Update, I spoke to both the county representative and the lawyer today. The county representative was very nice, except for the fact that he spoke to me as if I was an idiot (in his very polite southern way). I politely, but firmly, told him that I didn't have a good feeling about the project, especially when he told me I wouldn't be able to plant anything on the easement. Um, WTH??? Anyway, he said he'd get back to me. He did, and said that they while they are going to dig up the front of my yard where the pipe connects to the storm drain, they are going to extend that pipe to the grassy part of my side yard and then go back, bypassing some of my more extensive hard and land scaping. I asked to see the new plan, and he said he would send it. I also sent the plans to the lawyer and he is looking into it. He reiterated what you all have said here about calculating property value from the easement and compensation for the loss of landscaping (good news, they will likely dig up the junipers in the front, which we want to get rid of anyway!). I already compiled a list of the plants that may be disturbed by this work, here is a rundown: a dozen mature trees, 2 dozen junipers (only some I don't want) 45 roses, mostly Teas and Austins about 3 dozen more shrubs, azaleas, hydrangeas, spireas, abelias, butterfly bushes, lantanas, hollies about 120 irises and foxglove. If you look at this picture my yard is the one with the big L going through it . You can see the existing pipe and I drew a line where I think the new pipe is going to be. We will see what happens next.

I don't dig deeply or amend for most of my plantings. We've topdressed with compost every year for over a decade. However, I do plant Clematis deeper and I'm beginning to think not spending more time on their holes is the reason why some are not doing as well as others. The Clematis planted in a bed next to the house that was heavily amended and rototilled more than once and dug deep because of setting the trellis posts two feet deep have thrived a lot better than Clems in other areas that were just stuck in holes even though the ones just stuck get more sun. The Clematis planted where there are tree roots from neighbor's Douglas Fir trees and Arborvitaes do the worst. They just struggle along. I have no way of knowing if it is variety or soil conditions as I don't have any duplicates and most of the stragglers are Type IIs that weren't properly pruned to begin with and some were half dead when I brought them home too "rescues".

This was a good winter to see what is really hardy here. The australian cassias (nemophylla and phyllodena) were both frozen to the roots. They sure were fun cutting back - not! I just had to prune out a lot of winter damage on our Cordia parvifolia, little leafed cordia. That bush is the worst to prune because all the branches grow at right angles, what a mess but I adore the plant. Something about the white crepe paper blooms against the smoky grey leaves that come all through the heat of summer. And a plant that is unfazed by reflected heat here in Las Vegas is quite a find. It's relative Cordia boissieri, Texas olive, took a much bigger hit. It was just going from a bush to a tree and then we had this cold winter. It has been killed back to the main trunk. I think all the side branches are dead. I'm going to give it more time before pruning but it doesn't look good. We saw one in the northwest that looked fine so it is just our nice little cold spot microclimate here. Webers agave, and octopus agave were total losses in our yard but it was fun going to Turner greenhouses and finding replacements by seeing what was still standing there. Now if only our horse hadn't broken into our yard and tried to take a few bites out of the replacements! The bouganvillea froze to the ground but that happens every year and it popped right up this spring like it always does. We took down the old trellis though and better get up a new one if we don't want it sprawling all over as it is such a fast grower. The myoporum, anaother australian plant looked dead after our cold but it is coming back nicely and I can barely tell that it got damaged. We lost a few other australian plants, some of them can be tender and our beautiful tree acacia pendula still has perfectly brown leaves hanging on and has made no move at leafing out and neither has our acacia shafneri. The least thing they could do is let loose of all those awful looking dried up leaves! One plant that surprised me was our lantanas that always come back but not after this winter. Replaced the ones in the back with more drought tolerant Dalea greggii but the one in the front I love where it is so just got another white one to recreate that look against our grey wall. Love the look of white agaist grey. Drahme when you say cranberry tree I don't know what you mean, I only know the thanksgiving berries and I know those don't come off a tree. A different world up north. Beca, those vines do have a way of taking over the yard. At my husbands step mom's house she is in the process of taking out a huge mass of vines that took over the walls and then started on the garden. She is going to need a dumpster for all that vegetation. Happy gardening, Maria

OK stop freaking out. This is all normal. Our pool is being built now also. We are in Texas, and have had ground water seeping in since day one. We are just about to have our pool plastered. Gunite, tile and coping are complete. This is a non issue for pool builders. We had 1 foot of water at least in the deep end seeping every 12 hours. Our pool caved in some as well, the gunite crew just filled in the gaps, they did not up charge us. If they had tried, I would have told them no way. Just relax, and realize that in 6 weeks from now you will be lounging beside your wonderful new outdoor oasis. You are not the first to have ground water, nor will you be the last. You are not some first time experiment for your builder, they know what they are doing. Have a nice adult beverage, and just count down to 6 weeks!