Ferns are going , going, gone

It looks as if we are going to lose the second tree fern in the front garden, right by the front porch. As you might be able to see from the picture, it has had this large chunk missing out of its stem for a long time, but it continued to grow. Since we lost its neighbor, though, it has steadily gone downhill. I don't know if it some sort of water issue or if they died back as a result of the termite fumigation we had a few months ago. Ther eis no easy wasy to tell.

We had another major garden crisis today. The water line that runs from the water main in the front garden to the hose taps in the back garden sprung a leak...a major leak. I am not sure if it it is related to the sewer work we had done a few months ago or not. It is possible, as the ground has been subsiding where the trench was dug. Maybe the pipe got stressed in the settling of the ground. Not sure -- Hey, the plumber just arrived! Time to go find out the damage.

Update: Problem solved for $150. New copper piping should give us problem-free usage in that area, at least.