I feel your pain!!! Have been going through a similar situation with a neighbor (for 17 yrs now!). They, too, do things under the guise of "helping" me. I put drought tolerant plants in our front yard, that butts up to the property line between us. They had automatic sprinklers & would flood the area regularly-which would over-spray into our yard. I used to ask nicely, could you adjust your sprinklers, attempting to be a "good" neighbor. His response was "you don't want FREE water"? NO...I don't! There were a variety of offenses...them not understanding boundaries & personal property issues. They cut plants, moved boundary rocks, pulled out plants, etc. When I caught them doing it, they claimed they were just "helping" me. Yikes! What part of "don't touch my plants" don't you understand? I used signs at times. Didn't help. I have no landlord to go to with a complaint. You should...go complain!! Have a face-to-face talk with the neighbor. Unfortunately, my talks with ours fell on deaf ears. They think they can do whatever they want. We are currently in the process of ripping out ALL plants between us, just so we can install a WALL (at great expense to us)...as these folks still don't get it when we ask them not to touch our plants, or things on our property. I wish you luck resolving this issue. I'd say you should enlist the help of your landlord (esp. if you say they have installed a raised bed without permission).

Jo, I use a drip irrigation system and put it away before freezing temperatures arrive. Parts of it...like the t-tape can be left outdoors but it drastically shortens its life. My garden slopes much more than yours, so I have my drip irrigation set up in zones with ball valves, so I can shut off some sections while irrigating others. Since water tends to flow downhill pretty well, even underground, my higher beds dry out faster than lower ones and need to be watered more often. Also, because they are on the higher south and west ends of the garden, they are more exposed to summer's south winds. Most of the time,, since water does flow underground from our neighbor's higher ground to our south, the lower beds at the north end of the garden have good deep moisture under them for a much longer period of time and often I don't have to irrigate those beds at all until mid-summer or later. To make drip irrigation work in our big,sloping garden, setting up zones has worked better than anything else I've tried. Our lowest temps at our house this winter have been 9, 10 and 11 degrees on several different nights, so I was glad we didn't have any drip lines out exposed to those temperatures. The people who leave their drip irrgation lines in the garden all winter often unhook the lines and situate them so any water left in them can run out. Then they use an air compressor to blow air through them to insure they are dry, and then hook them back together in place to they are ready for spring. I am not certain what they do with the rest of the system, but I imagine that even if they leave the lines themselves in the ground, they take the pressure regulator, filter and other parts and dry them out and store them indoors where they won't freeze and crack. Drip irrigation might not meet your needs if you don't want to put it up every winter, but it might work okay. You can learn more about drip irrigation at the website of Dripworks, which I'll link below. They even have designers who will help you design your drip system if you want them to, free of charge. If you go that route, be sure you tell them about the change in the grade in your garden so they can take that into account. Also, there is an irrigation forum here at GW and I bet the irrigation specialists there would be happy to answer your questions. I agree with Larry that a pressure compensating system likely would work for you. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Dripworks

Hello, This sounds like a legal question. I am not a lawyer but I know a little about this because I was in a similar situation and I have worked in real estate a long time. I don't think you will be able to recover any damages regarding the damage to your landscape, here's why: 1. You purchased a property in which this problem already existed for 30 years. I am certain the damage did not just suddenly begin in the last 4 years you have lived there. A home inspector should have pointed this problem out to you and you could have considered costs needed to correct the problem which you should have negotiated in your purchase price. 2. I don't know, maybe you have some recourse with your home inspector for these costs if your home and property was inspected and you were not told. Your home inspection should be in writing. That said, it is 4 years later and this should have been addressed with the home inspector the first year you were there. I don't know what the statute of limitations are in your area for this. 3. Consider yourself fortunate that your neighbor corrected the problem on his side, at no expense to you. Where I live (not far from you) you are allowed to drain water right up to the property line. The grade of the neighbor's property is their responsibility, and if it is lower than your property, then that person would want to install a drain, ditch, or something similar to redirect water flow. All water flows from high to low (obviously) and the person with the lowest property, unfortunately, is going to pay for it. In general, that's usually negotiated in the sales price. Most of the time, neighbors are neighborly and correct the problem, like yours did, however they are not legally obligated to do so. It sounds like your neighbor did the right thing. I'm not sure if going to war with your neighbor will help you, especially when I think you stand a very good chance of loosing. If you win or loose, you still need to live next door to this neighbor. There is also the other neighbors to think about, I don't know what their relationships are like or how big your town is. It's just something practical for you to think about. Regarding your building a berm. This would depend on what your goal is and how much you want to spend. You might find it more cost effective to dig a ditch to the street, removing dirt rather than bringing more in to create the berm. That said, you could build a berm but you said you had 12' (12 foot) of water. I'm not sure if that's 12' deep or wide. It would need to be quite a large berm to redirect the water to the street depending on water volume. You should also think about what you would like to plant on the berm and if it could tolerate standing water if there is any. A berm could help provide you with privacy and could help keep out some noises if you have any. If noise is not an issue, you may be able to dig a good sized deep ditch, at a strong pitch, to the drainage ditch at the street. A berm could be pretty but you could also line the ditch with rocks which could be pretty as well. The rocks are a good option if you don't want to mow or weed whack in there. If you're willing to spend a little, you could do a combination of berms and ditches, or even french drains, with piping to the drainage ditch on the street. You have several options. Now, all of this said, you also must find out what your local building inspector says about all this because your code may call for certain setbacks from your neighbor's property for building a berm or the drainage ditch. In my area, we cannot change the original grade of the land in any way without submitting a plan first. You should know this first so as not to incur extra expenses for yourself. Regrading from the house down is a good idea and will improve on the health and longevity of your home. You should speak with your local building inspector about this and any permits you may need so as not to incur fines. Depending on how extensive your project is, the building inspector may want to see a drainage plan. Keep in mind that sometimes an improvement you may make on your property may change or affect the drainage or water flow to your neighbor's property. This can be a good or bad thing. It all depends on your situation. I hope this is helpful and I wish you the best of luck on your pool! G.

Well, my suggestion would have been to try and get along with him, but the letter you wrote probably made doing that harder, not easier. Talk to your landlady again. Tell her that you are trying to be a good neighbor, but that you cannot stop walking in your apartment. Is there anything you can do to cut down on the sound of your footfalls? Putting down an area rug, even over carpet, can help to muffle the noise. Make a case to your landlady. You have purchased the slippers, you are putting down an area rug. Does she have any other low-cost solutions that you can put into use? If he still complains, you can point out to your landlady that you have tried the slippers and the area rug; now it is his turn to try something, perhaps ear plugs or a white noise machine. There has to be give and take on both sides. Frankly, I wouldn't want to have to deal with this guy. If my landlord offered me a different apartment, I'd probably take it. I doubt that you can turn the situation around at this point. You will be dealing with this neighbor until one of you moves. Why not move now and be able to relax in your own home?