ditch finishing question

[escavader]

HI,
I have dug 8 inch deep sloped ditchs to help dry the drive way out last spring,it worked rather well.Now the middle part of summers here,they work well in shedding those gully wasHing thunder storms away.They are unattractive and hard to maintain because of the grass that grows up among the layer of feild stone that i laid in it.My wife thinks some one is going to get out of there car and trip or twist an ankle. So the plan now is to fill them almost level full of crushed rock.well here are my questions
1... If i lay plastic in the ditch before i put the stone in it will stop the grass for the most part right?
2....do i have to put pipe in before the stone,or will it work ok without it? Crushing the pipe might be a concern because i will plow over it in the winter,and im not down that deep.If so what kind?
3....I have a steep grade in the upper drive that sometimes washs a little.This sometimes washs a bit of sand down the ditch.Is there some sort of dam i can put in that will stop the sand,but yet allow the water to continue?This has happened in my feild stone ditch,beside the garage,and has made it unattractive,as well as promoted grass growth.no i wont use chemicals to kill grass,and burning it is alot of work.The rocks are hard on weedwacker blades or string
ESCAVADER

 

[Farwell]

I can answer only one of your questions and that is, do not put plastic sheeting under your rocks to stop the weeds, use landscaping cloth or weed barrier, this blocks the weed growth and allows moisture to pass through it. There are several names for the product and several different qualities. The type I use is from Lowes and is a commercial grade.
Farwell

 

[nasdaqsam]

Escavader,

You can line the ditch with weed barrier or some sort of silt blocking material or if you can find some marrified paper (road crews have it). However that is not going to stop the grass/weeds. It will slow them down but not stop them. As for the rock, the larger the better. Crushed stone will slow the water to much and cause an overflow.

Here is what I would do, of course this is with out seeing the ditch. Slope the ditch to where you want it then lay the paper on the bottom. You can line it with flat stone also but not really needed. Then line the ditch with shock rock 6" to 8" or larger for larger ditches, heavier in the center maybe even 1/2 way full. What you can do is every 8 to 10 feet put a piece of silt fence (really just material) from side to side between the rocks, this will filter the water some. No matter what you do there is going to be silt build up somewhere and weeds that come up. It is just a maintenence thing from there.

Good Luck