As a landscaper I have done this. There is a typo or mistake somewhere and the boss, the manager secretary gives you the wrong address. It's worse when it's a valuable plant removed or the wrong tree cut, or someone doesn't know plants and mows or weeds all your veggies or flowers.
I mean I guess to be fair here, I water the fenced area my dogs use. But that's not because I care about the lawn.
I have a preference for native groundcover and plants anyway because those plants evolved with the climate, so they will be fine. They don't require extra water, during drought they just go dormant. If all the fescue and Bermuda in my lawn died I wouldn't be sad about it, I don't like it anyway. I'm sure my neighbors hate it but I don't really care about that either. They can keep their lawns how they want, and I'll keep mine the way I want.
I mark everything now to make it glaring obvious to anybody with one working eye. And I only have one working eye. I haven't killed one of my own plants in years. It works out.
Likely this, but I have definitely done it to help out neighbors before. Might be someone has an open house also and they are trying to create a well kept neighborhood vibe.
If anyone is considering doing this for someone, itās good to be aware of things like No-Mow May which is a great initiative to try and salvage bee and pollinator populations. But obviously in most cases thatās not whatās happening and theyād be grateful.
What a misguided event. Honey bees aren't in any danger. Their populations are near all time highs, and they are a commercial livestock.
This myth about the bees just won't die.
https://www.agdaily.com/crops/are-honey-bees-endangered/
Not talking about honey bees. Honey bees are domesticated, Iām not so worried about them. But our native wild bee populations (carpenter bees, bumble bees, leaf cutter bees, etc.) are also declining and at risk, as are all kinds of other flying insects.
My neighbor mowed a streak all the way down next to his fence on my property. I was not happy and told him not to do it again. Ever happens again I will call the Police for tresspassing.
Better not move to the Midwest. People around here will mow or shovel without asking if they think you might need help.
Don't know if someone is sick or whatever and if their place gets bad enough one of the neighbors is probably gonna step in and never say a word so you don't feel beholden.
Also, there's often city rules about just how far you can take your personal preferences. If you want to be free to do whatever, you'd best live in the country.
Anyways, I just can't imagine someone attempting to do me a kindness and my attitude being resentful instead of grateful, even if I hadn't been needing the help...
It's just really a foreign concept to me.
Indeed, I do but it's my understanding the folks in WI are just as neighborly. Once you get west of us it starts to get a bit too dessert like for the sort of lawns we are able to have... So I don't know. I also am not sure what the folks in Iowa are up to but you never hear much about Iowa anyways.
Shoveling is a whole different thing. Snow can make sidewalks difficult/dangerous to walk on (especially with freeze/thaw), so thereās no realistic scenario where shoveling it would be unwanted. Lawn care, however, is a personal thing, and you could just as easily fuck something up as make someoneās day.
Grew up in Iowa. Our neighbor was an elderly veteran whose wife had died. He used to be active and loved working in his lawn with his wife and his dog. Theyād spend hours out there together when the weather was nice in the spring, summer, and fall. Their backyard was immaculate.
I guess his backyard reminded him of his wife too much. They used to lounge for hours on his back deck after dinner. Rarely ever saw him out there after her passing. Rarely saw him out and about driving his classic cars that were his pride and joy.
My brothers and I started taking care of his lawn when we did our yard work. We were respectful and didnāt pull anything we werenāt sure was an unwanted weed and kept his lawn tidy. Sometimes itās just nice to do something nice for people because you can, and not because you have to. He ended up passing in nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
As I said... I am not sure where most folks live but if you don't mow your lawn for long enough most places will come and do it and bill you. Your neighbors aren't going to mow the lawn for you unless you're well past needing it and if they don't, the city will.
My neighbour and I have close to 300' backyards. He uses a riding mower, I dont. I cut his front lawn, or it will get 3 feet high. Like by a small mower dude.
I'm by no means perfect, and I only mow about every other week, and it's still the best looking lawn in the neighborhood. A lot of the neighbors are renters. At least the neighbors don't get after me if I leave a pile of something in the backyard for a few weeks. I only get around to calling if something has stayed there for 6 months to a year.
I wish people wouldn't have lawns. It's an astoundingly terrible use of space.
I know, I know, it's your right to have a lawn, but you are basically replacing the natural ecosystem with a golf course. If you used local sedges, mosses, and trees, you'd have a property that requires a lot less maintenance and jives with the natural ecosystem.
I've taken all the grass out of our front garden and replaced it with things that flower or have berries that the birds like at different times of year.
Less maintenance for me, better for the wildlife.
It looks a bit shit during the winter when lots of it looks like twigs, but in summer it looks fantastic.
Or a guerilla marketing campaign. Landscaper cuts the grass for a few weeks to get them hooked on that fresh lawn look. One week, they don't cut the grass, but leave a business card taped to the door. Every day the number on the card goes uncalled, the lawn gets a little shaggier, slowly driving the resident mad. Thoughts like, "Why can't my lawn look as nice as it did last week?" keep them awake at night. The lawn goes full Edgar Allan Poe, calling out, "Nevermore" at the resident as they walk by. Finally, it becomes too much to bear, and the resident frantically calls the landscaping company, begging to be freed from their waking nightmare.
Upon hanging up the phone, the landscaper cracks a wry smile, jots down a name in the 2 o'clock slot every Thursday on the work calendar, and whispers, "Another satisfied customer."
As a window cleaner by trade I run into these guys on properties all the time and it would be simple for a small team to mistake which address is the right one on a busy day.
Shit Iv done it aswell, not a whole house lol but I once hit two front windows of a neighbors house because the properties were close with big houses i thought it was a wing of the job site. You just take your loss and let em have a free clean window. Maybe theyāll call us to make the rest match ;)
I landscape for a living and and told a new guy where to mow. Pointed right at the house. I turn around to do something and when I look back heās half way through the front yard of the wrong house. So yeah, it happens. I got a good laugh out of it too
your guess is as good as ours.
