I would go ahead and edge the driveway. I have always worked on the theory that you should to be a good neighbor, You are standing out there by the drive with the tools, why would you not edge the apparent edge of your yard? (Assuming this is a city drive of 40 to 50' long and several feet from the property line. If this is a country drive on several hundred feet that would be different.) Last year I was in a near by town and watched a man cut his yard. There was a small piece of lawn between the street side walk and his side walk extension to the street. I thought it ridiculous for the man mowing to leave this 4' X 3" section un mowed.

In the spring, I have gone into our neighbors yard and picked up pine cones, since I had the lawn tractor with trailer out there picking them up on my side. This weekend that neighbor cleaned up a shared wooded area where several trees fell last fall, part of those trees were on my lawn. My only regret now is the new chain saw blade I bought for the project is not going to get used ;-).

That’s not something to quibble about, just edge it. How long does it take? Assuming you already have the edger out ... I routinely pick up debris on my neighbors ‘ property if I’m outside picking up my yard & sidewalks ( I have one of those little broom / dustpan combos ). I’ve seen our neighbor across the street from me sweeping the curb areas of house two or three houses down from his ( he’s a little OCD , lol ). There are no “rules” other than to be considerate of others.

sounds like you are doing a lot of assuming. Just edge the thing.

I agree it is neighborly and quite often we have done just that for exactly that reason. But now he rarely returns the favor and seems to expect it. So the same could be said of our neighbor.

I did not point out that because we have the corner lot, we have about 3 times as much edging to do as he does. As we only have a weed-wacker it already takes 45 minutes with our 1/3 acre lot and it does take an additional 15 minutes to do his 35 feet. (He has a sidewalk running the side of his house to the back as well.) And that does not include clean up.

However, mostly I just wanted to know the proper etiquette.

Thank you for your answers.

If it's taking you 15 minutes to do 35 feet of driveway edging you're doing something wrong.

I'm having trouble visualizing a situation where the property line lies exactly over the driveway curb where the grass stops. Is that really the situation? I'd start with figuring out the actual property line and go from there. You might still want to do it since it seems to be mostly your lawn, but at least you'll know.

The property line runs between the two with the right edge of their cement driveway, left edge of our grass. Our driveways here are usually a curb-less flat slab which in this case abuts our lawn. Naturally, grass continues to grow and driveways that are edged with grass must be edged to look good. So I suppose the situation is like a tree that grows over the fence. Our grass, their property. Who trims your tree once it is in the neighbors yard?

And good point Lawniac, although I just checked and for what its worth it is actually closer to 65 feet with the sidewalk to his back yard. So yes, I suppose I am still a bit slow. It has to be blown or swept as well, which forces me onto his property to do this. If the wind blows the wrong way I end up blowing off most of his driveway as well.

Anyway, sorry this has become such a bit thing, I thought there would be a simple rule. It is a bit f extra work to do every time, but if it is my job, it is my job. If not then I will just continue to do it occasionally. Or in a year or two we are thinking of taking most of the lawn out anyway and just put in garden with shrubs and mulch. Less mowing and watering. End of problem.

The question becomes are you edging you lawn or are you edging your sidewalk/driveway. I edge my driveway, why would I edge yours?

Why don't you post a picture of the area so we can understand the situation better.

The rule has been stated: you mow your property and he mows his. Find the property line and stop mowing at that point. If he wanted a different type of grass against HIS driveway, would you stop him? I would hope not. You are free to agree on another arrangement, but you have to at least talk about it.

I mow my lawn at 4 inches and my neighbor mowed his at 1.5 inches. Of course he was wrong, but I let him mow over to my driveway because it looked less stupid doing that than it did with a 3-inch gap on it. My driveway had no paving so nothing to edge. We never talked about it. We were not the best of friends but he was not continually offensive. So I did not see any need to quibble about it. He planted a straggly shrub down the side of his house which invaded my driveway all the time. I sheared it off at the vertical property line with hedge clippers every 3 months or so so that I could drive in and out.

Edging will take a few extra minutes. A war w/neighbor, even if passive aggressive, will last as long as either decides to move, if at all. That could be a looooooong time.

