Clean Up // Landscape Area Beside Gravel Driveway

[snpower]

I have a brownstone driveway that is 120 or so feet long, with heavy woods to one side. Aside from the fall leaves that flood that area, I get weeds, etc. growing in through the hotter months. I'd like to clean it up / beautify it. Looking for ideas on what might look good. My thought was another aggregate plus mulch... the concern is that the mulch with get blown away with fall leaf cleanup. The long term plan is to put pavers alongside the gravel drive as some of the brownstone washes annually.

I have a rear blade and BXPanded tooth bar... not opposed to picking up a box blade for this project and future ones. I posted some photos of the area in question. Thanks in advance...

 

[2manyrocks]

Although mulch looks good when freshly done, my experience is it becomes at least an annual job to put new mulch down. Besides being blown away, runoff from the driveway could also cause it to wash.

If you could get grass to grow in that area, it could look good without so much maintenance.

Is there a way for you to control the water runoff?

 

[jeff9366]

I suggest Roundup or the generic form of Roundup, Glcophosphat, in a one or two gallon sprayer. Two light applications will kill the weeds without damaging the trees.

Herbicides work be when the target is growing vigorously.

 

[joeyd]

Kill the weeds, put down a good weed cloth and add 2-3" rock of your color choice. You can easily move the rock back when you decide to do a paver edge and still use the existing rock for decoration. You can gently tapper the rock into the wooded area. If you use larger stone, 2-3", you can easily blow the leaves out of the decorated area.

 

[UOFan]

With the photos and your post, I see a few potential options (some already mentioned above).

1. Kill the weeds, lay weed control fabric, then cover with rip rap (this was suggested above). Rip Rap won’t wash away and looks nice.

2. Grade and grow grass. You can use some jute landscape fabric to prevent the seeds from washing away before they germinate. Hard to tell grade from photos.

3. Build a retaining wall, level the slope, include some drainage so the wall doesn’t become compromised. Now you have a flat surface to do with whatever, maybe even plan some shrubs or line the driveway with small trees. This would be the most labor intensive…and require quite a bit of fill dirt. Not to mention a 120’ long retaining wall.

Instead of pavers lining the drive, I would recommend a two-course block “retaining wall”. First course below grade, second course above. So you have an approximately 8” border, secure from bumps and stays in place. I think paver linings usually look cheap compared to a small wall.

Either way, landscaping and hardscaping will take way more effort than planned…at least always for me. I just finished doing some driveway work as well, here’s a picture of my “retaining wall” lining (right side of photo).

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[Tomtint]

Level it out with your tractor, spread 4"of loam, seed, water and fertilise it and in 6 weeks it will look great. I wouldn't hit it with weed killer at this time of year.. They don't grow much in fall.