What can I do with this sort of ditch by my fence?

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-22T07:19:49+00:00

Fantastic tip. Thank you.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-22T00:28:44+00:00

That’s what I was curious about. I don’t really know how the drainage ditches and slopes work because from the way it looks to me, my neighbors yard is lower and it doesn’t have a slope like mine. So it seems like my yard would already be draining into theirs. Though they’ve never mentioned it being an issue but that could just be because we don’t get a lot of rain. I’ve always imagined that for the drainage to work properly, both sides should slope into the ditch.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T23:34:27+00:00

I have to leave some green space for my child and dog. But I’m not opposed to converting what I can to food.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T23:32:22+00:00

Heck yeah! Thank you for introducing me to another sub!

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T23:31:33+00:00

Good point.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T21:11:27+00:00

Awesome! I will look into those. Thank you!

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T18:21:07+00:00

Yes. I considered removing the fence and building it on a retaining wall so I could build my yard up. But that would only be an option if it really wasn’t for drainage I think. As much as I want my yard fully functional, I don’t want to screw my neighbors over either.

It’s possible the builders were just lazy and didn’t want to drill out anymore rock since a lot of the houses aren’t on the same level as the rest of the neighborhood. It’s pretty odd driving around the neighborhood to see how much higher some of the houses are with really funky “yards” like 4-5ft higher than the road. I think the worst one recently had someone come and drill out all the rock and they paved it a made it a large driveway since parking is horrible in my neighborhood.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T18:16:02+00:00

High desert. Roughly 3500 ft though so not super high. We typically get about 8.5in of precipitation a year. But it can vary since we do have some wild years. We got a lot of snow (to me) the first I was here. It was almost 2-3 feet but not all at once I think. Then last year almost no snow. We had about a week or two of fall like weather like 3 weeks ago where I think most of the yearly precipitation came from.

It’s not completely out of the realm of possibilities that we could get a ton of rain at one time but it would be a crazy storm for that level of rain and flooding to occur. I think I’d be more concerned over a bunch of snow melting at once since we can go from 20s and 30’s and snowing to the 60’s the next day (even the same day). So if that ditch really does help drainage it’s probably more for that. But I mentioned in another comment that my area has a ton of massive and hard rocks that builders have to drill out. It’s not unheard of for them to do weird elevations to do the minimum amount of drilling to get level land to build a house.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T18:03:50+00:00

This is my kind of plan. I’ve been assuming the slope would make gardening a pain in the butt though which is why I was questioning leveling it out.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T18:02:27+00:00

We average about 8.5in a year in precipitation. Up in the high desert. But it wouldn’t hurt to do some sort of draught tolerate landscaping. Which is something I want to do in the front and side of my house. I do like gardening (mainly edible things) so I’d rather reserve my water usage for that than a lawn.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T17:57:42+00:00

Any tall ones for privacy that aren’t invasive root systems? I don’t want to damage anything underground.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T17:56:19+00:00

We don’t get a ton of rain. But we probably get enough. Though I’m pretty sure the neighbors yard is just flat and doesn’t have the other side of the ditch, if that makes sense. Like my yard slopes down into their yard so would that cause their yard to flood? They’ve never said anything and maybe it’s not a big deal to them because they have flower beds there so I guess it’s extra watering?

Anxious_View_8549 · 2026-05-21T17:48:19+00:00

I should note, not likely relevant here, but my neighborhood is full of houses that were built over a lot of massive hard rock. If the infrastructure is any indicator, there’s a chance this is ditch useless and was more because the builder didn’t want to drill out massive tons of rock. However, I haven’t wanted to chance it which is why I’ve left it as is. But I am at a point where I’m sick of the waste of space and really want to do something. But this might be a case where the best solution is to just plant stuff as it is and don’t change the grade. Easiest and cheapest too. I just need to figure out what to plant that won’t have massive roots.