I would never edge someone else's driveway but thats just me. Most in my area dont even edge their sidewalk and driveway.

Along similar lines, my neighbor installed a metal fence between our properties. I mow as close to the fence without any chance of hitting it but I'll be damned if I'm going to go trimming it.

If you feel like doing it then do it. If not then don't. I think I would edge it as long as I felt comfortable enough standing in his driveway to clean up the grass clippings.

In the city we had a 5 foot requirement. The neighbors drive had to be at least 5 feet from the property line.

So this is the area in question. The grass is our property, the cement is his.

At some point before we moved in he apparently filled in his driveway side grass with cement up to our property line. I don't know if that is legal as j3344 asked, and it really doesn't bother me. He does often park his vehicles up to the line which also doesn't bother me. Our neighbor on the other side did the same, but he always edges his driveway.

When we had an actual edger we would often do the edging because as some have said, it was easy and neighborly. However, with just a weed wacker it takes much longer. And I have come to resent the assumption on his part that we should edge his driveway.

BossyVossy is right in that we don't want a war. However, this "friendly war" has been going on for 5 years. So far we are still cordial. However, if I am miffed because "he thinks I am supposed to edge his driveway", then the damage is already done. If on the other hand I find that the rule is you "edge the lawn, not the sidewalk", I would have no reason to be miffed. Which is why I asked for what the rule or proper etiquette is in the first place. Whether it is easy to do or neighborly is irrelevant if I am feeling put out. Because in the end, it is his property that looks bad if it is not done.

Since the grass is yours I think you should edge it. Life is too short to fret over something as trivial as this ...

I would edge it; it's your grass. It's not very long either.

Well if we are voting...I am odd person out. I think the question is "who should edge the driveway?" If it is their drive, they should edge. But I am surprised that your lawn butts up to their driveway. Usually there is a strip of lawn bordering the drive associated with the property. Personally I wouldn't want someone else edging one side of my drive unless you mow on the same day with same height of grass. But as others have stated...life is short, bite the bullet and do it. If not, they might question why all of a sudden you are no longer doing it. But I get it...it doesn't meet your expectations. Weird situation. Good luck.

Well, I think the situation is simple. You edge along the sidewalk, even though it's not your sidewalk, so you should edge along the driveway as well.

That amount of edging should only take about 30 seconds, but it looks like the grass is growing over the cement. Take an edging spade and go along the cement to create a clean cut edge. Going forward, use the weed whacker flipped upside down to maintain it. You should edge every time you mow.

I look at it as: you'd be edging YOUR grass, not HIS driveway.......I'd wouldn't even give it a second thought.

It looks like they added that portion of cement next to their driveway. that's on them! Still say NO to edging it for them. it looks fine as is btw.

Let’s say that you rip out grass and put some pretty shrubs and annuals and mulch. Weeds don’t care where they grow and surely a stem or leaf will grow on neighbor’s side. Are you not going to remove it ‘cause foliage is on their side? Most reasonable people would rip it out w/o further ado and never think theyre are cleaning neighbor’s side.

I'm rethinking this based on the photo. Let's say I am the guy who extends his driveway to my neighbor. What did i have there before, grass? Do I have grass anywhere else on my property and do I edge it? OK, so I have a lawn and I edge it including my driveway. Now I want more driveway space so I'm going to extend the concrete to the property line up to my neighbor's grass. Neat! I don't have to edge my driveway any more because now my neighbor has to do it! LOL. Is that what he is thinking?

Personally if I extended my driveway and i used to edge it, I would still edge it because my neighbor never had to edge before. He's taking advantage of the fact that the concrete was there before you moved in, so you don't know any better. Ask him if he had lawn there before and did he edge the driveway. If he didn't then why should you? If he did, then why shouldn't he continue to do so. He created this situation. I can't imagine putting the edging job onto my neighbor like that. Kind of a crap move.

For those of you who talk about edging the street and the sidewalk, that is different. The town requires you to keep that neat (and they don't require edging). This border is between two neighbors, not between a homeowner and the town.

Ask him politely what was there before the concrete and did he edge it?

