'My neighbour has triggered my hay fever with new plants - they need to go'

25 June 2023 , 17:56

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The neighbour has planted oilseed rape, which has triggered her hay fever (stock image) (Image: Getty Images)

It's great to have a friendly relationship with your neighbour, but it's unlikely you'll approve of everything they do.

One woman is stuck in a sticky situation because her neighbour, who she is on friendly terms with, has started growing a flower that is making her whole family's hay fever worse - and she's debating asking them to get rid of them.

Taking to popular parenting forum Mumsnet, the woman explained that her neighbour is growing oilseed rape, a bright-yellow flowering plant, which she assumes is to attract pollinators to her "big garden with a veg patch".

Her whole family are suffering (stock image) (Getty Images)

In a recent post to the website, she explained: "My entire family have got the worst hay fever we've ever had this summer - [my son] suffers badly anyway but it's gone beyond another level in the last week that the rape has started blooming.

"[My husband] is streaming and can't sleep (one patch of rape is directly below our bedroom window)."

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She asked fellow forum users if she should say something to her neighbour, as she's worried it will become a "yearly presence in her garden".

The mum added: "We're normally on friendly terms with her, although don't know her well or socialise together (different life stages).

"However we objected to a planning application she put in earlier this year and we haven't really seen her since (planning was blocked completely by the conservation team in the end so not our fault).

"I also know that I'd be really miffed at being told what I could and couldn't grow. But surely growing rape right next to someone else's house is a bit different?!?"

Many forum users agreed that she couldn't decide what her neighbour could and couldn't grow in her own garden, with one person saying: "It's her garden. You couldn't ask a smoker not to smoke in their garden despite the dangers of second hand smoke and it potentially triggering someone's asthma."

Another added: "Of course you cannot say anything. If you can't live next door to someone with flowering plants in their garden, move into an apartment in a city centre."

However, some believed she should say something to her neighbour if the family are struggling with hay fever.

One person suggested: "I would mention it. We had fields of the stuff behind us this year and i genuinely considered moving. No amount of Beconase or any kind of hay fever meds helped. It was hell."

Another added: "I’d say something, the stuffs a f***ing nightmare. Attracts billions of thrips too."

What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comment section below.

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