Garden Dilemma

OK, This is NOT me. Try to imagine a chubbier woman with little dogs following rather than ducks. And also I would NEVER be wearing black socks! but I like the rest of the photo, the yard with the greenhouse and the deck...

Here's my problem. I've been working like a crazed person since last summer in recreating my yard/lawn garden. I live on an unusual size type of "lot". My front "yard" is VERY small with a walk running up the middle to the front steps. On one side of the walk it measures maybe 4 ft x 8ft and the other 8ft x8ft. Then there's a strip of grass about 3ft wide that runs straight across next to the sidewalk. After my lawnmower bit the dust 2 summers ago, I decided to rip up the grass and plant flowers, mostly perennials. I have stepping stones (mainly so that the mailman can walk on them because otherwise he WILL walk on the flowers) and I have landscaped with edging and stones. The strip on the other side of the sidewalk is mowed by my neighbor's (on the left) grandson because it's connected to their strip of grass and because they are NICE.

On the side of my home is my driveway, which was mainly dirt and a few stones. It is VERY wide and very LONG. So on either side I created flower beds surrounded by stones. The beds have perenniels and annuals and one has a birdbath and another a stool with a planter, well, you get the idea. At the end of the drive, next to my house, I dug everything up and enclosed it in a circle of hostas and climbing roses. In the middle I have put my vintage garden chairs and my wonderful picnic table that I got at an estate sale for $15.00! The wood has been sanded down so that you never get splinters! A wonderful place to sit and "work" on stuff. Towards the back, on the top of my backyard, it is enclosed by a privacy fence for my doggies enjoyment.

 I have a cute little dog house that I got from Target on 75% clearance (but was still $50.00!) that nobody uses. Oh, once in a while they'll stick their head in there like "What IS this Thing!?" anyway, I digress. To the other side of this enclosed area I have a wide path, about 6 ft across that leads down to the bottom of my yard which I will admit is in total disarray. (It is my project for THIS summer) the bottom area is really quite large and has a gradual decline on one side but drops off dramatically on the far side. In the spring, at the very bottom, it gets a little bit swampy so I'm scared to go down there (don't snakes like swampy?) and since my dogs aren't in that area...well.... and then in the summer when it's dry, the grass gets kinda high (and don't snakes like high grass?) so I, with head hung low, admit it's an overgrown mess. It also has the castoff trees and branches from my neighbors(on the right) hedge. You see, I got frustrated with it being such a wild and overgrown thing. It was so bad that I could barely see to pull out into the street (and I live on a busy one) that last summer I cut JUST the wild trees out of it. This action on my part caused my neighbor to scurry out while I was away at work and hack down the hedge to about 3 ft in the back and 2 ft up front....(I can't fathom why he wouldn't do it all at the same level!) SO, the next time that I'm outside he comes over and apologizes about the hedge being so high and I said, no that was fine, really - no problem. OK, YES! I admit it! I am passive-agressive! But I will save that for a later post. I do point out that it will grow back and when it does, would he mind if I kept it trimmed? Of course he doesn't mind! He tells me that he might someday rip the whole thing out and put up a nice white vinyl privacy fence. (Yeah, Right!)

So as the summer progressed, the hedge grew and I trimmed it. All summer long he had his truck and at least another car or two packed on the his front lawn. My sister (who is NOT passive-agressive, just very Assertive!) came over once at exclaiming "What the Hell! That looks like a F*#!ing  car lot!

( I hissed under my breath - sssh their windows are open!) Of course she replied SO! and Good!-Who Cares! They need to Hear!
So, this Spring, they have HUGE ruts in their yard from the truck and it looks horrible. So last week I am outside shoveling my truck load of new white shiny gravel around my drive, carefully placing it around the beds and being generally anal about the whole thing when my neighbor comes out. After some chit-chat he starts talking about the hedge again, and maybe he'll pull it out. I told him that I had cut the dead wood out of it a couple of days ago.... and then he asks if I mind if he just yanks it all out. So, I saw  - Yeah That's fine! (secretly hoping for that big vinyl fence and telling myself that it would be ONE less thing for me to take care of) Boy, did I walk into that one! Because then he said he was going to lay down some railroad ties and put down some gravel and park his boat there........................

I had nothin', I couldn't think of a thing because of the screaming in my head. All I could envision was this ugly brown fishing boat..................
So, Now. Do I put up a fence?, build a garden shed and plant small trees?,

 construct a beautiful greenhouse with imaginary money?

or just wait and see...my sister says he's too lazy to pull it out but I came home the other day and one shrub was pulled out with a some roots sticking out of the ground and new truck tire track ruts in his yard. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm researched a lot of things on the web. I kinda wish he'd read this post...but that would be the Ultimate in Passive-Aggressive Behavior, wouldn't it!