Lastly, I don't think you need to edge it at all. It looks fine. My wife doesn't like me to edge our walkway to the house because she likes the softer look.

I'd probably get rid of the grass there and put in some mulch and flowers to soften the hard edge of his driveway, even though that's a little more high maintenance than just grass

Actually on a year long basis mown lawns require more time to keep up than flower beds.

Anyway if the lawn is going to be retained in the spot being discussed the party mowing it should edge all of it. Presumably the neighbor cleans the drive all the way to the line, all of the lawn should be trimmed by the one keeping the lawn also.

Here's another thought. If you have a tree and the main trunk is on your property, then it's your tree you're responsible for trimming it even if branches hang over your neighbor's property. I think we could extrapolate for grass. If the main stem of the plant is on your property, you're in charge of trimming it even if the blades of grass overhang on your neighbor's property.

Lawniac said:

Here's another thought. If you have a tree and the main trunk is on your property, then it's your tree you're responsible for trimming it even if branches hang over your neighbor's property.

I have to respectfully disagree:
This came up last fall for me and I looked into it in a number of sources; at least in NJ, whatever hangs over your property is your responsibility, not the "tree owners"....

I had several trees trimmed and taken down, the ones that were my neighbors trees I had to trim, but I did inform them beforehand. Similarly, a couple of my trees that hang over to my neighbors yard (not much because I had them trimmed) are his responsibility to trim as far as the parts that hang over his yard.

I think Joe is right. In NJ if your neighbor's tree falls down in your yard, it is your responsibility to pay for removal, not the neighbor's. I had this happen to me in my back yard. Luckily my neighbor felt like since it was her tree she should pay for it. For $4,000 I wasn't going to argue.

I still think the OP's neighbor created the issue by extending his driveway and he should treat the new driveway border the same as his old driveway when his own grass was against the driveway.

$4000??

Whew, was it the Rockefeller Christmas Tree??

I say it's the concrete layer's responsibility. He created the situation, which is probably out of code. If it were within his property he'd have to be edging it himself - and maybe wouldn't bother. So why should you?

Your lawn, you edge it. Neighbor didn't want to deal with plants or grass in that space so put concrete on his side. The only way I wouldn't edge it is if neighbor asks you not to stand on his property. Otherwise, the grass is on your side of the property line so I don't understand why you wouldn't maintain it.

Mowing is a standard of care for turf, not edging.

I doubt there are any rules written down about this anywhere. Maybe your neighbour is just as uncertain and doesn’t want to intrude on your lawn?
Either way, I’ve had enough experience with both good and bad neighbours to know and appreciate the value of good neighbourly relations. Our current neighbours rely on us to pick up their mail and papers when they’re away much more often than we do of them, but we are not keeping score or resenting it. Because they are lovely people, that we can count on in a pinch and we are considerate and friendly with each other! That is worth WAY more than the few minutes of effort to do some little task. JMO

What a strange situation. Looking at the picture, I can’t figure out why this trimming along the driveway takes you 15 minutes. I believe it would take me 3 minutes. Maybe 5, tops.

What equipment are you using? And are there physical limitations which contribute to the job taking you a long time? If there are, I’d simply stop doing it. Obviously, Neighbor filled the spot with concrete so HE wouldn’t have to deal with it.

Thanks everyone who has responded to this. It is interesting to see that people are coming down on both sides of the issue. Just like me. So apparently no real "rule" here to "edge cement vs. edge grass". However, doesn't everyone pretty much edge their own driveway?

And as I said it already takes more than twice the time for us to care for our lawn, (twice the sidewalk and driveway...never buy a corner lot! ha ha). So perhaps it should be him that needs to be the "good neighbor" if that is the issue here. And I would hope everyone picks up mail and newspapers when their neighbor is gone. I water their potted plants as well if needed. So we are already good neighbors.

