I know, the rest of the yard needs serious help too... the priority on this spot comes from having sod delivered tomorrow. I'm leaning toward curving in a flowerbed around it for now and worry about what plants/boulders go in it later.

I give up! What is the purpose of this ditch? Is water being piped to it? Through it? Suggest you sod around around it and when we figure out its purpose and possible water retention or whatever its purpose, then we can figure out how to plant or disguise it.

LOL! nandina - that was my thought - That's a ditch?! It sure doesn't look like any ditch around here....

Looks to me like it would have culverts going in both directions too deep to see in the photos. But it remains a very nice ditch. Would the principles of rain gardens apply here?

My instinct would be to try to protect people from driving into it, with maybe some sturdy shrubs, not necessarily tall but ones that would develop nice solid stem and branch growth, on the sides facing the roads. Looks like it might be dark there at night.

KarinL

What a weird thing! I like the idea of making it into a bit of a centerpiece, maybe a bog garden with lotuses and boulders around it. I wonder if you can face it with stone veneer? You could put some flagstone around it to soften the rectangular shape. I think karinl has a good point about keeping cars and people from falling into it. Who would be liable, you or the county? Hmmm.
Renee

keep in mind that anything you do IN the ditch is subject to the county's approval. you cna put what you want there, but if they don't want it there they will force you to remove it or remove it for you.

Hi, thanks for all the interest! I'm sure I found the right place for good suggestions.

Karenl hit it... there is a culvert pipe going under the road and under the driveway. The county wont let me connect them because it would make the pipe longer than 60 feet (their limit). I had the county engineer take a look... he said I can do anything I want as long was it doesn't impede the water flow.

Anyway, during the day today I decided to do something with it (other than just grass). I went and picked out a one ton boulder and had it put right in front of it. Then I snaked some metal edging around the whole thing. I think I'm ready for the sod guys now. After I get some grass down I'll post some more pictures.

Karin is right on with another point as well. The first objective you need to think about is safety. Right now that is one of those tiger traps that I recall from Saturday morning cartoons.

Aesthetically, I would be careful not to do the equivelent of drawing neon arrows pointing to it. The rock might do that, if you are not careful.

Right now that is a dominant feature in a flat open area. It is going to be twice as dominant when the sod goes in due to the color contrast. You need to weaken its dominance as the second objective in your design program. The first reaction is usually to hide the thing that you want to weaken, but you can also out power it so that it becomes less significant by making other things more significant.

The driveway layout also has given you another problem to overcome. That is that, at least in the pictures, this area looks like it could belong to the municipality just as easily as it could belong to you. In other words, it is visually isolated from the rest of your property. I would like to tie that to the rest of our property as a third objective.

It also appears that you have a pretty crappy view of a retention area, large stark houses, road pavement, and a chain link fence. Mitigating that negative would be a fourth objective.

One over simplified way to illustrate this concept with something easy to visualize is to fringe the entire edge of the road (not your driveway) with something - perhaps a medium to large ornamental grass hedge. Then there is no question that the city does not own the island, it hides the ditch a little, and is a strong visual cue that helps keep drivers on the road.

Inside of that, you could add a few trees to reduce the significance of the view across the street and enhance or mitigate views back toward your own house.

Then you can start focusing on the landscaping of the house itself.

Before commenting more, let's make sure that I have a complete understanding of the construction of the ditch. Studying the second picture posted is the following correct?
1. On left hand side of ditch there is a concrete wall through which the culvert passes or ends?
2. At that point storm water collects in the ditch and exits on the right hand side via another culvert which does not appear to be reinforced in any manner except that I note some sort of (perhaps) a wooden wall shoring up the soil?
3. You have in hand a signed plot map (by the county)showing the county right-of-way along the roads indicating the location of this ditch? Plus an official letter outlining your responsibility for the ditch, whatever it may be?
4. I have a number of thoughts which may or may not be applicable to the situation. Got to understand it first.

The county wont let me connect them because it would make the pipe longer than 60 feet (their limit).

Their problem is the difficulty in cleaning out long pipe runs. Go back to them with a proposal for a manhole as shown below. Supply the missing total pipe run lengths and offer to have a contractor draw detailed plans for approval before construction.

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Wow! I'm going to need a few posts to respond to all these good suggestions. It might be tomorrow because I need to get ready to go see the Beach Boys! Amazing they're still moving around unassisted! They have the Dallas Symphony Orchestra backing them up so this should be interesting.

