My neighbour ripped out my lovely garden flowers after branding them weeds – I’m so fuming, I’ve billed him for it
A HOMEOWNER has been left “absolutely fuming” after her neighbour ripped out the flowers in her front garden – mistaking them for weeds.
To add insult to injury, the sheepish ‘Good Samaritan’ then tried to replant the dead greenery and insisted they would regrow.
Posting on the Garden Makeover Ideas on a Budget Facebook page, which boasts 625,000 members, the gutted gardener said she planted the wildflower seeds two months ago.
But it was only in recent weeks that they’d started to grow and were showing signs of blooming.
She said: “Someone who lives near me thought it was a good idea to rip out my lovely flowers that were growing in my front garden.
“They had not flowered yet but the buds were forming. It is quite obvious they are flowers.
“He thought he was doing me a favour as he said he was getting rid of weeds. However I did not ask him to touch my garden or do any jobs at all.
“He then insulted me further by replanting the plants he ripped out, watered them and said they would regrow.
“There is no way they will come back. They are obviously dead.
“I’m absolutely fuming. I’ve spoken to him before about growing flowers there so he did know but he’s pretending like he wasn’t aware.”
The raging woman insists she had spoken to her neighbour about growing wildflowers on the patch so he “was aware”.
And she’s now demanded he compensates her for the ruined plants.
She added: “Gardening is something I take so much joy and pride in. To have all of my flowers ripped out of the ground is devastating.
“I won’t be able to get back exactly what I had this year but the least he could do is give me money to buy new flowers.
“I’ve asked him to pay the money and made it clear that he is trespassing without my permission and this is vandalism.
“He has apologised but I’m now waiting for him to take responsibility.
“He really insulted me when he plonked dead plants back into the ground.
“He’s trying to avoid paying now. If he does not pay me I will get the police involved. He needs to take responsibility to pay for the damage he caused.”
The flower incident has left the woman’s fellow plant enthusiasts divided, racking up more than 300 comments.
Many have backed her plans to call in cops amd fumed over the trespassing.
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One said: “Well I would be reporting him to the police, he had no right to be doing anything with your plants – even if they were weeds which they clearly aren’t.
“Obv the police have more significant issues to deal with, but that’s the perpetrator’s problem – not yours.”
A second blasted: “I’d go mad!! How dare he trespass and destroy your flowers?? Wonder how he’d take it if you did the same to him.”
A third echoed: “It’s vandalism…I’d call the police. People might think that’s abit OTT but no, I spend a lot of money on my garden and if anyone did anything like that, I’d call them straight away!”
“I’d make him repay you for the flowers and hope he learns”, chimed in a fourth.
“If not file a police report for trespassing and damage to private property!”
A fifth suggested: “Send him a bill or tell him he can get you a gift certificate for your favourite nursery.”
Meanwhile, a sixth wrote: “I would definitely ask for some sort of compensation.
“If you didn’t ask him to weed your garden, then he should not have touched it. Make it very clear that he is not to tend your garden in the future under any circumstances.”
Others, however, have urged the woman to let it go.
“It really is not worth falling out over some flowers”, insisted one person.
A second agreed: “Put it down to experience, he might’ve made an innocent mistake and thought he was being neighbourly.”
Someone else pointed out: “Life is short, don’t call the cops.”
A fourth joked: “I mean can you blame him for thinking it was a weed patch?”
Another person said: “As he thought he was doing something good I’d just write it off and wait for next year, or go and buy something cheap to replace. No point creating enemies over something so small.”
And someone else argued: “A hard one, some people think they are genuinely being helpful but simply aren’t actually aware. Replanting them, I don’t think was insulting, perhaps just naive.”