Reason #3 my neighbor wants me to cut down my trees…again.

When we first moved into our home in 2006, my next-door neighbor was quick to jump onto the ‘problem with my trees’. The first time I spoke to her, she wanted me to cut down my trees in my front yard because she was afraid that they might fall on her house in bad weather. A few months later, she was insistent that the trees kept her yard in too much shade so the grass wouldn’t grow. (We were in a drought and she didn’t water because she said it was too expensive and she couldn’t afford the water bill.) These trees made it through Katrina and Rita and a few years of drought. They are tough. I took down the three trees that weren’t so tough (a leaning sycamore, a dead sweet gum, and a damaged Bradford Pear). Two oaks and a sweet gum are all I have left in my front yard. It is survival of the fittest in practice. We had these three remaining trees trimmed up so the branches weren’t anywhere near my neighbor’s roof or mine and surely won't keep the sun from shining on her property. Now, six years later, she is trying to use another ruse to illustrate that the trees need to be taken down. She says the fall leaves are blanketing and killing her grass. So she pulled her lawnmower out of her garage the first week in January and mowed and mowed and emptied the grass catcher and mowed some more. (She definitely could use the exercise.) So, trying to be as sympathetic a neighbor as I can be, I looked up what happens to grass if the fall leaves are not raked up before spring in case I needed to help her get rid of the leaves. (This is the first time she has complained about the leaves in the six years I have been living here.) It turns out nature knows better than all of us. A covering of fall leaves can protect a lawn through freezing weather and if you want to create your own natural fertilizer for plants and grass to use when spring ushers in the growing season again, mulch them up with your lawn mower in March or April and don’t bag the clippings. (This source also suggested another use for your golf shoes. Yep, aerating your lawn. I guess golf courses get free aeration when enough players go for a couple of rounds of golf.) Now that I am aware my neighbor is being quite creative in her quest to blame my trees for her ‘problems’, I will be careful in future not to engage her in any conversation that might lead to a discussion of the reasons she thinks I should cut down the rest of my trees. Nature rocks!!!!