Beginner Gardening: Help my neighbor is a creeper Plant ideas for privacy hedge?, 3 by LakeLivingRos

LakeLivingRos wrote:
THANK YOU ALL for the awesome advice! I ended up getting the bamboo instant sections to put up along with some slats. Since I had already spent money on planting my smaller junipers there (before knowing how slow growing they are) I thought having the bamboo in the background would be the fastest without changing the plants I initially picked. Since the bamboo is more expensive, I got green slats for along the side of the house. You can't even understand how relieved I was when the bamboo was in place! I am not done yet with the bamboo (as I bought all that they had at the store). I ended up going with a darker color as I thought it looked more "resortish".

Just to give you all a background on the neighbor since some of you were giving advice on what to do other than the fence to tackle the issue ..

ALL the neighbors around me know this problem and are aware and concerned and so nice in watching out for me! About a year ago, we actually DID install security cameras we found on sale online. The one in the backyard in on our back deck upstairs, so it looks over the backyard sort of like picture #1 more more even in the middle (not just focused on the right neighbor line).

A little history:
My husband and I got this house after it had been abandoned for over 3 years. The neighbor's house was also empty for the same amount of time, but not because of a foreclosure, but because the owner was very old and sick and went to live in a home. When my husband and I got our house, it was in very very poor condition (ha, the only way we could afford to live on a lake in Seattle!). We spent over a month just cleaning out garbage from the house before we moved in. During that time (we didn't know anything about the neighboring house situation yet) we thought that the "back shack" of the neighbor house was being rented out and the owner must be an old person who lives somewhere warm in the winter. The main house by the lake had "hoarder like" stuff in it, and things were laying around like someone lived there, but we never saw someone in the main house.. but tons of "sketchy" people were on the street side shack, in and out, at all hours of the night. They were scary and we suspected they were drug dealers. The day after we officially slept at our new home, the neighborhood had a Christmas party at a house across the lake, where we found out that the owner had died, he was a "slum lord" who managed housing of crack heads, someone had died from a meth overdose in the driveway a month before (Nov 2011), squatters were in the "2 car garage" which had no heat, electricity, or water. Once the death occurred the police condemned the back house and no one was supposed to be there. Apparently the summer of 2011, the police started monitoring the house because a middle aged man got naked and went on the neighbors dock during the middle of broad daylight and jumped in the water. The neighbors told us if we ever saw someone at the property to call the police asap. the neighbors on the other side of the house were two old women who were sisters and they had been too afraid to call the police when they saw activity.. so all the other neighbors seemed overwhelmingly happy that we had moved in and were cleaning up our house (I mean, random people were coming up to us and saying thank you, which just felt odd since I didn't even realize what was going on!). Apparently they called our house "the toilet house" because one of the junk items was a broken toilet sitting on our property on the street side.. or they called our property "the sinking ship" because the cabin by the water was literally sinking to one side since there was not a foundation and the house was settling.

But, the day after we moved in we didn't see any activity at the house for almost 2 months.. (I think the squatters must have realized we moved in and went dormant or something). But, one day I saw people "gardening" next door. We were moving a fridge into our house, and a neighbor was helping us, and the gardener next door came over (it was like 11:30 pm) and couldn't start his old truck and our neighbor helped him jump start his car.. during that conversation the gardener said he was hired by the owner and was taking care of the property. Over the next 2 months it seemed like the garden only got much nastier. Junk was accumulating (such as metal and really odd household items) outside. I watched one time.. a lady came over to "rake leaves" and she stood for 4+ hours in the same spot "raking". When I let my dog outside she tried talking to him and I noticed she was missing all of her teeth. I realized, these were not people being paid to garden.. they were squatting at the property.. So I started calling the police. The police were awesome and they would come to the property anytime people showed up and told me to take pictures whenever I saw stuff (ended up getting pictures of a lady smoking meth..). The police mentioned that the house was in probate, as the family was fighting over the property. They technically couldn't kick anyone off the property since there was not an official owner aka "victim of trespassing". So they said to call them when I saw the people, they would come and "try and intimidate the squatters". The police were super helpful and came within 5 minutes every time I called! I was even able to help them catch a ring of robbers who would break into houses and drop off stolen goods at the property, and then someone else would pick the goods up (which is why stuff would always accumulate at that house). I was threatened by the criminals numerous times and once had to call the police when the guys came over and tried to attack my husband.. the police were the ones who told us to put up a chain link fence, (with the poky metal sticking up) and that way we could claim trespassing if they even touched the fence. They broke into our home, and they broke into our 1970 old truck camper (which we ended up selling since it was more of a hazard since they would sleep in it at night).

