My neighbors recently installed new rain gutters and downspouts.
Closeup of erosion
Our facet on top of the bank after the mudslide
Completely buried my soaker hose
Broke one of my jades and buried the Iris rhizomes
This is the top of one of the areas where the water went. The plants to the left and right of this are covered with mud at the base; I will need to dig these up after it dries out and replant. There is still about 6 inches of mud at the top edge of the adobe wall but I can't get to it until I remove these plants.
This shows some of the mud, but most of it is under the plants on the left. Calendula seedlings were on the top of the bank!
East side of our garage where our trash bins are kept. Trash is picked up on Tuesday morning so only one was in this area. It's difficult to see the depth of the mud here, but one entire row of adobe bricks were covered. This is also after the rain from our garage roof washed mud down the drains and out into the driveway. Our jeep had several inches of mud under it also, from mud coming down from another area.
I barely was able to move this a few feet. This ground has a lot of DG mixed in. I had almost two wheelbarrow's full.
After mud removal. Before I rinsed the concrete. No stains though! Notice the jade plant hanging over the edge. It was standing before the mudslide and is about 4 feet tall.
Had I not gone out to bring the trash cans back to this location I can only imagine how much more mud we would have had. I went up to the top of this bank when it was still raining and dug a small trench about 40 feet long to route the water to the road.
This is a rental unit, but I notified the owner and he has already installed drain pipes so this shouldn't happen again. Normally this area is covered with high weeds, but he has been doing a lot of new landscaping and repairs to the property for the new tenants. I wonder who put the rain gutters in for him? Obviously not someone who thought about where the water would end up! All is good now though and I had a good workout.
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When I saw your post title I thought to myself, must live in So Cal! The rain is wonderful but it has a tendency to wreak such havoc here. I'm glad you got it all cleaned up though and it definitely does sound like a workout!
ReplyDeleteOh, don't we love contractors. I'm sure some got their licenses out of Cracker Jack Boxes. Glad you were able to take care of the problem, bet you used a lot of calories. Also happy that you were able to divert some of the water, I would hate to think that my...er...your bedroom got flooded...
ReplyDeleteVictoria, you guessed right!
ReplyDeleteJc, good to see you here! Make sure to join up to follow my blog.
ReplyDeleteThe mud slide was closer to the garage lucky for all of us, not the bedroom!
Glad the mudslide wasn't in the bedroom, that would be a disaster! Crazy! We didn't get much rain except a little this morning. The weather sure is getting cooler and pretty soon it will snow, I hate being snowed in.
ReplyDeleteOh my, what a horrible mess. I hope they compensated your losses and all the unnecessary work involved.
ReplyDeleteDoc,
ReplyDeleteNo, the owner never offered. He did however apologize more than once. He is a nice person and is doing a lot of work to make the place look better so I am happy about that. And he did put drainage pipes in the very next day. I don't think I will lose any plants, just need to dig out the mud from around them.
Priscilla, I think we will have a wet winter and I guess that will mean a lot of snow in your area too! Maybe you should take up cross country skiing!!
hi Carla, i am new here, got in because i love your title "Thyme in a bottle". You are very kind, for some people the neighbor will get some scolding and some harsh words and penalties! What happened to your property is certainly destruction, and what you did is not a workout, but burnt-out. Haaaay, how bad when these things happen. He should have paid for the labor cost of cleaning and the destroyed plants. He doesnt need to pay for the goodwill though, that is his discount.
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea,
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by my blog.
The blame should really be on the company that installed the rain gutters. You would think they would know not to direct the runoff to another property downhill from this one. The owner is very kind and was very concerned that this happened. He was willing to help with cleanup but I had already cleaned it up. All is good. And it could have been so much worse had I not noticed it before more rain came. The plants will survise I hope. If not, all the more reason for me to go plant shopping!
It's sad to hear that this had to happen to you. Poor plants. I am also wondering how your neighbor's rain gutters caused your yard to be flooded when the rain came. Aren't they supposed to have downspouts to channel the water in the appropriate places? It's definitely a case of bad installation, but I am happy that you're all well and fine. Ashlee Starns
ReplyDelete