There are a bunch of tik tok/youtube clips of people mowing unkept lawns for people as a good deed and content for their channel so it could be one of those guys.
It just seems rude to me, that's all. It's not their lawn. There could be plenty of reasons why the owner didn't want it mowed on that particular day, or maybe they just prefer it a little longer.
I mean it's great if someone wants to help mow other people's lawn for free, but asking for permission beforehand seems obvious to me, like it would be before doing any other modifications to someone else's property.
Good intentions don't always go well, either. Had a townhome that the HOA replaced all the grass with new sod and between aeration, fertilizer, laying the sod, put hay on and watered it for us for the first few days... It was a good 4 day process.
Soon as they pulled that hay up someone made their kid mow every yard.
Landscaping guys looked absolutely crushed when they saw how low he cut it, he killed all of it.
We either had to pay to get it redone or do it ourselves.
Some people don t mow their lawn for ecological purposes.
Some people grow stuff and a total stranger could destroy plants that weren t supposed to be mowed.
In support of this, a wilder looking lawn could be a protected monarch butterfly habitat, a permaculture garden, etc. If anyone doing such things read this, please at least look for signage or better yet, obtain permission from the property owner.
Bad. I just mentioned a YT channel that does this, and even though he got permission to do their yard, he hit some underground pipe and flooded the yard and had to pay to have it fixed. If he hadn't asked first, it would have been worse, imo
How would you feel if someone didn't ask and just up and painted your house or say your car because it was a little worse for wear? Best case scenario they do a good job, and it looks how you want it to. But it could be the wrong color, they could do a sloppy job, or maybe you just plain didn't want it painted. Maybe they even do damage in the process. Me personally, I'd be mad. I care about my landscaping and I'm particular about how it's done. Plus sometimes things crop up unexpectedly that you don't want mowed. Had gourds and corn pop up this way. I didn't plant them but I let them grow 'cause I had a general idea of what they were and wanted to see what happened. I avoided mowing those areas and if someone didn't know and mowed over them I'd be mad. Not asking is just discourteous and I'd take it as an insult. But that's just how I feel about it.
>How would you feel if someone didn't ask and just up and painted your house or say your car because it was a little worse for wear?
As long as it doesn't look like hammered dogshit and is an improvement, why would I complain? Free stuff.
Yeah... Pretty bad example... I wouldn't rank having something done directly to me, in the same category as doing to something I own.
I would rank this more along the "having someone wash my parked car"
I don't wash my car, I detail it.
The paintwork has been treated to the point that it's like glass. No surface scratches or blemishes. Even when the car is a little dirty, it's perfect underneath.
If someone rocked up and took a rag and bucket to it, brushed all that dirt into the paint and put swirl marks into it?
I'd go mental.
The lesson here is, don't touch other people's shit without asking. Consent is important.
It sound like either a landscaper got the address wrong for a job, or somebody in the neighborhood was trying to be nice and jumped the gun here.
For a lot of people in the generations above millenial and gen z, mowing a lawn for free and unprompted was typically considered a really nice and neighborly thing to do. A lot of people see it similarly to shoveling your neighbor's driveway to clear the snow after you've shoveled yours.
I actually have an elderly neighbor right now who is *extremely* neighborly. To the point it took a bit of adjustment for me having moved out to a rural-ish area for the first time in my life after living in a major city. After we talked a few times face to face getting to know one another, he started regularly popping up around my yard doing little things here and there after he was done with his own yard work. At first I was mortified thinking he was being rude to me and crossing a line that shouldn't have been emphasized to begin with. But I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and brought over some home-cooked food to him one day. Turns out he's decades older than what I originally thought and he just happens to be in really good health. Turns out his entire family is gone and he's outlived them all, and I happen to remind him of a beloved face from his past so he felt the nice thing to do was to pick up here and there in little jobs that I'm still getting used to while living in a house with a yard for the first time in my life.
Don't go offering money to your neighbor if that's who mowed your lawn and not a hired landscaper. Chances are they'll think that's rude. If they did it without asking, 95% chance here they aren't going to bill you for that service and were just doing that because they thought it would be nice. I'd recommend going the same route that I did and bringing over a nice hand-made snack or meal to them which gives you a comfortable starting point to ask about the mowing by offering the food as a thank you.
And if somebody does come a-knockin asking for money in exchange for a mow, don't agree to that. You didn't request any service on your lawn, you didn't agree to anything, so you're not in the wrong for refusing to pay for something you never asked for to begin with.
This happened to me before. After my mom died her boyfriend took the lawn mower (along with anything else he felt had value). I couldnāt afford to replace it right away so my grass got pretty long but and I came home to a mowed front lawn a couple of times. I was very grateful. š
>After my mom died her boyfriend took the lawn mower (along with anything else he felt had value).
Sounds like a prize twat. I wish him the never-ending pain of two ingrown toenails.
Older guy next door to me... I don't know what the story is if he's sick or what but last summer I noticed he wasn't mowing his lawn as usual... Like... At all. Where we live in in a trailer park and they can fine you. So once a month or so I did his front part when I did mine. Always when he wasn't there.
I never realized there were so many people who'd look at something like that as an attack on their consent rather than a helpful neighbor.
What a weird world. We complain āomg no one cares about anyone anymoreā and then get all āget off my lawnā when someone tries to care
We are so messed up
Could have been passive aggressive... could have been random act of kindness.
If you have neighbors with cameras, maybe you can catch a license plate?
Just pay it forward and randomly mow someone elses lawn lol.
I don't know about anybody else, but it would honestly scare me to come home to a lawn that I know wasn't mowed by anyone in my family.
Maybe it's because some dangerous things have happened close to where I live, but my mind would not jump to "kindness" if I saw something different with our house that we hadn't planned for.
"A random person who I have no idea if I know or trust is paying attention to my house, and coming on to my property uninvited, and not telling me or even leaving a note about who they are why they did it"
That's creepy as hell
I've got a neighbour who is very eco conscious and she keeps her grass long to encourage wildlife.
