After having a fantastic garage built out back, I turn my attention to the space beside it. Right now it’s a fairly flat area of mixed rocks and dirt, and every year it grows a thick layer of weeds that is a real bore to keep under control.
My plan is to have it covered with “road crush”, but I’m fuzzy on the particulars. I was thinking the rock would keep the weeds down by itself, but now I’ve been looking at putting down landscaping fabric first to help. Some people with roads made of the stuff say the rock sinks in the mud under the weight of cars without fabric, but this is just a 15’x40’ space next to the garage, so perhaps it’s not important?
Should I put down fabric before calling in the dump trucks? Something else?
You might want to prepare the subgrade first; using something like a tractor and box blade to cut out high spots, and remove topsoil and vegetation. Then you can come back with a little compacted fill dirt or geotextile before you place the aggregate. You can just put the aggregate down but it won’t be as strong, and as you mentioned it can migrate downward.
Be sure you figure out your drainage so that the area doesn’t get mushy.
Do you know anyone you could ask about this, such as a local contractor?
I’m trying to get rid of all the weeds in my yard by putting in raised beds with decomposed granite everywhere else. You should make sure that you have your drainage figured out and you might want to toss in some french drains if the area drains poorly.
My contractor tells me grade the area, put down permeable weed blocking cloth, and then lay down 4 to 6 inches of decomposed granite. You must have something like a 1/4" every 1 foot slope to insure proper drainage. Don’t quote me on that.
I thought I was being prepared having a pointy shovel (the square-shaped ones don’t work on rocks).
Is drainage a serious issue? I banked a bit of dirt by the garage so rain would flow away from it, but I’m really just trading a car-sized area of dirt and weeds for a car-sized area of rocks, so surely the status-quo should reign as far as drainage is concerned?
The closest to “contractor” I’ve gotten so far is a gardener friend who gave me the name of a company that can deliver rocks.
We did something similar for the car pad we dug out in our last yard. Gravel does not seem to significantly impair weed growth - I’d put down weed-retardant landscape fabric first, and be prepared to hose it down with Round-Up regularly. If you don’t have drainage problems there now, I don’t think I’d worry about it with the road crush.
Whther he’ll have drainage problems going forward depends on how soft the ground is now. I’ve seena couple projects like this which weren’t a drainage problem until the dump trucks showed up and generated wheel ruts in the soft ground.
Then they had a dranage problem because those ruts were transverse to the natural slope away from the building. And since the ruts were under the umpteen tons of crushed rock that got dumped, they weren’t much fun to fix by hand with a shovel. So they weren’t fixed. So the water pooled. So the garage foundation got undermined.
You’d like to have the area drain water quickly. If not, your subgrade will stay saturated and soft, like a big sponge. If you raise the gravel area a bit, and also ensure that water can get out from between the garage and the gravel area, you should be fine. It’s nice if your gravel, once packed down, has a slope on it as mentioned above by Darryl.
I didn’t address this since you aren’t planning on driving on your road crushed area, but we found this to be true, too - the wheels on our cars went through the gravel fairly easily and left nasty wheel ruts, and the area turned into a soggy mess in spring. I’m not sure that landscape fabric would be enough for driving on - if I were to do it over again, I think I’d compact the soil first or something (or maybe actually look up how to do this). Now that I’m thinking about this, our drainage probably could have been better, too, which is funny since we dug the car pad out of a hill - I guess we did too good a job at levelling it.
I’ve specifically made a bit of a bank against the foundation, but perhaps I’ll widen it a bit more. And if fabric will help keep the weeds away (and keep my rocks from sinking) then it certainly sounds worth the investment.
Since you asked, I’ve taken a few photos here. The alley is at the back, and my tiny garden is behind the fence, so pretty much any direction water cares to go other than the garage is fine with me.
Fabric is more of a landscaping product. Typically it works along with at least four inches of ground cover over top. Weeds will eventually sprout up from blown in seed and debris and will find their way through the weave to some degree. The point about the fabric preventing the aggregate subsisting into the substrate is probably more relevant.
Note that flower beds of rich, fertile soil can be kept relatively weed free with out landscape fabric just by simply using a thick enough layer of mulch or ground cover. If you are not planning on driving on this a more effective weed prevention would be a thick layer of mulch rather than road crush. Weeds will eventually sprout up but can be removed quickly and easily and practically effortlessly with a hoe. Every tried pulling a dandelion from packed gravel?
If you go the gravel route and especially if you are going to drive on it, the suggestion of removing the topsoil and replacing with clay or clean fill is good advice. Most independent bobcat operators either have their own truck or work with one and can do this in a couple hours.
