How far away from your garden do you think noise and pollution has disturbed you?

clematisdorset · October 2023

I am interested to know whether any noise or pollution can disturb you when you are working or relaxing in your garden, and do you find more distant noises reassuring? Do people, vehicles, machinery or wildlife etc bother you more? How far away does noise or pollution need to be for you to feel it is not disturbing you?

B3 · October 2023

When my hearing was better, it was the thumping noise of music that drove me indoors . Neighbours ' building works annoyed me too. Especially at weekends. Then there was the bloke who spent unnecessary hours at a time mowing his lawn. Now I just take my hearing aids out.
Another thing that annoys me is people lighting bonfires or barbecues when my washing is out. Surely the police thing to do would to knock and warn me. I really wouldn't mind taking the washing in for a while.

Fire · October 2023

How far away from your garden do you think noise and pollution has disturbed you?

35 000 feet. Up

ViewAhead · October 2023

Yrs of building work (over a decade now) near me means reversing lorry alarms are a moment-to-moment fact of life from 8 am to 4 pm and Saturday mornings. 🤨 These can be heard over half a mile away from their source. I know this as I have tested it out. Apparently the guy who invented them wishes he had not. Me too!

Emerion · October 2023

I expect it hasn’t even occurred to them @B3, because if they don’t put washing out themselves, they won’t have learnt that neighbour’s BBQs can affect their nice clean laundry.

Plantminded · October 2023

Any noise relating to nature or gardening activities is fine and I don't mind the distant noise of traffic if it's a low hum. Anything generated by building work or builders close by drives me out of the garden (and house!) and away for a walk. Nearly all of the properties in my road have been renovated during the 10 years that I have lived here (the one next door has been renovated twice!). It's a cul-de-sac so perfect for parking as many vans as possible close to the work site without observing access needed to driveways. The loud radio which seems compulsory for outdoor work is probably the worst noise. I also loathe the sound of a mobile phone ringing outdoors and the moronic, loud conversation that inevitably follows! Other than that, it's a lovely neighbourhood 😊.

LG_ · October 2023

I garden in a small block of land with main roads on two sides and side roads on the others. Just town main roads - 'A' roads I think they're called? Luckily there are lots of trees which really muffle the sound, though not nearly as much as when we moved in 17 years ago. One neighbour removed a couple of large Leylandii, we did the same a few years later (when they were ENORMOUS so very sound-baffling) and the other neighbour removed three huge oaks (which was sad but necessary - they should never have been planted). Then next door but one removed every tree, shrub, plant in their garden except grass. However, even with all this, there are still quite a number of trees and some quite tall Victorian houses and modern flats which all serve to muffle traffic noise quite well. It's always there if you listen for it, but generally I tune it out - there's constant birdsong in the foreground and I love it. Admittedly the squirrels and parakeets make a LOT of noise and that's quite annoying, but I'd rather hear that than traffic.

There's a fire / ambulance station on one of the roads so there are quite a lot of sirens, and a small supermarket & other shops on the other so there are delivery lorries etc, but not enough to bother me. I don't notice most of them much.

The noise that disturbs me is building work, especially if the builders have a blaring radio. This has been almost constant for the past three or four years. However, apart from one group of builders they haven't worked after 4pm or at weekends (the builders that did were a nightmare), and they've stopped for now so I'm feeling okay with it.

The other thing that drives me to the point of screaming (and yes, I have) is the petrol mower next door but one. There's just no need for petrol tools in gardens this size - they're about 100ft x 20ft in total. I could cope with it if it wasn't for two things: being petrol it is constant, he doesn't switch it off as you would an electric mower if he needs to move something. And he does it for about an hour at a time, twice a week. The lawn is maybe 50/60ft by 15ft. Over and over and over. My slightly smaller lawn takes about 10 minutes. You can tell I am driven insane! I just go out now if he starts up.

Other garden sounds - children playing, electric lawn mowing, BBQs don't bother me (I'm sure repetitive trampoline squeaks did, but those are long gone). I just enjoy hearing people enjoying their space, tune the noise out and hear the birds.

So distance for disturbance is probably 100ft as the roads and related noises don't disturb me, just builders and petrol mowers.

NormandyLiz · October 2023

Your posts reinforce how lucky we are. Our immediate neighbours are cows, the next house is 50m away and apart from some log sawing, hedge trimming and lawn mowing, they are very quiet.

Depending on the season, there are tractors and some fairly big log lorries on the road but they are part of life here, so they don't bother us too much.

But in among all the quiet there is always on thing that gets to me - motorbikes. You can tell the beginning of the good weather as the bikes come out and you can hear them 1km + away, speeding up the twisting forest road. Great fun for them I'm sure but I fail to understand how one person's pleasure can be allowed to ruin the peace of countless others.

thevictorian · October 2023

It's the chorus of chainsaws that annoys me the most. Living in an urban environment you wouldn't expect to hear many but it's a very regular occurrence that's not helped by a close neighbour seemingly spending all day every Saturday chopping up wood.

It's horrible when it gets cold with all the wood burners locally.

wild edges · October 2023

Last weekend the only real disturbance was a local guy who's bought a 5L V8 Mustang and seems unaware of the new 20mph speed limit rules. I'm cutting my garden with hand tools and he's lapping the town all day.

Waterbut · October 2023

Since moving to the South coast it is very peaceful and quiet with one exception. Both neighbours, for once, are very nice. The one exception is one has a very old noisy, polluting lawnmower that stinks of fumes when being used. Fortunately not used every weekend.

How far away from your garden do you think noise and pollution has disturbed you?

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