When it comes to gardens and landscaping, we all have different ideas of what looks good.

One neighbor may love a cottagecore wildflower garden, while the next may have formal rosebushes and little else.

And that’s okay – that diversity is great for the local ecosystem, and makes things a lot more interesting to look at too.

But what happens if, like the guy in this story, your neighbor not only has very different ideas to you, but tries to inflict them on you too.

Read on to find out how this neighborly dispute went further than just words.

Leave my leaves alone!

My neighbor is a typical curmudgeonly old man.

He loathes the fact that I do not rake my leaves (yay, pollinators!)

He tells anyone who will listen how much he hates it. Even the mailman said, “Wow, that guy does NOT like you.”

My leaves do not touch his yard at all. We are separated by a chain link fence. The wind can’t even blow them into his space. They have zero effect on his life.

But the old man wasn’t happy with just moaning about the situation.

Yesterday when I got home, all of my leaves that could be seen from his window had been raked into a pile around the corner of my house. Another neighbor said she saw him in my yard raking them up.

Me, being quite curmudgeonly myself, waited until after dark, snuck out, and put all my leaves back where they belong.

This morning the old guy walked outside for his morning smoke, stopped, stared, and started cussing.

It was glorious.

This is hilarious.

The old man can do whatever he wants with his yard, but he needs to respect that his neighbor also reserves the same right.

So the neighbor’s revenge, while being harmless, put him in his place perfectly.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person agreed that the old man’s behavior would be infuriating.

While others made more suggestions on how to prevent him clearing leaves in the future.

Meanwhile, this Redditor pointed out that the neighbor could press charges on the old man.

The old man’s behavior is unacceptable, and show how little he cares about his neighbor, their choices, and the ecosystem in their neighborhood.

Old leaves are great for nature, and leaving them on the ground where they belong is the responsible thing to do.

The fact that the old man puts aesthetics above nature – to the extent that he apparently can’t bear to look at his neighbor’s yard – says a lot about him.

It’s not a good look.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.