Neighbors

We live at the bottom of a hill and have the worse clay soil. The back half of the yard is raised (held by a wood retaining wall) and has 3 large Pine trees. We put in a French drain all around the lower level to keep the grass from being totally water logged.

Although they say not much will grow under Pine trees I planted many shade plants last summer and so far they seem to be ok. My hubby just finish two raised beds at the corners of the retaining wall. We left space between the wall and beds to allow water to drain into French Drain.

There is one area between the trees that is in the sun and not many tree roots. Now my problem! The neighbors behind us has a house at a higher elevation behind them. As a result they put in some drain system and ran the pipe under the fence into my flowerbed. I might understand that if we lived in a poor neighborhood but that is not the case. I am sure they can afford a French drain and run the pipes into the downspout system, as we did.

As their house faces a different street and we have a tall fence and large tress and shrubs I don’t even know what these people look like. The last thing I want is a disagreement with the neighbors. Do you think posting a letter on their door would be ok? Why should I have my flowerbed ruined and there water going down my French drain?

Hi Rosy_Lady, Boy can I sympathise with a couple of your problems - REALLY well. Every inch of our property was clay (and most still is). And although we are on a hill we were flooding when there was a lot of rain. We're in Washington so take it from there . . . ;-) We also put a french ditch from one corner of the yard to the other. Although it works well and drains non stop we are angled where all of the property above seem to drain down on us so we had to add another ditch clear across the top of the property to stop the flooding completely. Also, like you, our neighbors had a drain spout aimed right at our yard. I had flowers die that people said you couldn't kill! We had a little talk with the neighbors - end of problem! So if you talk to them and explain what is happening it might work out ok in the end.
I have fir trees as opposed to the pines you have and I have planted all around them. We logged after 2 uprooted during a storm and landed on our roof and have logged twice since then to pipe some light in but we still have lots of them.
Good luck with your neighbors - hopefully they will be understanding!

They are not allowed to run a drain under your fence! I would definitely give them a letter and then start going elsewhere if they don't respond by removing and redirecting it. What unbelievable nerve of them.

Gwendalou
(Can you put some sort of attachment on it and reroute it back under the fence to their side? )