ljrd3, For the first year treat these as potted plants untill the roots grow into the surrounding soil. The water must go directly into the potting soil that came with the plant. Use 12th of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 70"s. Use 1/6th of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 80's. Use 1/4 of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 90's. Delay one day for each 1/4 inch of natural rain. The second year use the same total amounts, however, you can begin to water less frequently using proportionally more each time and also watering a greater area around the plants.

There are many different types of erosion control blankets. Some are entirely made of natural materials and some have various proportions of non-natural materials. Some have a type of plastic in them that eventually degrades with exposure to sunlight. I used a North American Green blanket. There are many brands, etc. Ernst Conservation seeds and other companies sell them by mail order. I picked one up in person from All Pro Horticulure in Long Island to save on shipping costs (call in advance). To prepare my hillside I cut the weeds, used herbicide planted rye grain over the winter and then cut and herbicided the rye grain before it went to seed in the spring and put down native grass seed covered by the blanket.

I don't know how long the fence has been there, if it is over 7 years then I'm at risk of losing. I don't like involving lawyers anyways. I just watched another neighbor walk his dog into our yard so my mind is made up. I'm fencing my whole yard where the ground is stable. A drain and mulch or rock bed on our fence line will push some water to our driveway. A rock bed on the rest of the fence line will keep the water on the neighbor's property. I'm going to put the fence in between the house and the riprap drain and stop worrying about that part of the erosion. He also lets the poison oak and grass grow wild there so I'm tired of maintaining his mess. The drain at the end of the riprap will continue to overflow into his yard and I'm going to ignore that too until he decides to install the proper size of drain pipe. If he loses his fence due to erosion on my land, then he can hire a lawyer. He has not made one good decision and I'm tired of trying to fix his messes. By installing a privacy fence, I cut off access immediately so maybe my next batch of sod will have a chance for survival. Also, it will block out the poison oak and the view of his weeds and keep a dog in our yard.

I've heard that multiple layers of newspaper, covered by heavy cardboard, covered by 4-6” of mulch will do a good job suppressing them. That comes from Mr. Smarty Plants at the LBJ Wildflower Center. But they are almost impossible to stop completely.