Oh, my gourd? My neighbours’ pumpkin is growing on my side of the fence

I get along well with my neighbour. However, his pumpkin vine has grown from his place into mine and now has a pumpkin growing on it. Do I need to tell him and, more importantly, who owns it?
P.N., Ashburton, VIC

Credit: Illustration by Simon Letch

As far as I’m concerned, anything that comes onto my property from a neighbour’s property is mine to keep: fruits, vegies, flowers, frisbees and, one time, after a particularly rowdy Australia Day party next door, half a can of Mountain Goat Pale Ale (still fizzy!) and a perfectly good pair of “Aussie Flag” boxer shorts (cleanish).

Even according to the law, that pumpkin is yours: The Right of Abatement gives you permission to remove any vegetative nuisance that encroaches onto your property, so you’re allowed to lop off a neighbour’s overhanging branches, vines and fruits, but not a neighbour’s overhanging fingers, hands and elbows while they’re leaning on the fence asking why you’re lopping off their branches, vines and fruits. A pumpkin is definitely vegetative and also a nuisance: it really hurts when you stub your toe on one, which many believe is how pumpkin soup was invented. It was just people taking out their stubbed-toe anger on the pumpkin using knives, boiling water and a stick blender set to turbo.

So if this neighbour’s pumpkin is growing in your yard, then you own it and you can eat it. And if you get along well with this neighbour, then maybe take around a bowl of soup or some pumpkin scones, just in case you got the only pumpkin on the vine and his plant is now withered and dead.

Otherwise, don’t say anything at all, which is what I’d do, whether it’s pumpkins, tennis balls, wind-hurled laundry, lost pets or half a towel hanging over the fence to dry. Scissors may be needed for that.

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