Good Neighbors and Fences

Robert Frost once wrote about good neighbors and fences, but his point was in asking who is walling one in and who is walling one out.  If we truly are good neighbors, we don't need a fence.  I have a chainlink fence around my property, including the long side of the property I share with a 3-unit rental. The entire length of the fence is planted with oleanders that serve as a privacy barrier.

My dog trainer is also a botanist (retired), and when she saw the half-dozen young children next door playing in the oleanders, she told them to stay away from the plant because it's poisonous. The kids heard the word "poison" and ran to get their mom, who then engaged in a confrontation with me because I shouldn't have poisoned plants coming through the chain link fence, where the children can touch them and get sick or die.

Yep, we went from zero to sixty in about 5 seconds flat.

I calmed her down and told her the children would have to chew on the leaves/branches to get sick, and she responded with the fact that they are just children and may do that.  She told me I had to take the plants off "her" side of the fence or she would call the police.  I assured her that I would take care of it as quickly as I could, but Nancy told her to tell her children not to play where the plants are. That was like adding fuel to a fire, so I quietly told Nancy to cool it and assured the woman that I would go see my gardener right then and see when he could take care of this issue for me.

I walked down to my gardener's home and left a note for him to call me, which he did.  I explained the issue to him and he shook his head that the woman would have been threatening me. I told him that I needed to have the removal of the oleander as soon as possible, so he set aside today (Monday) to take care of the problem.  He was able to speak to the woman in Spanish and tell her that the plants would not "kill" her children, but she was still freaked out.

Antonio, my gardener, just finished clearing "her" side of the fence, so the oleanders are trimmed back.  We'll keep an eye on it and hope that this satisfies the neighbor.  Antonio will add trimming them to his monthly gardening to-do list, which is fine with me.

The answer to Frost's question about neighbors and fences remains elusive, but cutting back the oleanders is now a part of my being a good neighbor.