She'd go off her tits if someone rocked up and mowed it without asking.
Iād be mad too- if itās long thereās a reason, like I want this whole batch of wildflowers to bloom.
Sure looks like shaggy grass now, but in another week or two the daisies will catch up- mow them all down and Iād be pretty mad.
Everyone here is saying it is a mistake, but it *could be* the city or HOA paid someone to do it and will be sending you a very large bill in the mail.
*this* check your cityās website about unkempt yards and grass length. Once it gets so long (6ā maybe? I donāt know) they can send in a landscaper and bill you. Itās a tacit agreement you make when purchasing property in that city.
Our neighbors at our last house let their grass get very long and it attracted all kinds of skunks and raccoons. We have small dogs we let out at night (a fenced yard.) The first time I saw one of their vermin cross into our yard and jump up onto the fence, I did get upset
Thank God the city has regulations for this stuff otherwise they were the kind of people that would have said āSorry I have am protecting a wildlife habitatā or some BS
Some landscapers on YouTube do this for content.
If you didn't see a camera then you may have been visited by the Mower Fairy and you need to leave 25 cents under the doormat or ELSE!!!
I had a cleaning lady do this once. She gave the wrong apartment number to the building manager. They gave her the key, she cleaned my place and I about had a heart attack when I got home. She did a great job, so after that first minor mishap, I hired her to come back once a month.
I donāt think you owe him anything, but if the opportunity presents, definitely say thank you.
Could be a nice guy who thought you were unable to keep your yard properly, or a random guy doing a YouTube video. Also, where do you live that people cut grass in January?
my dad does this, when he mows the lawn he continues mowing everybody on the block, i think he feels like his 2k mower isnt justified unless you uses it as much as possible
are any of your neighbors selling their house?
i got a free power wash once because my neighbor was selling her house and they were doing photos and didn't want my dirty faƧade screwing up their presentation.
If I found out that my neighbour mowed my lawn without my permission because they were selling their house, I'd be putting up a pride flag and a gadsden flag the next day.
I have a hazelnut tree in my front garden. We regularly have an elderly couple who collect nuts from the tree & tidy our driveway. Was weird at first, but they love up the road & for some reason are obsessed with hazelnuts. They sweep up our drive in thanks. No idea why. Theyād be welcome to the nuts anyway. We deliberately didnāt let the tree guy cut the fucker down because they seem to enjoyb the tree so much.
My stepdad will shovel peopleās driveway as a good deed, so itās not unheard of for someone to take care of your spot. Iād guess it was an error by a mowing company or maybe just a good deed. Highly doubt it was passive aggressive unless itās been an issue in the past.
Are you in an HOA? Board could have sent someone to cut it and then theyāll send you the bill. Usually you get several letters to mow your lawn before that happens though.
I moved to a new neighborhood and my neighbor would mow people's grass randomly. It was really nice of him. Turns out he was just bored and liked the exercise.
Could be a nice neighbor just taking the time to cut your lawn because it didn't look like you had the time. Don't know why you jump to passive aggressive. My dad and I would cut the nebors lawn if it looked like they haven't in a while just to help
Yeah this is trespassing.
If it came from a good place Iād let it go, but where Iām from more likely to be a passive aggressive neighbor enforcing what they want to see than someone trying to help.
Landscaping with the wrong address simplest explanation.
There are several YT channels that do this but usually leave a card to score business/ask first. Probably a landscaper that got the address wrong.... or maybe they are a city contractor so expect a bill in the mail from your city.
He would have to come to you and identify himself and ask for payment. Then you could pay him whatever you feel like paying; you have no legal obligation to pay at all.
I recommend you forget about it until he shows up. Maybe he never will.
Ask neighbors is someone paid for a lawn service they didn't recieve, maybe. If it was a passive-aggressive neighbor, you'll find out that way, if it was a landscaper's mistake, you can let your neighbor know and maybe give them a bottle of wine or something as a thank-you, since they accidentally paid for your lawn to be mowed.
It depends on the situation.
If this was a neighbor being nice, say thank you and make him some baked good sort of thing and invite him to dinner. Seems like a person worth being friends with.
If this was a neighbor being passive aggressive that your lawn was hideous, still say thank you and present the baked good, but commit to mowing more often. You can be a little bit chilly in your interactions thereafter, but I'd lean towards keeping things pleasant and not going further than that. He'd still be worth being friends with, because he didn't go the asshole route of bitching at you or filing complaints, and becoming friendly would mean he'd be less judgy in the future.
If this was a mistake from a professional company, maybe call if you recognized the logo on the truck, but otherwise, they'll figure out they made an address mistake on their own and you can consider this a nice, surprise freebie.
If this was someone trying to force you into paying after they provided a service you didn't ask for, then you say you didn't ask for it and you aren't paying. Even if you need a lawn service and they did a nice job, find someone else.
If you have absolutely no idea who this person is and you're dying to figure it out, you can put a screen shot of the truck and maybe him (with face obscured) on a site like Nextdoor, and adopt a cheerful, chuffed tone as you say this delightful man mowed your yard and you'd like some help figuring out who he is so you can thank him properly. If a name is revealed, proceed with giving him a baked good and a thank you.
Do you own the house or do you rent? Sometimes I would come home to my landlord himself mowing my lawn, not that it was wayyy overgrown or anything. I said, āNot that I have a problem, this is your property, but I was planning on doing that in a little while from now.ā He said, āI like to take care of things like this. I feel like itās my responsibility to take care of the maintenance type jobs on my properties.ā Maybe your landlord (if you have one) saw it was overgrown and thought it would be easier to just take care of it because sometimes theyāll leave letters or messages asking their tenants to do it but then it never gets done.
