I could throw a tennis ball and hit my neighbor’s house. Not that I would because I 1) like my neighbor and 2) have no tennis ball. Needless to say, there is not a lot of space between our properties and that space is a right of way for city utilities. Due to a lovely tree, grass can also be hard to grow. 

When we moved in over 15 years ago, that middle area was a swamp. A festering mosquito nesting ground all spring, summer and fall until the first frost. Both our gutters fed into that area and the “dirt” here is more clay than anything. 

Somewhere in the vast reaches of social media I had seen some “rain scaping” that looked quite cool. This led me down a giant rabbit hole of french drain research. However these seemed deep and I had the aforementioned tree to deal with. So I pondered and attempted to go not as deep but long.

First I dug the trench, then I filled it about 2/3rds of the way with cheap basic gravel. Next I got some more decorative and less cheap stone. Finally I took the rock collection my now 24 year old and my mother had started when he was  wee along with various shells we had collected over time. 

I did need to make an extension from the drain spout to my trench (which in the spring the chipmunks liked to play in but it seems that nonsense has stopped) but this year that middle area has stayed dry enough to mow each time we mow and our mosquito population is way down. I am just sorry it took me 12+ years to try something. Lol.