Then one day the now owner came to the property and handed me a business card. He said he was the owner (and the card had the same last name as the man who died) and he was in a suit and drove an expensive mercedes. I had my husband call him and give him the police information so that he was aware of the activity and file. My husband said he sort of blew him off (which I thought was weird). I still called the police when I saw activity though.. A few months later the owner made me cry because he started accusing ME of all the junk and said I was responsible to clean up his yard because I was the one who made it horrible. I told him I had been documenting my work in the garden via pictures and I had proof that I was in fact cleaning up the fence line! I was so upset because I had spent hundreds of hours actually cleaning up the line..

But whatever, I was still always nice and said hi whenever I saw him (which was not for another couple months after he accused me because he was having the house remodeled so he could live in it, as it was in poor poor shape). I figured it would be better to be on good terms with a neighbor than bad terms. Since I was outside (summer 2012) gardening, and mostly weeding ... I saw the guys working on the house, and ended up getting some info from them about the plans of the house.. they said the owner was going to live at the place for 2 years to avoid inheritance tax. They said he was a cheap guy, and the head contractor was having problems because the owner would have him do stupid things (like he didn't want to pay for a new window, and just had the contractor sheet rock over it on the inside.. so you can see the back of the sheet rock wall through the window on the outside).

So I tried to avoid the neighbor at all costs, but when I saw him was nice, which was not too often anyways. Then one day the neighbor tried talking to me about the fence, and my husband came out (as I got this weird vibe from the guy and told my husband to come out whenever he saw him). I of course walked away and the neighbor then told my husband he was going to sue us for putting up the fence. My husband is a "diffuser", like his personality is one that can calm down two people trying to kill each other, so I realized the neighbor is just "socially off". (The whole conversation he was smiling while talking to my husband..). Anyways, still nice to him.. and then I started to notice how he would stare at me. Our master bedroom has almost floor to ceiling windows looking out toward the lake.. one night I had gotten out of the shower and was in a towel (completely covered and everything) and walked across my bedroom to the closet. I sort of looked out over the window and saw the neighbor (what looked like masterbating) at his window staring at me. I was so disturbed and told my husband (who was not home at the time, I can't remember why, but normally he is home by that time). We don't have blinds at the window, and I never walk around naked or anything! but, I made sure to bring my clothes with me to the shower from then on! Sometimes I come home to garden during lunch (as I work 5 minutes away), and the neighbor would always go and sit by the window and stare at me when I was outside. I honestly think he doesn't have a job and just lives off inheritance or something? He is ALWAYS home. When he is not home he is golfing (I assume as he will walk out with his gold clubs). One day, he had fake surveyors come and stomp all over my garden and say our property was 8 feet less (which would mean our house was on his property if that were true).. but we knew it was not because the power lines are specifically listed as in our property on our deed and not his (as you can look up that information online). My husband called the company the surveryor was supposidly from, and the guy was an actual employee, but our property was not a job, and especially not when he did the property line on the weekend.. so the employee got fired, and we filed a trespassing complaint with the police. We gave the police the video of the "surveyor" (who brought his wife and two kids that were the ones kicking my newly planted fruit trees and stomping on my sunshine blueberry bush). I was SO upset. Since then.. the neighbor has not talked to either my husband or I, but he just stares at me. He avoids my husband I think. Since my husband works long hours I am usually home before he is, and want to be outside in my yard.. which is when the neighbor sits and the window and does not move, he just stares. He hasn't done any masterbating since that one day with me in the shower (at least to my knowledge). I know the neighbor is highly likely going to put the house up for sale after 1 more year.. but just couldn't handle him anymore.. I felt so uncomfortable, and just made my stomach in knots..

Since moving in to our house, I got on the board for my neighborhood, and I make it very public about all the problems with that property and asked all the neighbors to watch out for me (because of the weird people that hang out there too). One day a guy from that property 2 months ago ran screaming at me when I came home from work and thank goodness I got inside because he stood at my house for 15 minutes before he left.. I almost feel like a burden on the police because I call them so much.. they are so nice, but it's just ridiculous..

Anyways, since putting up the bamboo, I haven't even seen my neighbor!! I plan on putting some various trellis with vines and other hedge type shrubs too, but having the bamboo and slat background gives me some time so I can pick out plants I want! I loved all the great suggestions! The bamboo is still slightly see through (as you can see from the pictures), and after I put it up I thought I might go back and put up the fabric or something behind it like suggested, but I was just in such a hurry to put the things up to see what it looked like! I think that it does a good job muting what you can see through the window enough to make me feel better regardless. And, when the plants grow in that I pick, it will just be another layer of density blocking the ability to see through!