But first here's a couple pics of what we did.

I really like the manhole idea! If not for this area for the other side of the driveway... I have about a 100' ditch going to my back yard. Which then flows into a lake. It's a whole other project that's going to cost me big.

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Nandina, I have a copy of the plot map. I just looked at it and it shows no easement or a culvert where this ditch is. I do have a 5' easement running down the property line on the other side of the driveway. My property line runs right through the middle of this little ditch, the corner is almost up against the cement. When the engineer came out he told me that I wasn't supposed to have a culvert pipe under the drive without sloping concrete ends on it. Turns out that culvert pipe under the driveway has been there many many years so he said there was nothing he can do (to me) about it. Would you like to see the survey and plat map I have? I can email them no problem.

No, I do not need to see your plot map as you have answered my question. Suggest you touch base with your attorney before spending more money on this project for a reaction as to how the county has handled the situation and what can be done to force the county to install a manhole. Someone in the county has goofed and you should not have to bear the expense.

The ditch may be partly on your property, but I would not be heavy handed with the county; they may well have a right to maintain the ditch at that location, even if there are no records of an easement.

Many of the county roads here of the character shown in the photo were established under prescriptive right. Prescriptive easements are a part of common law and vary from state to state, mostly in the time for use to ripen to a lawful interest. In Arkansas, the time is 7 years. In other states it can be a much longer period.

The following gives a general idea and the link below is the source page with more info.

Boundaries of road created by prescriptive use. The width and location of roads created by prescriptive use are determined by the actual use and maintenance. Ditches and areas beyond the travelled portion of the road may be part of the prescriptive easement, but only if the municipality has exercised control over those areas for the requisite time and manner. If there has been no maintenance or control of land outside the travel way (as is the often the case with public easements), then the public right of way is limited to the travel way only [Burnham v. Burnham, 132 Me. 113 (1933)].

Here is a link that might be useful: Perscriptive Road Easements, public

ok, I'm not prepared to take on the county over this... I can plant all kinds of things to hide this one for less than a retainer.

So, is the rock a neon sign? I think with a few smaller boulders strategically placed it'll be ok. From a safety stand point... I don't know which would be worse, hitting a 1 ton boulder or running into a ditch. Fortunately it's a 20 mph area.

What about the pattern? I spent all of 10 minutes curving that edging, but I think it's ok(?). What about plants?? I still think I should have the jasmine growing down into the ditch and throughout the bed (vs. rock or mulch). Then some smaller plants here and there, not too much.

I appreciate any suggestions.

I'd pretty much bet $100 that its not on your property, its in the Right of Way. Property owners are required to maintain the ROW in front of their property.

I think the landscape that you have laid out around it looks nice. And I think you could plant some rain garden type plants in there. Just realize anything that you do plant is at the mercy of road maintenance crews.

Hi Jack,
I like the shape of your bed. I can't visualize the jasmine, though. There's an image of a stone culvert below.
Renee

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:48099}}

Hi Renee, I think I messed up. I looked up jasmine and what I was thinking about doesn't match. What I'm thinking about looks more like what is in this pic...

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Hey Joe, do you have any plant names in mind I can look up?

Tomorrow I'll get a picture where my property marker is.

The stake in the ditch is the center front corner of my property line.

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This stake is the side front corner

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The yellow line is my property line...

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Reconsider, please, before going further. The pictures posted show a hole in the ground put in place by your county DPW, half of which is on your property. Doubtful that it meets any type of codes. Further, this ditch is located on a curve at an unlighted "T" roadway intersection which does not appear to have either Stop or Yield signs to warn an oncoming driver to slow down for a turn. Into the county's right-of-way you have introduced a boulder. You should be very uncomfortable with this situation. Enough so to consult with your attorney. As one who has been an elected official I can assure you that sometimes accidents happen requiring litigation. This could be a very complicated one. And guess who usually loses.

Reconsider planting plants in the bed area?

I'll call the county about the boulder because I plan to put more!

There is one guy in this neighborhood with about 50 boulders in the county's right away. A lot of people have put 3-5 boulders, and one guy even has concrete filled pipes sticking up out of the ground (nice). Also as you drive around town (Dallas/Ft.Worth) you will see boulders practically on every corner where truckers drag their trailers if there isn't one.

Jacksnife talk to the county... in New England it is not uncommon for towns to add boulders or guard-rails as traffic barriers/warnings against running off the road into a hazard.

I think the boulders would be the better option.