To the response that he didn't want to deal with it so he put cement in and now it is our problem, that is just rude. And precisely my point. Why should I have to edge his driveway just because he doesn't want to? Does that driveway slab suddenly only have one side? I don't know what the law says in our area about where the cement needs to end, but it is pretty common in this neighborhood. We have the same situation on the other side. We have thought about taking out the grass there and just cementing in, too. But then that neighbor would have nowhere to put his snow in the winter as he has almost no front lawn at all. However, he edges his driveway in the exact same situation. I edge both sides of my driveway. And it is definitely NOT being a good neighbor on anyone's part if it was intentional. In addition I most often couldn't edge if I wanted to as his car is usually parked just inches from our grass anyway. I could damage his vehicle. (Unlike in the picture, he usually parks next to our lawn behind the wheelbarrow/trash can). I do keep the rose bush trimmed back so it doesn't scratch his car . That is being a good neighbor.

To those who think this is a 5 minute job, that distance may be farther than you think. It is about the same length as the average front yard width or 3 extended cab pickups. So true with a power edger, but not a cordless weed wacker in the thick of summer when no one has done it for 3-4 weeks, which is usually the case. And you can't edge and just leave all the cut grass there. An extra 10-15 minutes doesn't seem like much except when you are already tired having spent 45 minutes in the sun edging after an hour of mowing. And it is really beside the point anyway if it isn't your job and you are just being nice. It is more the assumption that because I was nice, now I have to do it that irks me.

In the end it IS our plan to put in a garden/mulch area which will solve the issue nicely. Then we will be able to just mow that side. And it will look great as well. We are now in our mid 60's and we are trying to cut down on yard maintenance so we plan to eliminate 30% of the front lawn. And we will use less water in this dry climate as well

That is still a year away so I only have to deal with this another year.

There is a rule, actually, that correlates with one's legal responsibility. One does not have the responsibility of trimming plants off of other people's property. But they have the absolute right to trim anything on their own property, regardless of who started the plant. In other words, if your tree is growing into the neighbor's yard, they have the right to trim it all the way back to the property line, even though its trunk is located in your yard and you planted it. Just because it's grass instead of a tree doesn't change the responsibilities. One is not obligated to trim their grass at the property line, but the neighbor has the right to trim the grass back to the line, if they so choose. And having their driveway there might make them choose to do it.

I have basically the exact same situation, except that in my scenario I am the "neighbor with the driveway." However, it's not really a driveway. I have a mowing strip inlaid into the yard at the property line because I have groundcover and my neighbor has grass .... wildly spreading, "invasive" grass. Next to my wildly spreading, invasive" groundcover! I am the one that installed the groundcover and the mowing strip (so that there is a clear line. The plants on each side must be kept separate.) My neighbor could care less about trimming the outer edge of his grass. I am the one that "caused the problem" and the one most interested in keeping the plants distinctly separated. I take it upon myself to do what needs to be done in order for the situation to work. I ask nothing of my neighbor. Way back when the mowing strip was first installed and my neighbor was taking care of his own grass, he would occasionally edge it. But he was neither dependable or did a tidy job. Now he has a mow & blow crew and they do a half-baked job of it, too. I don't want to do the work, but concede that I must. Most of the time, I edge it with Round-Up (surgically sprayed with a fan tip, which means that it must be done frequently so as to not look bad.) Being as it is easy and rapid, it is my preferred way. BTW, my neighbor said OK to the Round-Up to edge his grass. I think he, like you, Robinsnestadv, feels some responsibility to edge his lawn to keep it off of my things, and is therefore happy to make concessions in order to be absolved of the work. I don't think he knows it is entirely my responsibility. Anyway, my edging is very tidy so there's nothing to complain about.

If I were you, Robbin', I would completely stop edging the neighbor's driveway. If he brings up a question about it, I would tell him that he's more than welcome to edge it all the way to the property line. That you have erroneously edged it at previous times only serves to confuse the neighbor and might go toward causing new bad feelings as you're no longer doing it. But he must come to understand who has what responsibility, and accept it.

While one does not have the legal responsibility to trim their own plants as they grow across the lot line when it is the commonly accepted trees, grass and bushes that everyone is used to, one might cause some hard feelings and even possibly court action if they plant something that is noxious, invasive, or causes the neighbor and enormous amount of work. To be sure, if one cause the neighbor huge amounts of work, it is not right and would rightly be the cause of the neighbor's ill will. I don't think lawn grass qualifies, but something like bamboo might.

