It’s usually a good idea to be considerate of your neighbors when you make decisions that Affect not only your property, but theirs, too.

If you’re not considerate, watch out, because your neighbors might get revenge!

In today’s story, one neighbor tries to be neighborly and work out a problem in a kind and friendly way, but when his neighbor refuses to be reasonable, he decides to get revenge.

This story involves the HOA, the night sky and bamboo.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

I planted Bamboo that overrun my neighbors property over a security light

About 4 yrs ago I used to live in a nice HOA 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…

The neighbor created a big problem…

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.

They said there was nothing in the bylaws or whatever about bright lights so nothing they could do.

He tried to be nice about it and went to talk to the neighbor.

Diplomacy: 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.

I even offered to buy him a case of beer (the $20) out of goodwill and even a new motion sensing light.

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.

He did some research…

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.

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.

He planted bamboo!

I quickly discovered running bamboo, despite being very invasive, would grow super fast to make the neighbor’s house and light disappear from view.

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.

Years later, the neighbor’s yard is filled with bamboo.

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 2yrs after planting for a career opportunity…

It’s been 2yrs since I sold and I just checked the property on Google Earth and his entire backyard is bamboo.

Bamboo is no joke!

I’m surprised his neighbor didn’t move.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This revenge was pretty extreme!

This reader has personal experience with bamboo.

Bamboo is apparently a type of grass.

The neighbor might’ve posted about the bamboo on Reddit…

This reader feels inspired to buy bamboo!

What makes this revenge so extreme is that it’s an ongoing problem for years!

What an intriguing idea…

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.