Houzz, the on-line home and garden design resource, recently featured
an article on property lines. The author took pictures of homes in the Sacramento area showing how adjacent properties sometimes complement each other but, more frequently, collide. I hadn't given our own property lines much thought so took my camera out for a look at the boundaries between us and our neighbors on either side.
The houses in our neighborhood weren't all built at the same time. The earliest, like ours, were constructed in the 1950s but other homes were built at intervals stretching through the 1960s and 70s into the early 1980s. House styles vary, as do lot sizes and shapes. The area is hilly so many homes also sit at different elevations. The 2 houses on either side of us are both sited below us with yards encircling the back of our house and garden.
The driveway entrance of the house on the right of us is separated from our driveway by a long expanse of hedge and a low stone wall, which the neighbors extended down along their own driveway entrance.
![]() |
| The neighbor's concrete wall blends in fairly well with our stone wall, as do the hedges |
It's hard to determine exactly where the dividing line is between the 2 properties from the street. The neighbor's hedge, constructed of
Nerium oleander, blends into the hedge on our side of the property line, constructed of what I think is
Pittosporum rhombifolium. The line is only nominally clearer from the area behind the hedge.
Shortly beyond where the one hedge ends, another, constructed of
Xylosma congestum, begins. This hedge, which belongs to us, extends along the right side of our property, behind our backyard border, into our dry garden.
![]() |
| Our Xylosma hedge starts in the right side yard just outside a raised wood border that creates a narrow pathway behind the side and backyard borders |
![]() |
| The pine trees beyond the hedge in the backyard belong to our neighbor |
![]() |
| But the Yucca beyond the hedge is apparently ours |
![]() |
| The hedge, somewhat taller here, creates a boundary on one side of the dry garden |
When we made the offer on the property, I assumed that all the area behind the
Xylosma hedge belonged to neighbors. However, during the property inspection process, I learned that the area behind the hedge in the dry garden, extending down the slope, also belonged to us.
![]() |
| View of sloped area beyond the hedge |
I also learned that this area had been the subject of a dispute between our neighbor to the left and a prior owner of our property. We found evidence of where the chain link fence had been moved when the boundary lines were clarified. The area from the concrete stairs (which were installed by my husband our first year here) to where the chain link fence now stands, bordered from the inside by yet another hedge, had previously been tended by our neighbor. She was responsible for planting the lemon tree that stands at the bottom of the slope. Thankfully, she bears us no ill will (reserving that for the former owner). I drop off a supply of lemons periodically.
![]() |
| The neighbor had previously treated the triangular area from the stairway to the hedge on the right in the picture above as hers |
![]() |
| Lemon tree reportedly planted by our neighbor |
I'm still not entirely clear where the boundary between our yard and that of the other neighbor, on the right, lies at the bottom of the slope. As the property drops sharply just beyond the
Yucca elephantipes and as the neighbor, who religiously trims the other trees on his property, hasn't ever touched the
Yucca or the plants at its base, I'm operating on the assumption that these belong to us. One day, I've got to pin him down and ask but I rarely see him.
![]() |
| The sunnier area beyond the Yucca belongs to our neighbor on the right |
Like the house on the right, the house to the left of us isn't readily visible from the street but our stone wall and
Xylosma hedge end a couple of feet from the neighbor's driveway. The mailbox and
Strelitzia reginae belong to her.
In our case, good hedges make good neighbors. I can't say that our boundary lines on either side "collide" with those of our neighbors. I'm glad to say that they're relatively harmonious, like our relationships with the neighbors themselves. Do your boundary lines say anything about the relationships with your neighbors?