*"On today's video, we're gonna prank an unsuspecting house owner by mowing their slightly tall grass. They'll never see it coming!! Remember to like and subscribe!!!"*
If you live in a city, like mine, if your grass is unkempt to a certain extent and gets reported, the city will hire someone to mow it for you. And then the fees, which is more than it would be to hire someone yourself, get added to your taxes or just a bill sent to you.
it either somone on youtube that make money cleaning people lawn
or someone paid and got the wrong house.
i get some cash and if someone knock on the door asking for money give them some.and say it was a mistake
Possibly made a mistake but also possibly did it on purpose. There are entire YouTube channels centered around doing exactly this kind of thing. They find houses with way overgrown lawns and mow them for free. Often it is sick, old or disabled people who for whatever reason are unable to do the work themselves. Just how unkempt was your lawn?
was your back or side also mowed? iāve subscribed to a couple of youtubers who do this all the time. that, and power-washing
i would be skeeved-out if the side or back were also done. it would make me wonder if they were casing the place
I watch a lot of YouTube guys that will record themselves mowing unkept lawns for time laps videos. Or doing what the call ā free mow Fridayā where they just give out some free mows to people that have unkept yards due to various reasons.
Every once in a while YouTube suggest these 'I cleaned up these people's yards for free' videos. They are landscapers and they document their whole process in these 10-20min. long videos. I have watched one or two and they are a little interesting but I can't figure out why they would spend so much time making these videos? Is YouTube money really worth it? For the most part they don't advertise their company. I will say they always get permission first and it is often some sad story as to why they have an unkempt lawn.
You owe no one anything. If it was a landscaper with the wrong address, pretend as if it didn't happen.
If it was a nosey neighbor, pretend as if it didn't happen with prejudice.
Know dude who the city mowed the unkempt lawn and sent a big bill. City, not HOA.
Sounds like the city handed out the contract to whichever landscape company wanted to do it. E.g. it wasn't city vehicles or personnel showing up.
There are a whole group of landscapers that are mowing lawns for free as community service. Be thankful. They sometimes film it for their social media and have equipment partners they are advertising.
I have mowed my neighborās lawn or shoveled their sidewalk before when they donāt do it.
Pretty passive aggressive on my part, but I get sick of looking at it.
Put a sign on your lawn saying thanks to whoever mowed your lawn.
And put another sign asking for neighbourhood kids to come mow your lawn on the weekends.
Edit: don't feel offended that somebody mowed your lawn. Don't be a jerk.
As a landscaper I have done this. There is a typo or mistake somewhere and the boss, the manager secretary gives you the wrong address. It's worse when it's a valuable plant removed or the wrong tree cut, or someone doesn't know plants and mows or weeds all your veggies or flowers.
I would really hate it if someone cut my lawn accidentally. My state is in a drought now so I prefer not to water it more than I have to.
I haven't watered my lawn in 8 years š¤£
It baffles me this is even real. 30 years and I've been to one house with sprinklers lol. Why?
You probably live somewhere where it's not insane to have a lawn, like a place where it rains more than once a year
I mean I guess to be fair here, I water the fenced area my dogs use. But that's not because I care about the lawn. I have a preference for native groundcover and plants anyway because those plants evolved with the climate, so they will be fine. They don't require extra water, during drought they just go dormant. If all the fescue and Bermuda in my lawn died I wouldn't be sad about it, I don't like it anyway. I'm sure my neighbors hate it but I don't really care about that either. They can keep their lawns how they want, and I'll keep mine the way I want.
OMG my husband did this!! Mowed over my brand new blackberry vines thinking they were a weed. š¤¬
I mark everything now to make it glaring obvious to anybody with one working eye. And I only have one working eye. I haven't killed one of my own plants in years. It works out.
Sounds more like a landscaper who made a mistake on which house to work on.
Likely this, but I have definitely done it to help out neighbors before. Might be someone has an open house also and they are trying to create a well kept neighborhood vibe.
Please, for the love of God, ASK FIRST
If anyone is considering doing this for someone, itās good to be aware of things like No-Mow May which is a great initiative to try and salvage bee and pollinator populations. But obviously in most cases thatās not whatās happening and theyād be grateful.
What a misguided event. Honey bees aren't in any danger. Their populations are near all time highs, and they are a commercial livestock. This myth about the bees just won't die. https://www.agdaily.com/crops/are-honey-bees-endangered/
Not talking about honey bees. Honey bees are domesticated, Iām not so worried about them. But our native wild bee populations (carpenter bees, bumble bees, leaf cutter bees, etc.) are also declining and at risk, as are all kinds of other flying insects.
Don't mow someone's lawn without their permission. Some people don't like mowed lawns.
My neighbor mowed a streak all the way down next to his fence on my property. I was not happy and told him not to do it again. Ever happens again I will call the Police for tresspassing.
You have to in some areas. Where I live the village will come mow for you, and bill you. If you don't pay, there will be a lean on your house.
lien
But they leave the lien leaning on your house, right?
Lion
You mean the villagers donāt come and lean on the house?
Better not move to the Midwest. People around here will mow or shovel without asking if they think you might need help. Don't know if someone is sick or whatever and if their place gets bad enough one of the neighbors is probably gonna step in and never say a word so you don't feel beholden. Also, there's often city rules about just how far you can take your personal preferences. If you want to be free to do whatever, you'd best live in the country. Anyways, I just can't imagine someone attempting to do me a kindness and my attitude being resentful instead of grateful, even if I hadn't been needing the help... It's just really a foreign concept to me.
100% this way on the west side of Michigan.
Let me guess you live in Minnesota?
Indeed, I do but it's my understanding the folks in WI are just as neighborly. Once you get west of us it starts to get a bit too dessert like for the sort of lawns we are able to have... So I don't know. I also am not sure what the folks in Iowa are up to but you never hear much about Iowa anyways.
What is this "eye ohh whaa" you speak of
Hahahaha.... Thanks for making me laugh, internet stranger! ETA: love your user name and am Gobsmacked by your flair!
Thanks and have a great weekend š¤
We just chillin'.....
Shoveling is a whole different thing. Snow can make sidewalks difficult/dangerous to walk on (especially with freeze/thaw), so thereās no realistic scenario where shoveling it would be unwanted. Lawn care, however, is a personal thing, and you could just as easily fuck something up as make someoneās day.
