In front of my house, I have a garden bed that grows nothing but weeds no matter what I do. I can tell from archived photos with the county auditor that this garden bed formerly extended all the way across the front of the house to a second, smaller weed path on the far corner of the house. Recently, I've been thinking about what I can do to improve the curb appeal and reclaim some of this area for use. This is what I've come up with and I'm looking for some advice!
I'm thinking about building a small retaining wall no more than 6-12 inches high across the front of my house (red line in second picture) from the porch to the far corner and then filling in the resulting enclosed area (highlighted blue) with gravel. In the larger section of garden bed near the gas meter, I was thinking about a couple of adirondack chairs and maybe a small table. Across the front of the house, my thoughts include a couple of larger pots with plants and perhaps some shepherd's hooks with additional hanging plants and/or a hummingbird feeder.
I've never done a project quite like this, so I am wondering how deep the gravel should be? Intuitively, I think 2-3 inches should be plenty, but I'm not sure. I definitely don't want any weeds finding their way up through the gravel. To that end, does the gravel need to be deeper? Or is their some kind of environmentally-friendly liner that I can install underneath the gravel? If so, would the liner impede water absorption? Most of this area is underneath a drip edge of my house that also has gutters installed, but I'd still like the area to be capable of draining water away from the house as much as possible (especially since I'm on a slab foundation).
Please let me know your thoughts, as well as any other suggestions you may have! Thanks!
by handsome_chemist
Comments are closed.