Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Turn Neighbor\'s water run off into Rain Garden? Or fix yard grading?, 0 by chrisdalebrown

chrisdalebrown wrote:
Hi. I have a dilemma. I\'m in a newer cookie cutter neighborhood. Our house is a few years old, but our neighbors is only 2. Before her house was finished, we installed sod in our yard. Never had an issue with water runoff due to erosion fence in neighbor\'s lot. Fast forward to neighbor\'s house being finished and moved in, and the erosion barrier removed, we now get water runoff. And not just water, but her red clay erosion comes into our yard as well and creates standing water. We had a french drain installed by the city free of charge, but it still isn\'t enough. She\'s older and uses TruGreen and they have not been able to establish a lawn in her back yard. From research it seams once she has an established lawn, the runoff will be extremely less. I purchased sod because I was having the same problem establishing a lawn and this standing water is ruining it. Should I just live with it and use the area around the standing water to landscape a rain garden(currently lacking any landscaping and it desperately needs it anyways)? or is this a bigger issue than I am thinking it is?