In the Garden: War of the Roses My next-door neighbor cant fence me ...

Tag : Wire Fence
The very first time my husband and I looked at the house, I knew wewere in trouble. We loved everything about the big old Victoriantwin in Montco: the stately white-pillared porch, the highceilings, the sunny dining room, the enormous kitchen. But when wewalked out into the backyard, I had a moment’s pause. Acrossthe flimsy wire fence separating the backyard from itstwin’s, our potential next-door neighbors’ gardenshowed worrisome signs. The evergreens all had brand-new buzz cuts.The grass was plush green velvet. The paint on the shed was freshand gleaming. In the beds, discrete patches of flowers weresurrounded by tidy stretches of rich brown mulch.

Just then, the neighbors’ back door opened, and a man cameout. He was carrying a can of paint and a paintbrush.

“Excuse me,” I said. “If we buy this house, willwe have to keep our yard as neat as yours?”

He grinned at me. “That’s up to you, I guess.”And then he began to repaint the already immaculate shed.

You know how sometimes you just can’t help rising to achallenge? We bought the other half of his twin. We moved in withour kids and cats and furniture and composting bin. We startedplanting a garden. And thus began a 15-year war that continues tothis day.

The neighbors in the other half of our twin, Jim and Charl, arelovely people. They take in UPS packages for us, carry our trashcans back from the curb, share re-roofing costs with us. They putup with our barking dog and our screaming offspring. We’venone of us had so much as one cross word with each other in 15years. Yet Charl and I have carried on a constant, unrelentingbattle, just the same. Our weapons? Shovels and trowels, fertilizerand compost. The field of war? Those backyards. The stakes?Bragging rights, I guess. Charl and I see the world in wildlydivergent ways, and it shows in our gardens. I want to bend herview, and she wants to bend mine.