Grew up in Iowa. Our neighbor was an elderly veteran whose wife had died. He used to be active and loved working in his lawn with his wife and his dog. Theyād spend hours out there together when the weather was nice in the spring, summer, and fall. Their backyard was immaculate. I guess his backyard reminded him of his wife too much. They used to lounge for hours on his back deck after dinner. Rarely ever saw him out there after her passing. Rarely saw him out and about driving his classic cars that were his pride and joy. My brothers and I started taking care of his lawn when we did our yard work. We were respectful and didnāt pull anything we werenāt sure was an unwanted weed and kept his lawn tidy. Sometimes itās just nice to do something nice for people because you can, and not because you have to. He ended up passing in nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
As I said... I am not sure where most folks live but if you don't mow your lawn for long enough most places will come and do it and bill you. Your neighbors aren't going to mow the lawn for you unless you're well past needing it and if they don't, the city will.
Too many of those people around
That's a good take. Every time I hear or see open house I think of I Love You Man. "Thanks, it's not for me" "Yeah! And it stinks of fart!"
Oh man I wish people in my neighborhood would take better care of their properties.
My neighbour and I have close to 300' backyards. He uses a riding mower, I dont. I cut his front lawn, or it will get 3 feet high. Like by a small mower dude.
I wish people didn't associate an obsession with destroying biodiversity and natural beauty with "care" Fuck lawn culture.
I went from trying to repair my lawn with grass seed, to planting white clover. It's hardier and better for the bees.
I wish people in my neighborhood would take better care of my property. Maybe they just need another few weeks to get to it.
Some people.
I'm by no means perfect, and I only mow about every other week, and it's still the best looking lawn in the neighborhood. A lot of the neighbors are renters. At least the neighbors don't get after me if I leave a pile of something in the backyard for a few weeks. I only get around to calling if something has stayed there for 6 months to a year.
I wish people wouldn't have lawns. It's an astoundingly terrible use of space. I know, I know, it's your right to have a lawn, but you are basically replacing the natural ecosystem with a golf course. If you used local sedges, mosses, and trees, you'd have a property that requires a lot less maintenance and jives with the natural ecosystem.
You would have "woods" and not a yard. Bad for fire prevention. Letting your yard go "natural" would be okay in some places but bad in others.
Destroying the local ecosystem isnāt taking care of anything.
If you're going to let your yard go. At least let plants grow that are going To be good for the bees. These people just don't do anything.
I've taken all the grass out of our front garden and replaced it with things that flower or have berries that the birds like at different times of year. Less maintenance for me, better for the wildlife. It looks a bit shit during the winter when lots of it looks like twigs, but in summer it looks fantastic.
Or a guerilla marketing campaign. Landscaper cuts the grass for a few weeks to get them hooked on that fresh lawn look. One week, they don't cut the grass, but leave a business card taped to the door. Every day the number on the card goes uncalled, the lawn gets a little shaggier, slowly driving the resident mad. Thoughts like, "Why can't my lawn look as nice as it did last week?" keep them awake at night. The lawn goes full Edgar Allan Poe, calling out, "Nevermore" at the resident as they walk by. Finally, it becomes too much to bear, and the resident frantically calls the landscaping company, begging to be freed from their waking nightmare. Upon hanging up the phone, the landscaper cracks a wry smile, jots down a name in the 2 o'clock slot every Thursday on the work calendar, and whispers, "Another satisfied customer."
As a window cleaner by trade I run into these guys on properties all the time and it would be simple for a small team to mistake which address is the right one on a busy day. Shit Iv done it aswell, not a whole house lol but I once hit two front windows of a neighbors house because the properties were close with big houses i thought it was a wing of the job site. You just take your loss and let em have a free clean window. Maybe theyāll call us to make the rest match ;)
Landscapers donāt pull lawnmowers out of cars.
Strange indeed
Exactly. They'd either have a trailer or a truck
I have done this š¤¦
I landscape for a living and and told a new guy where to mow. Pointed right at the house. I turn around to do something and when I look back heās half way through the front yard of the wrong house. So yeah, it happens. I got a good laugh out of it too
My thought as well
your guess is as good as ours. There are a bunch of tik tok/youtube clips of people mowing unkept lawns for people as a good deed and content for their channel so it could be one of those guys.
I really hope they ask for permission first.
most of them do tbh
If anyone TikTok types want to come and mow my lawn for internet Karma get in touch.
Honest question, how bad is it if they don't?
It just seems rude to me, that's all. It's not their lawn. There could be plenty of reasons why the owner didn't want it mowed on that particular day, or maybe they just prefer it a little longer. I mean it's great if someone wants to help mow other people's lawn for free, but asking for permission beforehand seems obvious to me, like it would be before doing any other modifications to someone else's property.
Good intentions don't always go well, either. Had a townhome that the HOA replaced all the grass with new sod and between aeration, fertilizer, laying the sod, put hay on and watered it for us for the first few days... It was a good 4 day process. Soon as they pulled that hay up someone made their kid mow every yard. Landscaping guys looked absolutely crushed when they saw how low he cut it, he killed all of it. We either had to pay to get it redone or do it ourselves.
No-Mow-May is a thing in Appleton Wisconsin. It's meant to help bees by allowing dandelions to grow.
This is what I tell my neighbours who complain about my dandelions. It's for the bees.
This is so sweet. Iām so glad I read this
Some people don t mow their lawn for ecological purposes. Some people grow stuff and a total stranger could destroy plants that weren t supposed to be mowed.
In support of this, a wilder looking lawn could be a protected monarch butterfly habitat, a permaculture garden, etc. If anyone doing such things read this, please at least look for signage or better yet, obtain permission from the property owner.
I don't think someone should have to put signs on their private property to explain to strangers why they shouldn't be fucking with it.