This was originally a kind of an exercise of curiosity, but with so many differing opinions I got more curious and decided to call the "experts". 2 Professional lawn care companies.

And they basically said what Yardvaark said. They would not touch the neighbors property, and anything that crosses the property line IS the neighbors property and responsibility. While I have the right to remove anything rooted in my yard the neighbor cannot do anything that will kill the grass, vine, tree, or whatever if its base is in your yard. Ie: Roundup, cutting the main stalk or roots, etc. They can harvest the fruit, cut the roses or cut the tree limbs.

They both said that in similar situations they have had people come out and start yelling because they were just trying to trim a hedge or blow off the grass. One time the neighbor even called the police. My neighbors are very nice and would never do that, but the premise still holds that legally, at least, it is not my responsibility.

So I might still edge occasionally if I have the extra time, but I will not feel any guilt if I do not. Which is what I really wanted to know.

In researching this I also discovered that (per danielj,'s fallen tree issue), if you see that the neighbors tree (or branch or roots) is dead or damaging your house and endangering your property, you have the assumed responsibility to ask them to remove it, (if you actually know which is not always the case if the core is rotten). Take a picture and ask them to cut it down. Most good neighbors would offer to split the costs as it benefits both. If after a reasonable time they have not acted, take a picture and send it to the city. They should cite him so that if it is still not removed and THEN it falls or damages your property, they have to pay for it and any damages. Of course this may not be true everywhere but it is generally the case. We actually just had this happen in our neighborhood with someone who's tree died and one of it's huge limbs was hanging over the street threatening everyone driving by. The city in this case removed it and then sent him the bill as he had been already cited.

Thanks again to everyone.

All things being said....way more important things to worry about in life

@killerv yes, there are way more important things to think about. But I am, and I'll assume the poster is, a complex adult that can think about multiple things, both significant and insignificant, at the same time. I hope one day you will be able to do so as well!

I am currently in the same situation. However I have a lawn guy edge my grass on all sides. I don't want anyone cutting on my grass. If I keep it nice just because my lawn is on the other side of his driveway does not give him the right to cut or do anything else to my lawn. There is something called adverse possession. If you have an ass for a neighbor later they could try to claim part of your property. I trust no one. Especially those who show up after 2 days and are on your property walking and cutting and never asked permission. People should cut all sides of your grass on your property.

I have reread this thread. The OP said the drive way does not belong to him. Why do you edge at all? You edge because the side walk is there and the side walk belongs to you. You do not edge because the grass is there. In other words the edging is needed because of the driveway, not because of the yard. The drive way belongs to your neighbor; therefore he should be edging HIS drive way.

“Much ado about nothing …” Edge your lawn. But that’s what I would do, but you’re free not to.

I think it’s very bold of your neighbor to even bring up the subject to you. Its manipulative. You should not even have been put in the position to wonder about this question. Just because you choose not to edge their driveway does not mean you are not a good neighbor. Pretty soon you’ll get resentful and feel like your being taken advantage of. If your neighbor wants edging let him do it. If its your property you have the right to make the decision where you edge. based on your time, energy, likes and dislikes. You dont have to explain yourself. Just say no its not in my plan for my property to edge at that location.

I had a similar situation, but regarding trees, not grass. Two situations: right after a hurricane, one of my tall oak trees was blown down and landed on my neighbor's roof, damaging it. He said his insurance would take care of it, so "don't worry". It also took out the fence. This was on Long Island, NY. Second case, new neighbor in that house. We have a large white pine tree about two or three feet from the property line, the neigbor complained that the tree was dropping branches, etc. on their new deck and asked if they could trim those branches. We didn't want that to happen (destroyed the symmetric look), but we decided that this was a fight we didn't want to have, and would probably lose, so we said OK.

Regarding this grass situation, if I could mow my lawn right up to the edge without going on my neighbor's property, that is what I would do. If I don't like the look of the un-edged lawn, then I would take care of that also. On the other hand, if I didn't want to go to the effort to edge the lawn and my neighbor said it was unsightly, then let him edge it. Especially if he could do it from his side. It's like my tree branches overhanging my neighbor's deck.