If you own a home and you own the land your home is on, and if you don’t have an HOA, your neighbors really can’t control what you do on your land as long as it is within the law.

In today’s story, one neighbor seems to think he has more power than he does, but now he has to live with the consequences.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

Passive aggressive neighborly revenge

We have a big stretch of lawn that is adjacent to our neighbors’ lawn.

Their dog often runs around on our property and we never minded.

We have a dog also, but we keep our dog in our yard and out of theirs’.

They tried to be thoughtful about the neighbor’s dog.

We are avid organic gardeners and grow much of our own food, and are very careful about what chemicals we use on our property.

After having our crop decimated by Japanese Beetles several years in a row, we did a bunch of research and last spring decided to spread milky spore on the lawn as a preventative. Research stated it wouldn’t be harmful to the environment or animals, and we decided to spread it while our neighbors were out of town so their dog wouldn’t run around on it.

The neighbors weren’t out of town as long as they expected.

The next day our neighbor comes marching into our yard yelling about how we tried to kill their dog, and how we are inconsiderate idiots with no regard for our neighbors and are terrible people, etc.

Apparently they came home early and their dog ran onto our lawn and the neighbor claims he watched his dog eat a clump of grass that had milky spore on it, and the dog got sick.

He screamed for about 20 minutes before my husband had enough and told him to leave.

The neighbor seems to think he has more power than he does.

The next day we get a letter in the mail, typed in all caps, demanding that we give him 48 hours written notice before applying anything to OUR lawn, and that we must have his permission prior to doing so.

We informed him that as the land and homeowners, we are not obligated to inform him about anything we do to our lawn, much less get his permission, but that we would give him a heads up out of courtesy, and that he should make an effort to keep his dog on their side to avoid further issues.

The neighbor complained again…

We didn’t hear from him for awhile and then early last fall I was out back planting a few trees on OUR property.

He came out and told me he didn’t like the trees.

I told him sorry to hear that, but it’s my yard and I do like the trees so they’re staying.

The neighbor definitely doesn’t seem to be trying to keep his dog in his yard.

All winter, every time he let his dog outside, we’d watch out the window as he directed his dog over to the trees I’d planted so he could pee on them.

By summer, both trees were half dead where his dog had been peeing on them, and he “told” me that he and his wife were going to purchase and plant different trees for us as a replacement, and that they would be a “better” variety.

She had a different idea…

I told him no, and instead I dug the trees out and replanted them a few feet off the property line on our side, in a spot where they are not visible to us but where he has to see them directly out his living room and kitchen windows…with the dead sides facing his property.

The sides facing our property are now lush and healthy, and the sides facing his property – the sides he encouraged his dog to pee on – are still dead and brown.

It tickles me absolutely pink every time I walk past the trees, and I have named them my “spite trees”.

I have no regrets and I am not sorry.

While this does sound like a satisfying ending to the story, I wonder if the dead sides of the trees with eventually regrow and actually create a beautiful view from the neighbor’s house. That wouldn’t be as satisfying for OP.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted.

This person had a suggestion…

Another reader shared a way to keep the dog off the property.

This reader would take a more serious step to keep the dog away.

This reader is surprised by the neighbor’s attitude.

And this reader had another suggestion for revenge.

Instead of yelling about what my dog ate, if I were the neighbor, I’d make sure my dog didn’t leave my property.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.