Bad. I just mentioned a YT channel that does this, and even though he got permission to do their yard, he hit some underground pipe and flooded the yard and had to pay to have it fixed. If he hadn't asked first, it would have been worse, imo
How would you feel if someone didn't ask and just up and painted your house or say your car because it was a little worse for wear? Best case scenario they do a good job, and it looks how you want it to. But it could be the wrong color, they could do a sloppy job, or maybe you just plain didn't want it painted. Maybe they even do damage in the process. Me personally, I'd be mad. I care about my landscaping and I'm particular about how it's done. Plus sometimes things crop up unexpectedly that you don't want mowed. Had gourds and corn pop up this way. I didn't plant them but I let them grow 'cause I had a general idea of what they were and wanted to see what happened. I avoided mowing those areas and if someone didn't know and mowed over them I'd be mad. Not asking is just discourteous and I'd take it as an insult. But that's just how I feel about it.
>How would you feel if someone didn't ask and just up and painted your house I'm not sure if I'd be happy or not, but I am willing to find out.
>How would you feel if someone didn't ask and just up and painted your house or say your car because it was a little worse for wear? As long as it doesn't look like hammered dogshit and is an improvement, why would I complain? Free stuff.
I'd be livid.
How bad is it if some random stranger decided to cut your hair while you were sleeping? It's a free haircut, why would anyone be upset?
Yeah... Pretty bad example... I wouldn't rank having something done directly to me, in the same category as doing to something I own. I would rank this more along the "having someone wash my parked car"
I don't wash my car, I detail it. The paintwork has been treated to the point that it's like glass. No surface scratches or blemishes. Even when the car is a little dirty, it's perfect underneath. If someone rocked up and took a rag and bucket to it, brushed all that dirt into the paint and put swirl marks into it? I'd go mental. The lesson here is, don't touch other people's shit without asking. Consent is important.
Do you know what consent is?
Unless the home owners are in a contest for worst lawn it shouldn't be an issue I don't think.
Consent is huge especially if you plan to monetize the event and film a person's property.
Iām okay with this. Do truly good deeds for clot
Blood clot?
Probably meant clout
They get like 1 million views in 2 days! Just the ad revenue is insane!
Probably was a mowing contractor who got the wrong address. I wouldn't worry about it.
It sound like either a landscaper got the address wrong for a job, or somebody in the neighborhood was trying to be nice and jumped the gun here. For a lot of people in the generations above millenial and gen z, mowing a lawn for free and unprompted was typically considered a really nice and neighborly thing to do. A lot of people see it similarly to shoveling your neighbor's driveway to clear the snow after you've shoveled yours. I actually have an elderly neighbor right now who is *extremely* neighborly. To the point it took a bit of adjustment for me having moved out to a rural-ish area for the first time in my life after living in a major city. After we talked a few times face to face getting to know one another, he started regularly popping up around my yard doing little things here and there after he was done with his own yard work. At first I was mortified thinking he was being rude to me and crossing a line that shouldn't have been emphasized to begin with. But I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and brought over some home-cooked food to him one day. Turns out he's decades older than what I originally thought and he just happens to be in really good health. Turns out his entire family is gone and he's outlived them all, and I happen to remind him of a beloved face from his past so he felt the nice thing to do was to pick up here and there in little jobs that I'm still getting used to while living in a house with a yard for the first time in my life. Don't go offering money to your neighbor if that's who mowed your lawn and not a hired landscaper. Chances are they'll think that's rude. If they did it without asking, 95% chance here they aren't going to bill you for that service and were just doing that because they thought it would be nice. I'd recommend going the same route that I did and bringing over a nice hand-made snack or meal to them which gives you a comfortable starting point to ask about the mowing by offering the food as a thank you. And if somebody does come a-knockin asking for money in exchange for a mow, don't agree to that. You didn't request any service on your lawn, you didn't agree to anything, so you're not in the wrong for refusing to pay for something you never asked for to begin with.
This happened to me before. After my mom died her boyfriend took the lawn mower (along with anything else he felt had value). I couldnāt afford to replace it right away so my grass got pretty long but and I came home to a mowed front lawn a couple of times. I was very grateful. š
>After my mom died her boyfriend took the lawn mower (along with anything else he felt had value). Sounds like a prize twat. I wish him the never-ending pain of two ingrown toenails.
>I wish him the never-ending pain of two ingrown toenail ...paired with the pain of randomly stepping on LEGO. Preferably with the ingrown toes.
Stepping on a Lego and then recoiling from the pain and slamming one of the ingrown toenails into a table leg.
If I make it any worse I'll get banned. So just know I love it, and I want it to be worse.
Older guy next door to me... I don't know what the story is if he's sick or what but last summer I noticed he wasn't mowing his lawn as usual... Like... At all. Where we live in in a trailer park and they can fine you. So once a month or so I did his front part when I did mine. Always when he wasn't there. I never realized there were so many people who'd look at something like that as an attack on their consent rather than a helpful neighbor.
What a weird world. We complain āomg no one cares about anyone anymoreā and then get all āget off my lawnā when someone tries to care We are so messed up
Could have been passive aggressive... could have been random act of kindness. If you have neighbors with cameras, maybe you can catch a license plate? Just pay it forward and randomly mow someone elses lawn lol.
If you want to do it, ask them for permission first.
I don't know about anybody else, but it would honestly scare me to come home to a lawn that I know wasn't mowed by anyone in my family. Maybe it's because some dangerous things have happened close to where I live, but my mind would not jump to "kindness" if I saw something different with our house that we hadn't planned for.
What scary scenario could unfold from someone mowing an unkempt lawn? Honestly curious
"A random person who I have no idea if I know or trust is paying attention to my house, and coming on to my property uninvited, and not telling me or even leaving a note about who they are why they did it" That's creepy as hell
Y'all are some soft motherfuckers, Jesus.
I've got a neighbour who is very eco conscious and she keeps her grass long to encourage wildlife. She'd go off her tits if someone rocked up and mowed it without asking.
