Is maintaining a grassy strip worth it when grading?

[tomplum]

Dumb question, but better than spending days building something that won't cut it. Our drive is 500 feet with close to 300 has that lane look with the grass strip down the middle. Am I shooting myself in the foot building a blade with a pair of scarifiers to freshen up the gravel drive? My genius was going to grab someones old blade, cut and extend it with a gap to leave the grass strip intact. Thoughts?

 

[jenkinsph]

IIRC a member here built a narrow land plane grader scraper and simply smoothed each side separately. Earlier this year he finally reworked the entire drive as the center was getting to high for the vehicles to deal with.

I think some of the one track drives look nice but they are not as smooth as a wider drive that can be driven on from edge to edge.

 

[dragoneggs]

I love the look but it is a maintenance nightmare. You might become obsessed with the strip and spend more time on the upkeep than is warranted. Still love the look though.

 

[boggen]

the strip of grass *shrugs* could care less about.

what matters is...making sure water runs off the driveway, and getting water into ditches, and making sure ditches carry the water away.

the strip of grass, to me says the normal driving path for the tires is "rutted" and water does not flow off the driveway but down the driveway in the ruts. causing more maintenance issues for the driveway.

if you can get the correct slope / crown to the driveway, i would want that first. and if you keep the strip of grass after all said and done *shrugs* so be it.

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with above said, i have gravel, dirt, and grass driveway/lanes/trails throughout property, the one thing i hate is loose gravel and having to mow it. the mower deck gets dents, and i just tear up finishing mower blades from rocks. requiring more frequent sharping of blades.

on other hand have dirt lanes. and having the grass can be rather nice if it is wet/raining, i can drive up on the grass without making ruts in the dirt.

 

[oosik]

I've got a mile long gravel driveway and in some areas I have a "green" strip down the middle. The green strip is not there because of any action on my part and is 100% weeds & field grass. Believe me, if an area that has a green strip needs extensive work - the green strip is in no way saved. The green strip is a very neat look and is a real PITA to maintain and still do any type of maintenance on the driveway.

For a couple of years I tried to "cultivate" that green strip and its "neat look". I finally figured that I could have one or the other but not both at the same time - a neat looking green strip with crummy drainage or no green strip and adequate drainage. The green strip with adequate drainage represented just too much fiddley-dinking around.

 

[ovrszd]

Tom didn't mention whether is driveway is uphill/downhill or flat?

If it's uphill/downhill it becomes more critical to maintain drainage.

If it's flat, not so much. And I'd leave it.

 

[CobyRupert]

Depends what style you're going for.

In the 70's having one that was totally overgrown was the style.
Then in the 80's and 90's this evolved into have a neat little strip, or patch in the middle.
By the late 90's, and since, having one that's totally bare has been the fashion.

Wait, what are we talking about? :laughing:

 

[npalen]

We seemed to have plenty of these "grass" strips around the farm as a kid growing up in NC Kansas but we certainly didn't maintain them. Even had one in our alley here in town and my wife said it tickled her feet when driving.

Edit: The "grass" strips kept the underside of the pickup shined. I recall an incident where my brother and I left the pickup in the grader ditch with the "shiny side" up. We walked home that day.

 

[ultrarunner]

My first home was in a 1920's subdivision and all the original homes had drives with a grass strip down the middle between two concrete tires runs...

Always liked the look and put in sprinklers and took care of it just like lawn...

When I sold the place it was one of the things the new buyers loved... something pastoral whether country road or city drive with a nice grass strip down the middle.

 

[ProjectKing]

The grassy strip on a farm road is from lack of maintenance...