"Rose Rage" in UK?

'Rose rage' sweeps UK's gardens

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3783815.stm

"It showed that:

28% of those asked have cut off communication and stopped speaking to their neighbours.
26% said they had called the council or police to complain.
5% have actually had a fight with a neighbour over a garden issue
5% have held a garden party and deliberately not invited their neighbours.
3% have gone as far as actively sabotaging their neighbour's garden, such as cutting the tops off flowers and throwing litter over the fence. "

This is too funny. How about you? What kind of neighborly activities got you fired up?

I am not too happy when the neighboring kids trespass into my yard (unfenced, subdivision lot). I am especially unhappy when the kids play water gun battle on my backyard and stepping on my flowerbeds. Other than that, I don't really have too much problems with the adults.

I dont like it when their brats rip my flowers up and their dogs kill my pets. :D

What?!!! If it were me, there would be no smiley at the end of the sentence. What happened?

What I hate is when I can hear other people's music and t.v. I have called the police more than once when the music was loud enough to hear inside the house. A party once a year is tolerable (barely) but every other weekend was a bit much. Call me the noise Nazi, but I think that loud noise is just another form of trespassing.

One of the prime offenders used to live in the house behind ours. We referred to him as Butt Boy. On the wall between our yards, he sat statues of gargoyles and had a string of lights to illuminate them. The light cords hung down over on our side of the wall so my husband flipped them over to the other side of the wall. He didn't knock anything over, just moved the cords to the side of the wall where they belonged. When ol' Butt Boy came outside later than morning, he about had a nuclear meltdown. When he heard me scratching around on my side of the wall and he started yelling and cussing. Due to the layout of our yard, it is highly unlikely he had ever seen us and for all he knew, Mike Tyson lived at our house. Had Mike Tyson live there, boy, I would have paid to watch what would have happened next. :-) Butt Boy moved away at Christmas time of that year and it was the best Christmas gift we could have gotten. A noise-seeking missile wouldn't have been bad, either. ;-)

The longer I live, the more I see why the Bible commands, "Love your neighbor". Otherwise, no one would do it. I can also see, "For all have sinned...", for who can really love all his neighbors?

This message was edited Jun 8, 2004 1:09 PM

What I thought was interesting about the story was that the arguments aren't about gardening .... No fights because someone was allowing their dandelions to seed over the neighbour's garden, or not being able to agree on the height of the hedge...

It's all about generalised anti-social behaviour...

I know. It was always "other people's" garden needed improvement. That was hilarious.

I was so glad when moved into a house after years of apartment living. "Noise-seeking" missile, LOL.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/441924.stm

The above link shows how serious it can get.

Interesting, and not least of which because I didn't think people in the UK were allowed to have guns.

Oh good grief, now they are shooting each other in the UK. I, like Kelli, thought that no one had guns except the police. I've been shot once as an innocent by-stander while talking on a pay phone in Texas. I want to live in the Cotswolds. Don't tell me I'm going to have to duck from gunshots there. LOL Bill

It's a common misconception, we can own a gun if we want. We need to be a member of a gun club (not sure if that applies to shotguns), have a licence from the police, separate lockable cases for amunition and gun etc probably not so dissimilar to some US state laws on gun ownership, but there is no law to say we can't own a gun if we're sound of mind and have a good police record.

The normal police don't carry guns here, the debate rages on that one. As generalisation we just don't own guns or expect other people to own them here unless you're a farmer or similar.

Thanks, Baa. That is interesting. I always thought that the general public of the UK couldn't own a weapon. I was at the procession of the Queen to St. Paul's during the Jubilee in 2002 along with 1 million others. I have never met such friendly people. And all the Queen's Guard with the tall hats had a short barrelled gun, or "tommy gun" as we call them, strapped over their shoulders. This really surprised me.
The regular police had only a small club at their side. I love the UK and read and study all that I can about your country.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2004 5:14 PM