Written to the owner of the property on the other side of the back fence:
After several rounds of spraying with Roundup as well as digging, I made pretty good progress in keeping the side area clear of Queen Anne's Lace and continue to keep an eye on it. The renters you had last year were very friendly and supportive of this. I have not met the current ones.
Today when I went out for a few chores, I found an empty pack made to hold 20 cigarettes in my raspberry patch! I had to crawl through thorn bushes to pick up this and the first eight cigarette butts and was picking twigs out of my hair afterwards! On the other side I picked up more cigarette butts for a grand total of 64! A few were near the house, but most were along the fence on what is, by the position of the boundary, actually our property! There were also several round silver objects which appeared to be either BBs or ball bearings I also picked up and put in the pack. As I said, I keep an eye on that area and can absolutely attest that none of this was there until very recently. Had I thought the renters (at least one of whom does smoke) were unquestionably responsible, I would have shoved the whole thing behind the screen door, but as it was nothing like this ever happened before the arrival of the painters whose stuff is still there, so I left it next to their stuff.
Can you check with the painters or the renters or both to learn who was responsible and make sure they use a container for cigarette butts and ALL other waste? I already asked the painters for an estimate on painting our place, but if they are responsible for this I may have to rethink that. Thank you very much.