comments. I Intend to talk to the property owners on the other side of the house just to see what kind of problems they had from this unmaintained garden as they lived there for several years...

Also, I am told the owner of this unmanaged garden is a working man in his late 40s or early 50s so he is not elderly to care for it... And also I found it surprising why he would deny any voluntary help offered.... I do know every coin has two sides so I Intend to start on a friendly note with the neighbour and see how it goes...

Also, the previous owner told me he used to cut the bamboo and other plants along the fence line every couple of months using a large hedge trimmer which is why it's clear near the fence area... Now as @-taff mentioned, the climber is a concern as it already made it way to the roof of the unmanaged property and could easily come on to my side of the roof.... Peculiar problem to deal with in 2025....

Also out of curiosity, I am told the unmanaged property owner got a mortgage going on this property but not sure how a bank will lend to a property like this....