Noisy Gardens

People here do their gardening whenever the weather and their work commitments let them. It's pretty quiet most of the time.

where is 'here' felice. Expats in rural Switzerland complain like crazy about Sunday rules and keep saying this is only a Swiss thing!

I live in a small rural village- and my parents used to live across the road. As long as they were there, nobody would have put washing out on a Sunday, or mowed the lawn, used power tools, etc. Not because he would have complained, but out of natural deference and respect for older traditions, way of life. Since they've gone- nobody cares- neither of my neighbours are relligious- and we just do what we want- but taking care not to make noise if we know someone worked the night before, or when someone has visitors, and outside BBQ, etc.

As we live in Ye Olde Vicarage next to the Church- we don't put out washing or mow lawn, etc, if there is a service at the Church (about once a month)- again, out of respect although we are not Church goers.

The problem is our neighbours make a noise when they mow their lawn, prune their trees, make a patio or decking, trim their hedge. etc. etc.

When we do it, we are their neighbour and they probably think we are a ruddy nuisance making a noise.

Here it is no noise on Sundays or public holidays, which is great. It is also illegal to hang out washing where it can been seen by neighbours and passersby, anytime. Some of the country areas are quite lenient on the last one but in the cities it is a big no no.

Lawnmowers, strimmers, diy, people cutting paving slabs, chain saws etc etc.
Sometimes, mainly weekends. All the sounds of busy people.

Other times extremely quiet, apart from a neighbour's yappy squealing little dog which upsets everyone. We hope this might stop now that someone has had a quiet word in the owner's ear.

We lived in Germany for 6 years where no washing hung out after 2pm on a Saturday and no grass cutting on a Sunday. Most certainly no washing of cars on a Sunday.
Mind you, that was 20 years ago, I wonder what it is like now.
Actually I agreed with those rules but it was easy for me.

We used to have neighbours who on sunny weekends would have barbecues which started at 10 am Saturday morning and ended late on Sunday evenings. There would be loud music and constant people coming and going. I decided that it was not the noise of the children playing that was the biggest problem but the noise of the parents yelling at them. Another neighbour contacted the police but nothing was done. Requests to turn the noise down was met with blank stares. What joy when the for sale sign went up and now all we hear is birdsong most of the time. I don't begrudge anyone the occasional party but almost every weekend was too much.

Depends on season- in Summer I love to hear the distant sound of cow bells Most days are really quiet- just the odd tractor passing by- but of course sometimes a neighbour mows his lawn, a tree is cut- kids laughing. Sparrows are nesting in the beams above our bedroom (outside rafters) and young are feeding, and they make such a lovely racket. Kites meeewing, fieldfares 'cackling' and so many other birds- I love to listen to the chatter of swallows.

Foxes made quite a racket during mating season in late winter- now gone quiet. Oh- and Church bells at 12 midday, and 10pm, funerals and rare services and weddings.

The noisest things where I live are ..... rooks! Zillions of them live in the big trees in and around the church yard, and at the moment are nesting and screaming at each other all the time.My DGS calls it rook wars, and likes to collect all the feathers that float down.

It was very quiet here until the people next door but one got a second dog - this one gets all the others within hearing going.

I actually got to sleeping without earplugs (always necessary in Oxford) but not now....

The only things I can hear out here are very loud birdsong (they are all "at it"!), sheep baa-ing and the cows farting! Bliss! This is why we stay in this entirely unsuitable house!!

But it's not quite so brilliant in the winter when we need to get to a shop!!

We live on the very edge of town. The sea and a main road to the front and open fields to the back. I don't notice the road unless something really big goes by. I'm lucky there are no children in our row of 11 houses. Next door only lives there part of the time. The other side has a dog which is sometimes noisy but other than that it's just the birds. In fact I'm in the lounge now with the back door wide open. ( we have a cat that thinks she's the size of an elephant ) and I can hear the birds. I do feel fortunate.

Oh crumbs! I hope none of you is living next door to me!

It's on a Sunday here that the noise steps up. Next door drilling and DIYing, next door but one sanding his precious boat (roll on next month when he drives it off to North Wales for the summer), and the people next door to him have loud BBQs. Luckily, no-one's around the rest of the week - perfect bliss!

Though not usually at weekends.

When we moved in here lazy weekends were often spoiled by next door's children playing very noisily. When their mother asked if it was disturbing us I bit my tongue and replied 'no I love to hear children playing!'

Thank goodness I did as now 7 years later hers are teenagers and don't play out much but it's the turn of my noisy GC

My next door neighbour fixes cars. He has engines and I don't know what running all weekend. He Has absolutely no consideration for any of us. The whole neighbourhood think the same and yet...we say nothing. I just don't want a fuss. You hear such awful stories in the press of these things getting out of hand. We cope by hardly using the garden. We are out most of the week at work. When we have good weather we go out. Our garden is very small. We cut the grass, hang out washing but do little else. So it doesn't bother us too much. I do agree though that life is getting noisier. I have a memory of a holiday 10 years ago. Taken very late in the season. A long stretch of beach with not another living sole on it. The only sound to be heard was the turning of the tide, whoosh in, whoosh out. For the first and only time in my life my mind emptied,time stood still and I lost two hours. Complete peace. Lovely. Have a lovely bank holiday.