Landscaping Stone

[John G]

Hello,

Quick question about landscaping stone...

My property has a slight slope to it. My wife and I just replaced our cedar fence. The fence has an opening with double wide gates. The door that opens down hill, not a problem, but the other door, that opens uphill hits the ground when it is open about 95 degrees. We dug out the land to allow the door to open fully and were going to plant grass in the newly dug out area, to replace the grass that was there. We got to thinking that it would look nice with some white crushed landscaping stone. Now the question...

Is it as simple as digging down another inch or three and putting the stone in? Are there any other considerations? The gate will be used primarily for foot traffic and not too much of it. About every ten days a ride mower will go over it.

Thanks in advance, John

[The Other Harry]

[On 28 Jul 2003 16:59:49 -0700, [e-mail] (John G) wrote:]

Not exactly. You'd probably at least want to put down some black plastic sheeting first. Helps keep down the weeds.

Oh, a few. Water drainage away from the house. Borders. Rock getting into the yard. Etc.

I personally find your whole sceranio suspect. I think you need to give this project some additional thought. I can't quite visualize what you have there, but my initial impression is that something more durable and landscaped would be better. More like a patio or a garden walkway.

That wouldn't necessarily cost you much more, and I think you'd be happier with the results. It would also be more fun to put in.

['nuther Bob]

If this is really "low traffic", Make it four five inches. Put down three inches of "crusher run". This stuff is made up of everything from fine particles to larger chucks and it packs down well. Compact it. Then put a inch of the "ornamental" stone you want and compact it into the surface a bit.

If you put just the crushed rock down it will move around a lot. If you want, you can put down sand instead of the crusher run and put the ornamental stone on top of that. The sand will make it move around less.

Plastic under it all is OK, but eventually the weeds will start growing anyway in the dirt that accumulates in the gravel. You might think about a border to keep the grass out. Some people like that plastic stuff, I prefer 1/4x4 steel.

Bob