Neighbour's back garden like a jungle - recourse?

As Johnny said, politely offer to help him out when you are doing your mam's, if he is in his 80's and ill health it might be just the boost he needs to be able to get out into the back garden and sit in the sun!

It would be a nice thing for you to make the offer anyway!

Tell you mother to buy a mouse trap and stop leaving crumbs around on the floors!

I see a hedge, some nettles I think and a rose bush... hardly a jungle.

legal discussion?

absolutely feck all to do with you or your mum

if you want that tidied up you may have to offer to do it yourself. He might still tell you to feck off and mind your own business though.

Not sure how a few shrubs means mice?

You post this in legal discussion to see if you have any recourse on a 80+ year old in ill health who can no longer do his garden. Pathetic.

Give over! He does say he's not sure if this is the correct forum.

You could speak with your neighbor and then contact these guys and see if a care and repair program for the elderly is running in the area.

https://www.ageaction.ie/how-we-can-help/care-and-repair

TBH the garden isn't that bad, if you're mother is having a mice issue it's probably more to do with a food source in her home. Older homes with subfloors are always susceptible to mice living there. Find where they're getting in see if it's possible to seal.

To be honest, it doesn't seem to be encroaching on your mother's side of the wall?

That is not bad at all...

^^ or piles of rubbish bags!

I've planted an area at the bottom of the garden for wildlife and I'd be happy if it looked like that. It's not an eyesore. It's not a nuisance. It's not encroaching. It's not a source of vermin.

How exactly does that garden cause mice for your mother?

They go where the food is, not the shade...

The only thing that will keep rats or mice around your house is access to food.

I live surrounded by wilderness and I don't have rats or mice because I keep floors clean and food safely out of their way.

OP, you must have had a very urban upbringing if you think that a moderately neglected back garden is going to encroach on your tidy life to that extent. However, your last post reveals that you don't like your neighbour and I suspect you're looking for something to get annoyed about.

Take a look around the backs of presses to see if mice might be making their way in. Get some plastic boxes with lids in Dunnes and start putting food away in them. Make sure pets' bowls are taken up when they're finished eating, even if there is food left. Sweep or vacuum the kitchen floor at least once a day and be extra careful to vacuum anywhere else food is eaten (for example in the sitting room while watching tv).

Tell your mother to enjoy her own garden and stop getting upset by her neighbour's.

If you have it to spare, and if he wanted, you could offer to pay for a one off cut to help him get back on top of it. Really wouldn't cost that much and you wouldn't have to worry about strimmers and trailers etc.

Take him to court OP, take him for every penny he has. That sick, elderly pensioner needs to be taught a lesson

This reminded me of the time my dad had mice in his house, they actually chewed up through the base fabric of his couch and up between the cushions, the attraction was the many many biscuit crumbs he had dropped over time which had made their way into the gap between the cushions! Clean up the house first before worrying about next door.

It isn't encroaching on your mother's side. Whatever about the character of the man, his garden and what may or may not be growing in it, is literally none of your business and none of your mothers business. If there are mice, then that is because you mothers house is providing a food source and shelter for them.

You can ask to cut it, but neighbour has every right to tell you to go fúck off with yourself.

Stop being nosey neighbours.

What relavence does that have to what I said?

I'm sure you've tried mousetraps etc. The thing is, every mouse you kill just creates a gap in the population for the next mouse. They reproduce at a staggering rate, you could never keep up. The only long-term solution to your mouse problem is to find how they're getting in and remove the food source that is sustaining them.

If the mouse issue is a red herring, as I suspect, and your real motivation is your dislike of your neighbour, I advise you to take some deep breaths and remind yourself that some things are beyond your control. You can't force your neighbour to turn his back yard into the gardens of the palace of Versailles. So now you have a choice; stay annoyed and bitter about his landscaping choices, or accept that it doesn't actually affect you and you can choose to be ok with it.

It's amazing hw many problems if away of you choose to be ok with them.

Stay annoyed, letting the days of your life pass in suppressed anger while the object of your wrath is bliss fully unaware of it, or enjoy your own garden.

In warm weather like this a few litres of Roundup can do a lot6 for an overgrown garden.

That was a lesson I learned very early in my gardening life, kill big huge tall weeds with weedkiller and all you get are big huge dead weeds! Take forever to die down, in fact by the time they would the new ones will be growing again.

To get the mice cleared, your best bet is to spend a weekend with your mum soon and empty and clean out every press and cupboard, vacuum everywhere and search around for holes around pipework etc. It's been suggested to me before that if mice are getting in around pipes, to stuff the holes with wire wool, then expanding foam/polyfilla over that, as they won't eat through the wire wool.

If you're unable to do it yourself, then a combo of Rentokil, a cleaning agency and a handyman would work. None of these options involve the elderly neighbour, regardless of his temperament.