Responsibilities: Ours and Boyco's

By Louise Caudle, Chair

Thank you to those of you who completed the brief survey distributed by the homeowners association Board of Directors regarding your preferences for pine straw versus premium brown hardwood mulch. We will announce the survey results at the HOA annual meeting Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. Please refer to the “snail mail” communication you received from William Douglas Management for details about the annual meeting.

The plan is to conduct the annual mulch refresh in November, using either pine straw or premium brown hardwood mulch, depending on the majority preference of homeowners.

Landscaping Committee members are continuing to conduct monthly walk-throughs of the neighborhood to monitor the work of the landscaping crews and to identify potential violations related to landscaping. It is important to note this includes walking the sidewalks as well as along the back easements of your lots.

In addition, Rebekah Burchard, our Epcon liaison, has begun the company’s one-year warranty landscaping walk-throughs in the new section of our neighborhood. She has invited the Landscaping Committee to join her on these walks. We identify and she documents dead plants and trees to replace, including street trees; potential drainage issues; and other landscaping problems that need to be amended as part of the warranty process.

The first group of homes were the houses on both sides of the road from Middleground Circle to the far end of Fenwick Parkway. As the next step, Rebekah will walk those same lots with the landscaper Epcon will use to do the work. The correction work will be completed for those houses before beginning the next group of homes. These walk-throughs will take place over the next months.

We want to erase as much confusion as possible about homeowner responsibilities for landscaping versus the responsibilities of Boyco, our landscaping maintenance contractor. The focus for this issue of Courtyards Connection is backyards and side yards; we will focus on front yards in a future landscaping update.

To that end, the Landscaping Committee compiled the following guidelines, which the HOA board has reviewed and approved. Questions regarding these guidelines should be emailed to landscape.cyasp@gmail.com.

Homeowner Responsibilities

• Neighbors with fenced-in courtyards on the side of their houses or fenced-in backyards are responsible for all landscaping within the fences, including trimming, weeding, mulching, etc. Boyco will string trim grass on the outside edges of these fences, where possible and needed.

• Neighbors without fenced-in courtyards or fenced-in backyards who have (a) installed landscaped beds and walkways along the side of their houses or (b) installed landscaped beds along their patios and the back of their houses are responsible for all maintenance of those beds and walkways, including trimming, weeding, mulching, etc. These areas are considered the equivalent of fenced-in courtyards for which homeowners are fully responsible. Boyco will string trim around beds and hardscapes.
   

Boyco Responsibilities

• Boyco will never enter fenced-in areas, which are the full responsibility of the homeowners.

• Boyco is responsible for the maintenance of all grass in back yards outside the fences.

• Boyco will blow lawn mower clippings off patios unless the beds around patios prevent the clippings from blowing onto the patio.

• Boyco will string trim where needed along the outside edges of fences and patios as well as along landscaped beds and hardscaping in backyards to ensure a well-manicured lawn.

• Boyco  is responsible for the landscaping beds installed by Epcon in common areas that are in the vicinity of backyards of some homes. Boyco will trim, weed, mulch, treat ant hills, etc., in these common areas as well as in all other common areas throughout the community. Examples of these areas include shrubs planted along the fence behind some homes along Martry; shrubs planted along the fence behind the homes on Charismatic and Cherob; the landscaped berms behind homes on Fenwick and houses along the woods on the Cherob cul-de-sac.

• Boyco will weed and replenish pine straw/mulch — depending on survey results — in open areas between all houses that are not fenced in. These areas include where there is a decorative front fence but no back fence.
   

Important Notes

• A fenced-in courtyard has a fence between the home and the neighbor’s house at both the front and rear of the side of the houses. The courtyards of homes that have no neighboring house have fencing on three sides, i.e., front, rear and outer side.

• A decorative fence between the house and the neighbor’s house at the front of homes — with no fence at the rear — is not a courtyard. 

On behalf of the Garden Club, thank you to those of you who attended the October meeting and heard directly from Stephen Boykin, one of the co-owners of Boyco. If you have other questions or if you need to report landscaping issues, please email us.  

A big thanks also to the Garden Club for planting pansies and trimming shrubs at the main entrance to our neighborhood. If anyone who lives near that entrance would like to help with occasionally watering the pansies, please contact Debbie Bell or Joanne Adney, co-chairs of the Garden Club. 

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Landscaping Committee members are Debbie Bell, Kathleen Cirillo, MaryKay Doane, Leigh Garmhausen, Bob Williams and me.