Soldier uses military tactics in his garden to enact petty revenge on neighbor.
All's fair in love and the HOA: The petty revenge saga.
One man was sick of trying to reason with his neighbor over the very bright security lights in his yard. He tried being polite and reasonable but after the months rolled by he lost his patience. He says that his training as a soldier is what eventually sealed his neighbor's fate.
I planted Bamboo that overrun my neighbors property over a security light
About 4yrs ago I used to live in a nice HOA community in a small town in TX and enjoyed having only one neighbor over my backyard fence. The plot was about 2 acres and the other side of the backyard butted up to a hay field. The stars were beautiful at night because of virtually no light pollution...
Until the neighbor decided to install an incredibly bright security light over their back porch aimed right at my back patio and bedroom windows. I tried to ignore it at first and put shades in the bedroom, but out on the patio it was like having a bright LED headlight in your face all night.
I consulted the HOA about adding a privacy addition to my fence to increase it's height, and they said no because it's already at the 8' max allowed height. The said there was nothing in the bylaws or whatever about bright lights so nothing they could do.
Act I: Dipolmacy
So I hated for this to be the thing where we finally had a formal greeting after 3yrs of back porch waves but I walked over and rang the doorbell with $20.
I politely explained how the light was causing the aforementioned nuisance and asked if there was any way I could convince him to point the light down or in a different direction and even offered the to buy him a case of beer (the $20) out of good-will and even a new motion sensing light.
Act II: The Polite Reminder
He seemed nice and agreed to point it down...but after waiting a month, nothing changed. I went back to have another polite conversation and he said he had changed his mind and was going to leave it on every night and leave it pointed as-is.
Act III: Petty Revenge
Needless to say I was a bit upset diplomacy failed and started figuring out how to win. If the military taught me anything there's always ways to adapt and overcome.
So I started researching fast growing plants to create big privacy walls and reading through the HOA bylaws and city/state ordinances about what I could or couldn't plant and if there were any repercussions for encroachment across the property line.
I quickly discovered running bamboo, despite being very invasive, would grow super fast to make the neighbor's house and light disappear from view and there was nothing on the HOA/state/city books to prevent me from planting it or cause legal recourse if it spread and grew on his side on the fence.
Only thing he could do is cut anything that grew on his side of the line. So I pulled the trigger and planted a bunch of Golden Bamboo which grows and spreads crazy fast in TX and grows up to 20' tall...I didn't care if it took over the fence line because his house is 15' from the fence while mine was 50yds away.
So, I planted a bunch right against the fence and only put root barrier on my side to prevent it spreading into my yard.
Within 6mo his house and light were GONE from view, replaced by a pretty bamboo jungle row at the edge of my yard. Within 1yr he complained it was growing into his yard via mailed letters. They went right into the trash with no response.
He rang my doorbell once and I looked at him through the window but just didn't answer the door. I unexpectedly sold the house and moved for a career opportunity 2yrs after planting my revenge. It's been 2yrs since I sold and I just checked the property on Google Earth and his entire backyard is bamboo.
Here are the top responses from readers to the OP:
We're dealing with this right now. Someone bought the house behind us and clear cut everything on their side of the fence. Now there's not one, but two ridiculously bright lights over there that are left on all night. I have a sudden urge to buy some bamboo... 😈
As someone who has dealt with bamboo, this is almost nuclear revenge.
You should mail him a stuffed panda and a flashlight with a card that says, “Thinking of you” unsigned and with no return address.
Root barrier was key. We were the recipients of bamboo runners in a rented house. It made the backyard unusable.
I pretty much did the same. Lol. HOA said I could only plant grass.. guess what is also a grass? Bamboo...