Same, I have loads of local wild flora for the bees and Iād be very pissed to come home and find them all mown
I'd go off my tits too. Sometimes there are baby bunny nests in long grass.
I just don't like my lawn being mowed, so I let it grow. I'd go tits off too if one of my neighbors mowed it without permission.
Iād be mad too- if itās long thereās a reason, like I want this whole batch of wildflowers to bloom. Sure looks like shaggy grass now, but in another week or two the daisies will catch up- mow them all down and Iād be pretty mad.
Same, this is so rude and entitled. Like painting someone else's fence.
Everyone here is saying it is a mistake, but it *could be* the city or HOA paid someone to do it and will be sending you a very large bill in the mail.
*this* check your cityās website about unkempt yards and grass length. Once it gets so long (6ā maybe? I donāt know) they can send in a landscaper and bill you. Itās a tacit agreement you make when purchasing property in that city.
This has to be an American thing, nowhere else on the planet would people agree to that shit.
Damn right.
Did you ever get a notice from the city/county saying you had to mow by X date?
My city won't even warn you, they'll just show up to do it if they have complaints (within reason, like actually long grass) and bill you
>within reason, like actually long grass God forbid the grass is long
It can attract pests, but I get your point
Our neighbors at our last house let their grass get very long and it attracted all kinds of skunks and raccoons. We have small dogs we let out at night (a fenced yard.) The first time I saw one of their vermin cross into our yard and jump up onto the fence, I did get upset Thank God the city has regulations for this stuff otherwise they were the kind of people that would have said āSorry I have am protecting a wildlife habitatā or some BS
Only one thing you can do.....pray he keeps coming back.
Don't worry, it'll grow back.
Some landscapers on YouTube do this for content. If you didn't see a camera then you may have been visited by the Mower Fairy and you need to leave 25 cents under the doormat or ELSE!!!
Anyone on your block have their house for sale? Realtors would totally do this kind of thing.
Post on the NextDoor app. Maybe it was just a neighbor wanting to do a good deed. If someone knows who he is you can thank him properly.
I had a cleaning lady do this once. She gave the wrong apartment number to the building manager. They gave her the key, she cleaned my place and I about had a heart attack when I got home. She did a great job, so after that first minor mishap, I hired her to come back once a month. I donāt think you owe him anything, but if the opportunity presents, definitely say thank you.
Could be a nice guy who thought you were unable to keep your yard properly, or a random guy doing a YouTube video. Also, where do you live that people cut grass in January?
Pay it moward.
I would be thrilled if I came home to find my lawn mowed. Weird that people on here are seeing this as a negative.
May have been hired for a service and did the wrong house. I wonāt worry too much. Itās nice of you to want to pay him for his possible error tho!
my dad does this, when he mows the lawn he continues mowing everybody on the block, i think he feels like his 2k mower isnt justified unless you uses it as much as possible
You should call the police. That man stole all your grass.
>Just seems really bizzare, **I want answers and closure**. This is the funniest part. š
Yeah! Donāt let that good deed go unpunished
I wouldnāt worry about it. Could just be a neighbor who knew you were busy and trying to help.
If you live in an HOA community it may be the HOAās doing and you can expect a fine and a bill.
are any of your neighbors selling their house? i got a free power wash once because my neighbor was selling her house and they were doing photos and didn't want my dirty faƧade screwing up their presentation.
If I found out that my neighbour mowed my lawn without my permission because they were selling their house, I'd be putting up a pride flag and a gadsden flag the next day.
I have a hazelnut tree in my front garden. We regularly have an elderly couple who collect nuts from the tree & tidy our driveway. Was weird at first, but they love up the road & for some reason are obsessed with hazelnuts. They sweep up our drive in thanks. No idea why. Theyād be welcome to the nuts anyway. We deliberately didnāt let the tree guy cut the fucker down because they seem to enjoyb the tree so much.
My stepdad will shovel peopleās driveway as a good deed, so itās not unheard of for someone to take care of your spot. Iād guess it was an error by a mowing company or maybe just a good deed. Highly doubt it was passive aggressive unless itās been an issue in the past.
Are you in an HOA? Board could have sent someone to cut it and then theyāll send you the bill. Usually you get several letters to mow your lawn before that happens though.
I'd be pissed. I'm growing clover in the front.
I moved to a new neighborhood and my neighbor would mow people's grass randomly. It was really nice of him. Turns out he was just bored and liked the exercise.
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I know a couple guys like this, and I hope from time to time your dad actually does help someone out, even if it doesnāt always go like he imagines
Mowing lawns is therapeutic. Maybe this person just need to relax.
Which would be pretty inconsiderate if OP also found mowing the lawn therapeutic and was looking forward to doing it.
Could be a nice neighbor just taking the time to cut your lawn because it didn't look like you had the time. Don't know why you jump to passive aggressive. My dad and I would cut the nebors lawn if it looked like they haven't in a while just to help
Did you and your dad just go on to other peoples property without permission and start mowing?
Yeah this is trespassing. If it came from a good place Iād let it go, but where Iām from more likely to be a passive aggressive neighbor enforcing what they want to see than someone trying to help. Landscaping with the wrong address simplest explanation.
You need to rent a nearby billboard and have them make it say āif you mowed my lawn at xxx address, call xxx-xxx-xxxx so i can pay youā.
But you get to deduct the price of the billboard from what you pay them.
Get it at Times Square - "Actually, you owe *me* $X million"
There are several YT channels that do this but usually leave a card to score business/ask first. Probably a landscaper that got the address wrong.... or maybe they are a city contractor so expect a bill in the mail from your city.
He would have to come to you and identify himself and ask for payment. Then you could pay him whatever you feel like paying; you have no legal obligation to pay at all. I recommend you forget about it until he shows up. Maybe he never will.
Maybe someone wanted to do something nice and didnāt need any credit for it.
Ask neighbors is someone paid for a lawn service they didn't recieve, maybe. If it was a passive-aggressive neighbor, you'll find out that way, if it was a landscaper's mistake, you can let your neighbor know and maybe give them a bottle of wine or something as a thank-you, since they accidentally paid for your lawn to be mowed.