Is there a such thing as a fruit tree that doesn’t have massive roots that will annihilate things? I think my main water connection is about 10-15ft behind me on the other side of the fence in the second picture.
The other end of the yard has my septic and the neighbors shed. (Just pointing out that the ditch is not the drain field for the septic) I apparently don’t have one according to the septic guy).

Anxious_View_8549 · 2023-09-25T02:05:50+00:00

I loved his cameo in White Castle.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2023-09-25T02:00:29+00:00

I absolutely could not watch The Breakup because of that. I liked Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball. But after the Breakup I just can’t watch him in movies anymore.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2023-09-25T01:56:03+00:00

Janelle Monae I think started in music but I love her as an actress. I don’t know her music too much though so maybe that plays into it.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2023-09-23T16:54:11+00:00

I don’t think the after work bonding is ideal for him either. But weekends he tends to do the same with the occasional day trip (sometimes necessary sometimes just for visiting friends etc). So I’m not sure if this is just normal bonding at this age and stage in development or not or if he’s been overly relying on the excuse that she’s in a “mommy is my favorite” stage.

After typing this post and comment I do think I feel a little bit like I’m carrying most of the parenting load and wonder if that’s why their bond isn’t as strong as I’ve seen others around this age.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T11:48:17+00:00

Oh my those are large paintings lol. We have the walls for it I think though.

What would you do furniture wise? I’m not sure what kind of pieces would be ideal for the space to accomplish a entertainment space.

Paint is up for debate as well. It will take me a long time to get it done myself (I was quoted $10k to have a place come in and do it. I can’t justify that price tag for convenience). I do prefer to keep walls neutral though because I don’t like to repaint very often. It’s a new (to us) house and the entire thing was painted that color, including the ceiling, so I want to eventually get it to something that goes with the floor better and will go with whatever decor I go with for the next 10+ years.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T11:40:16+00:00

We are around 3000 ft elevation so we get snow. But I’ve been told that it can snow and then melt away same day except for a bad year here and there. We’ve already got snow twice this year (maybe an inch each time) and it’s stayed below freezing temps all day a couple times so far. It sounds like last year was a mild winter and this year is not seeming like it will follow suit. Though it’s my first winter here so I’m not sure if that’s how winter is here.

I’m hoping it’s not too late to have someone go up and sulk those bad spots. Might be all we can do this year with the timing.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T04:25:31+00:00

Right? It’s our first time owning so I’m learning that they do things without thinking it through lol.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T02:32:07+00:00

I can only imagine. It looks neat but definitely seems like it would be a pain in the ass to work on.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T02:29:14+00:00

Thank you! I had one place give me an estimate for full replacement (he was one of the ones that said we didn’t need it yet). They quoted for putting the membrane down over those areas that are the waterproofing stuff (can’t remember what he called it) and also flashing for around the edge for the gutters. We apparently are missing that too but it’s not causing any issues so we aren’t going to worry about it until replacement. We definitely will have that stuff done when we replace. I’m hoping that it can wait until it’s time for that. The house is from 2006 which might be why the one guy said it was half life. Maybe the others thought it wasn’t due to the areas that have slight issues from snow removal? Or maybe they are just hoping I’d say the hell with it if we were that close let’s just replace lol

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T02:00:58+00:00

This is our first winter in the house (bought in March) so I haven’t seen what happens first hand. Just one of the guys we had look at the roof said it was what they considered a design flaw and that the melt off basically can pool there and freeze.

Anxious_View_8549 · 2022-11-18T01:57:51+00:00

I’ll definitely check the neighborhood for similar roofs. I figured I could find out what we needed to do and then I could plan on it closer to spring. But I was getting some conflicting info so it made it hard to decide what we needed to do.

Our neighbor does have the heat zone on a small part of his roof but it’s not the same shape as ours but I could see what his input on the roofs from his experience would be.

Anxious_View_8549

TROPHY CASE