A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs clay soil and standing water - another porblem to fix

I removed the grass around the perimeter of the lot. the back end is the highest part and iris love to live there. Last summer the neighbor put up the fence and they put rocks all the way beside the fence and now I can see with all the snow melting and rain falling that their sand it getting washed out under the fence into my flower bed. Also the water is standing on the top of the soil and even though the slope was never disturbed to make sure the water drains in the direction it is supposed to, it is actually standing there. I planted some perennials last summer and I plan to expand the bed and make it much wider, but for beginners I just took out as much grass as I could handle by myself. It is really a tough job to remove the grass. OK I refilled the spot with garden soil and every time it rains the soil is getting washed away. How can I stop this?
I saw a solution to elevate the bed but I don't have any edging yet (not sure what I am going to use) and I don't want all that piled up dirt to get washed away by run off water so I don't know if it would work. If it does I am getting more soil asap so please someone help me figure out what to do. I don't want to deal with soil getting washed away every year.
thanks for reading.

Here I am again.
The cheapest 'edging' material that I know of to stop erosion would be rocks if they are available in your area. Collect 'head' sized rocks to bury in your slope to create a tiered effect on your slope. Either straight lines or wavy. You could also create your own line of rocks on your side of the fence to slow down the sand coming in a little. Each tier or terrace you create will be a more level place for your plants to grow and you to work.

we were just talking about that in the No Till Gardening thread.

I'm with the rocks. I use them in my yard and it helps but really only changes the flow of the path the water takes. In my yard to actually stop run off I've had to plant ground covers plus put rocks in some areas. I am constantly adding mulch and dirt to these areas though. It's not at such a magnitude as when I first started but it is continuous because some water does wash through. Do you have a lot of leaves. I've found that leaves will stop anything. Leaves change the acidity of the soil but if piled high enough I'm convinced they will stop a train.

No leaves yet, the 2 trees I planted are too small. I just found out that we are required to keep about a foot wide path beside the fence free of anything. The fence is built right into the swail (Is that the word?) and the bottom of the fence is too low. I don't want to rot the fence with soil and apparently I am not allowed to pile anything against the fence anyway. I already took out about 2 feet wide of grass and planted some flowers and bushes and whatever I could divide last fall to make sure I had more plants this spring.

So I think we will come away from the fence about a foot, we will leave the swail alone, and my husband will build a retaining wall so we can pile some dirt up, the retainer won't show and our side of the flower bed will have rocks to keep the dirt until the ground cover is strong enough to keep the soil. He says we should put a retaining wall on the front too until it is established and then we can remove it and use it on the other side of the yard which is lower and has a huge run off problem. Half a truckload of top soil was washed off in a storm last year and I was watching it in horror to go down the drain on the street from the window.

Ok we can fill the space between the fence and the retaining wall with rocks. rocks are porous enough that they would let the water through in between the problem with rocks is that they let the soil wash out in between too when it rains. What would be a good ground cover that likes scorching heat in the summer, and grows fast? There is no shade until later in the afternoon and the shade is from the fence only. No trees here.

2 pictures, this one shows the sand coming from the neighbor under the fence (we are telling them as soon as they get home):

This one shows the standing water. the top soil already washed off before winter.

We've used a lot of monkey grass - not a ground cover but it multiplies like crazy and lives through anything. And vinca. Vinca was here when we moved in and I can't get rid of it. I don't like it because it spreads so fast but the more I pull up the more it grows.

I will stat collecting rocks as soon as I can walk in the construction area behind us. The soil is clay and right now I sink in it and can't walk at all it is too wet. We freecycled some lumber and my husband will build the retaining wall by the fence and I can I will have to remove those plants anyway and continue with removing the grass.
Oh the neighbor wasn't too impressed by the work they did with his pool he saw all the sand on our side and he said when they walk on the side of the pool it already feels hollow. Ugh they are in big trouble now but at least they know why.
thanks for all the help.

Oh, if the soil/sand is washing away from his pool into your yard, you hope he doesn't get any structural cracks in that pool or you could end up with more water all at once than you want.
We actually had a pool here on our hillside that was condemned for similar problems. It took a lot of work to resolve the problem before it actually broke. It actually involved thickening the wall of the pool by about two feet all around. So we lost a lot of swimming space in what was almost Olympic sized pool. Plus all of the work rebuilding the soil structure outside of the pool.

I expect that this swale (like all swales)was designed as a water collection channel. If so, it will always be wet - well, depending on where you live. Sometimes always.
If the swale is collecting but not moving water / draining, do you both need to fix that? dry well or trench drain (aka french drain). You and your neighbor coordinate and share costs?

PLan B: Plant a strip of plants that like wet feet, wet soils, along the fence line.

I expect that your neighbor sited the fence along the property line, along the bottom of the swale, AND THEN ALSO tried to stop water and soil/sand from going downhill. Gravity is a [BLEEP], and such efforts are a mistake. Perhaps he should have sited the fence somewhat up the swale (and left room for water and gravity to behave normally).

Another thought... in most places the rule, regulation or law is that your neighbor cannot collect or channel the natural flow of surface water and "deposit" it onto your property. Did this happen? Check this out. the internet Discuss it with a county planning office...grading or sediment control... Maybe your neighbor is responsible for the consequences of their poolish actions. pun intended.

Also, why must you stay one foot from the fence? Covenants? Being considerate? If your neighbor won't be considerate of your property rights/needs, then pile wet leaves and soil high (and termite infested logs) up onto the fence. The neighbor prob wont want to "fix" the fence until it needs replacing. OK. lets make that 5 years instead of 20.
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