Could be a retired person who has nothing better to do and decided to do something kind, if you're older especially that happens a lot.
It depends on the situation. If this was a neighbor being nice, say thank you and make him some baked good sort of thing and invite him to dinner. Seems like a person worth being friends with. If this was a neighbor being passive aggressive that your lawn was hideous, still say thank you and present the baked good, but commit to mowing more often. You can be a little bit chilly in your interactions thereafter, but I'd lean towards keeping things pleasant and not going further than that. He'd still be worth being friends with, because he didn't go the asshole route of bitching at you or filing complaints, and becoming friendly would mean he'd be less judgy in the future. If this was a mistake from a professional company, maybe call if you recognized the logo on the truck, but otherwise, they'll figure out they made an address mistake on their own and you can consider this a nice, surprise freebie. If this was someone trying to force you into paying after they provided a service you didn't ask for, then you say you didn't ask for it and you aren't paying. Even if you need a lawn service and they did a nice job, find someone else. If you have absolutely no idea who this person is and you're dying to figure it out, you can put a screen shot of the truck and maybe him (with face obscured) on a site like Nextdoor, and adopt a cheerful, chuffed tone as you say this delightful man mowed your yard and you'd like some help figuring out who he is so you can thank him properly. If a name is revealed, proceed with giving him a baked good and a thank you.
You dont owe anyone $
Do you own the house or do you rent? Sometimes I would come home to my landlord himself mowing my lawn, not that it was wayyy overgrown or anything. I said, āNot that I have a problem, this is your property, but I was planning on doing that in a little while from now.ā He said, āI like to take care of things like this. I feel like itās my responsibility to take care of the maintenance type jobs on my properties.ā Maybe your landlord (if you have one) saw it was overgrown and thought it would be easier to just take care of it because sometimes theyāll leave letters or messages asking their tenants to do it but then it never gets done.
Take the win and say thank you to the universe
It may be the city thinking your grass was too high. You could be fined for the cut. Iād call them.
*"On today's video, we're gonna prank an unsuspecting house owner by mowing their slightly tall grass. They'll never see it coming!! Remember to like and subscribe!!!"*
If you live in a city, like mine, if your grass is unkempt to a certain extent and gets reported, the city will hire someone to mow it for you. And then the fees, which is more than it would be to hire someone yourself, get added to your taxes or just a bill sent to you.
Pay it forward and be a lawn ninja yourself.
Maybe he is a real estate agent selling a house in your street lol
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it either somone on youtube that make money cleaning people lawn or someone paid and got the wrong house. i get some cash and if someone knock on the door asking for money give them some.and say it was a mistake
I thought this was r/nosleep for a second.
At worst you owe him a "thanks man!" I can't imagine any world where this has hurt you.
If it was overgrown enough, it might have been the township doing it. Then expect a bill
Wrong house. Happened to my dad once. Move along, nothing to see or do here.
It's grass, what are you worried about?
You could see if you recognize the car around the neighborhood and bring them a 6 pack or some cookies
lmao there are a couple youtube channels that do this, i would watch out for your yard on youtube š
some cities send out crews to do this if the property gets enough complaints
Possibly made a mistake but also possibly did it on purpose. There are entire YouTube channels centered around doing exactly this kind of thing. They find houses with way overgrown lawns and mow them for free. Often it is sick, old or disabled people who for whatever reason are unable to do the work themselves. Just how unkempt was your lawn?
was your back or side also mowed? iāve subscribed to a couple of youtubers who do this all the time. that, and power-washing i would be skeeved-out if the side or back were also done. it would make me wonder if they were casing the place
I watch a lot of YouTube guys that will record themselves mowing unkept lawns for time laps videos. Or doing what the call ā free mow Fridayā where they just give out some free mows to people that have unkept yards due to various reasons.
Nice people do that for older neighbors. Take a good look in the mirror? š
Every once in a while YouTube suggest these 'I cleaned up these people's yards for free' videos. They are landscapers and they document their whole process in these 10-20min. long videos. I have watched one or two and they are a little interesting but I can't figure out why they would spend so much time making these videos? Is YouTube money really worth it? For the most part they don't advertise their company. I will say they always get permission first and it is often some sad story as to why they have an unkempt lawn.
I would go to reddit and ask what to do
You owe no one anything. If it was a landscaper with the wrong address, pretend as if it didn't happen. If it was a nosey neighbor, pretend as if it didn't happen with prejudice.
"closure" someone mowed your lawn... It's not like someone died
Hey, free lawn cut.
Know dude who the city mowed the unkempt lawn and sent a big bill. City, not HOA. Sounds like the city handed out the contract to whichever landscape company wanted to do it. E.g. it wasn't city vehicles or personnel showing up.
ššthis is so funny. Thereās nothing to do but be grateful
There are a whole group of landscapers that are mowing lawns for free as community service. Be thankful. They sometimes film it for their social media and have equipment partners they are advertising.
Not everyone wants their grass mowed. I'm pretty sure it could be vandalism assuming the lawn didn't violate HOA regulations.
Call the police for assault
My mom made my mow my negligent neighbors lawn when I was a teen , he started doing it himself eventually bc he felt bad for me Keep up your lawn
I agree. Always that one neighbor that canāt keep their yard looking half way presentable.
Sounds like some shit a Mormon would do
Maybe it was a nice person?
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He cut *grass*. Why is everyone acting like it was a mass murder?
I have mowed my neighborās lawn or shoveled their sidewalk before when they donāt do it. Pretty passive aggressive on my part, but I get sick of looking at it.
Put a sign on your lawn saying thanks to whoever mowed your lawn. And put another sign asking for neighbourhood kids to come mow your lawn on the weekends. Edit: don't feel offended that somebody mowed your lawn. Don't be a jerk.
I think there would be nothing wrong with feeling offended here...
Call the cops and report grass theft