Good Neighbour vs Selfish Bitch
May. 3rd, 2010 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
norsegirlI aspire to be a good neighbour, but the truth is I'm only good as long as it doesn't inconvenience me. Our landscaping is finished at last, and it is everything I dreamed of. The wind rustles in the bamboo in a soothing, zen-like way. The scent of jasmine is both thrilling and relaxing. I delight at the tiny spots of colour from the little flowers on each and every bush. And the prospect of a fresh, weed-free lawn thrills me like only a woman who has cleared three garbage bags of weeds from a yard can be thrilled by such a thing. Everything is beautiful and perfect and self-maintaining. And this is where the problem comes in... there's a sprinkler system, which is doing a lovely job of getting my plants all happy and damp, but the run-off from said system is flooding the neighbour's yard.
Now I think that the real source of her problem is the builder. They didn't grade the property correctly and water just pools between the houses along the bottoms of the fences. It was doing it on the side I share with Rhonda and Greg before I had all this work done, and now it is doing it on Maria's side of our shared fence. It never created a problem between Rhonda and I as it was obviously the fault of the builder and a particularly wet spring, so I could hardly resent them for it. Maria says the problem is worse since I had my work done, but I suspect it is the same as it has always been, as she has always complained about it, it's just been more noticeable since the work was done because I've been applying water daily. Funny thing about poor drainage, you only notice it when there's something there to be not draining. Of course the existence of this non-draining water is clearly my fault, so I'm not entirely blameless here.
The builder should be fixing it. In fact they have been by several times now to "fix" it, but so far their fixes haven't really done much of anything. They've just been tossing dirt on to the surface of her grass, making her dogs a muddy mess every time it rains or I water. Which was bad enough when it was just rain, but the daily deluge of my sprinkler system is getting her down and she's getting tired of the mopping.
She hasn't been too vocal or demanding with her complaints, which is why I'd feel really bad just ignoring her problem completely. But I also don't want to ignore the watering I have to do to get my plants established. I did just pay a small fortune for this retreat of mine and I don't want to lose it over fears of getting her floors a bit muddy.
I can fiddle with my system, maybe watering twice a day for less time would be better? Maybe I can find out when she goes to work and locks the dogs up and water after that? But that still doesn't solve the problem that this is simply poor drainage. I can't control the rain after all, and while it hasn't rained in a few days and might not rain much all summer, it will be back in the fall.
Suggestions?
And yes, pictures of the finished yard will be along shortly. I'm just re-finishing all the furniture and when it's all out there and completely done I'll take some pictures. That might also give the bamboo a bit of time to get over the shock of planting and green up.
Now I think that the real source of her problem is the builder. They didn't grade the property correctly and water just pools between the houses along the bottoms of the fences. It was doing it on the side I share with Rhonda and Greg before I had all this work done, and now it is doing it on Maria's side of our shared fence. It never created a problem between Rhonda and I as it was obviously the fault of the builder and a particularly wet spring, so I could hardly resent them for it. Maria says the problem is worse since I had my work done, but I suspect it is the same as it has always been, as she has always complained about it, it's just been more noticeable since the work was done because I've been applying water daily. Funny thing about poor drainage, you only notice it when there's something there to be not draining. Of course the existence of this non-draining water is clearly my fault, so I'm not entirely blameless here.
The builder should be fixing it. In fact they have been by several times now to "fix" it, but so far their fixes haven't really done much of anything. They've just been tossing dirt on to the surface of her grass, making her dogs a muddy mess every time it rains or I water. Which was bad enough when it was just rain, but the daily deluge of my sprinkler system is getting her down and she's getting tired of the mopping.
She hasn't been too vocal or demanding with her complaints, which is why I'd feel really bad just ignoring her problem completely. But I also don't want to ignore the watering I have to do to get my plants established. I did just pay a small fortune for this retreat of mine and I don't want to lose it over fears of getting her floors a bit muddy.
I can fiddle with my system, maybe watering twice a day for less time would be better? Maybe I can find out when she goes to work and locks the dogs up and water after that? But that still doesn't solve the problem that this is simply poor drainage. I can't control the rain after all, and while it hasn't rained in a few days and might not rain much all summer, it will be back in the fall.
Suggestions?
And yes, pictures of the finished yard will be along shortly. I'm just re-finishing all the furniture and when it's all out there and completely done I'll take some pictures. That might also give the bamboo a bit of time to get over the shock of planting and green up.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 09:27 pm (UTC)The problem isn't how the water is being delivered, it's that there is water where there is no drainage.
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Date: 2010-05-04 05:06 pm (UTC)Is it possible that you're over watering? I know that conditions are much different down there than they are up here however, I never water to the point where there is standing water anywhere. I don't have a sprinkler system or even a soaker hose (though I'm seriously considering investing this summer!) so I just hand water with a hose and nozel but I stop watering when the ground is wet and not absorbing any more water. So, perhaps watering for shorter periods, more than once a day would give the soil and plants time to absorb what's there and not leave you with puddles.