Corner fence issue with landscaping

Hi

Our yard is pretty ,much completely landscaped as of last summer. The site was built up for drainage to go downhill to my neighbor's yard. So what happens is that the area that is at the back right corner of my house is so high that the pine tree relocated from the front of the house is dead, and anything planted their doesn't do half as well as the rest of the back bed. I need to figure out a way to retain water there. Even with the rain last night you could see it was completely dry by 9am this morning.

there are enough trees around so I was going to plant a large Nellie Stevens Hollie there, to help with screening the view of our cul-de-sac, but at this point I feel like digging down deep and taking out a bunck of clay to make it more level. Yes, that is probably overkill, but even installing a small pond/waterfall there does nothing to help screen the view. I've thought of maybe building a trench for it, but the back bed is one long run so I can't see doing anything that will intterupt it.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I'm suprised my landscaper never thought about that issue, either!

Also, I see many people who've planted flowers in abed that includes the mailbox. Can we really do this? If so, I would like to do this, and find some kind of flowers that would keep the dogs from wanting to pee there, seeing as how the dogowners think it's perfectly fine to leet there dog go on the base of my mailbox!

 

Hi Brassy - we planted 8 Ned Steven's Hollies (and they have really grown, since last Spring)... Also during our landscaping project we had drip-lines installed for the larger trees (which also has a fertilizer tank as part of our sprinkler system). Also we have our sprinkler system programmed to run for specific times people walk their dogs (AM & PM), as we are on a corner lot and get lots of foot traffic.

As for the planting beds - we did remove about 100Lbs of left over concrete the builder dumped at our mailbox (we couldn't figure out why the grass wouldn't grow last year).

I found that dumping pepper (flakes or powder...I go to an spice store b/c it's a stronger power and cheaper than your standard stuff) deters dogs from our property...I do this about once a week...a vet told me about this trick and I have to admit it works, The vet indicated it's a bit eco friendly than the chemicals you can buy @ a pet-store.

I hope this helps -

 

Remember one thing, if you do some leveling of your property, you have to make sure that any such regrading does not affect your neighbor's properties.

That is, if you change your grade so that water pools on your neighbor's lot, then you are in violation of the Broadlands' Covenants (and possibly Loudoun County storm water runnoff ordinances) and may be liable for the costs of fixing the problems.

This is something that you may want to send through the Modifications Subcommittee for review and approval; or at least check with the HOA office on.

As far as flowers about the mailbox, the VDOT rule is that nothing can grow higher than 1 to 3 feet (I forget the exact height) . In fact, they don't like anything but grass there, and if your street has not yet been turned over to VDOT, one of the things that VDOT will have the developer do, is remove any plantings in violation of the height rule.

After its been turned over to VDOT, you can plant there without much of an issue (staying under 1 to 3 feet); until sometime in the future when VDOT decides that your curbing needs replacement. They'll replace the curb, but you're stuck with the cost of replacing anything you planted there.

 

The maximum allowable height for plantings in the VDOT right-of-way is 24 inches.

 

Thanks Cliff ... I knew it was in that range ..

 

Thanks Guys!

One thing it won't do is affect my neighbor's yard as his is above mine, and his sprinkler system run off does a great job of senfin water to the lower side of the bed - in fact it killed of one of the trees we had there. We pulled it up and three inches of standing water was underneath it. In the morning I can see exactly where the runoff is. I'm thinking I might just try to build an earthen type water retention system...still thinking on it. At this time we do not have the financial ability to install a drip line or sprinkler system.

I wondered about the plantings around the mailboxes as the grass strip looks like crap and some of my neighbors in the cul-de-sac have done this.

Heather

 

What we did was remove the grass (as the local canines were using it as a latrine ... ) and put in ground cover and mulch.