Our garden is slightly higher than our neighbour’s garden, and we share a fence with a kind of rut/dip underneath it. Half of my garden is lawn but the nearest portion is patio.
We have free ranging chickens and once a week I wash down the patio with the hose and a broom because of the chicken poo. Any bits go into the rut underneath but depending on how long I spend doing it, some water inevitably builds up in the rut and runs onto the neighbour’s path, alongside the fence.
We are on OK terms with the neighbour, though it’s an odd arrangement where our houses are on different streets so I actually have never seen the front of their house and am not sure where it is. We have chatted over the fence, though, and it’s always been friendly enough.
Yesterday I washed down the patio, and the neighbour was in her garden. It was clearly long enough to overspill onto her path as she yelled out that the water was coming onto her path. I apologised and immediately stopped, moving onto the portion of our patio where the water runs into our own flower bed and lawn. However she then yelled again (quite angrily) and said it was still running through. This could not have been additional water as I had moved past that point by then. She said to look over the fence and I did, and what I consider a small amount of water was wetting her path. Clear water not muddy or pooey water. I explained that I really had stopped cleaning that area as soon as she called the first time, and all run-off was now going onto our flower bed and lawn. It must have been just still dribbling through from before. She stomped off into the house angrily while I was standing there.
I’m really dismayed as I hate having any issues with the neighbours or bothering anyone. I feel like it’s just water and I’m not sure what the big deal is but now questioning myself. Should I stop ever using water on the back portion of our patio? We pressure clean it once a year too, and it’s completely unavoidable to stop the water going onto the neighbour’s path. I can try to avoid using water on that segment of the patio that butts right up against the shared fence, or do it as little as possible, but it’s not possible to avoid it altogether.
I want to hang a bag with box of our chickens’ eggs from a fence post so it’s on their side of the fence, with a note to say sorry, but not sure how to word it. “I’m sorry about the water but I don’t get what the big deal is” obviously isn’t an option, but “I’m sorry about the water and I’ll never do it again” isn’t a promise I can keep. I don’t know if the tiny gap at the bottom of the fence can be filled in but that’s something I will look into.
Any suggestions or perspectives? I know it is a small issue but I really want to avoid any bad feeling of any kind.