Too many stones at end of wall

Tim Robbins

Hi,
I am in a new house. The builder left a pile of stones at the end of the garden where it meets the wall. I was told this was for drainage. See picture.

I was thinking at attaching a border that would come up about 3 inches off the ground and then keep the stones in and the grass out.

My wife thinks this will be messy because when we are strimming it the strimmer will hatch away at the border and make it look unsightly. Also if the stones are raised the drainage probably won't work as well.

So, my plan is to remove about 4 inches of these stones. I am not sure how deep the drain is down but it is definitely more than 4 inches. Insert something permeable e.g. mypex or even an old newspaper. Fill with top soil and then plant grass seeds.

This would mean we have grass seeds to the end of the wall.

Does this sound alright?

I'll post pictures up of progess.

Thanks

yellowlabrador

I would leave it as it is. If you have grass right up to the wall it will be difficult to cut it against the wall. Make sure the gravel is level with the lawn and it should be fine. Also don't forget that the grass will colonise the gravel.

Tim Robbins

yellowlabrador wrote: »

I would leave it as it is. If you have grass right up to the wall it will be difficult to cut it against the wall. Make sure the gravel is level with the lawn and it should be fine. Also don't forget that the grass will colonise the gravel.

Idea is to use strimmer against wall.

At the moment it is a nightmare because the stones come loose and into the grass so it is a pain to cut or strim and dangerous too. The stones reck my head because say I might be playing football with the young fella, the ball bounces of the stones, a few stones come onto the grass, he falls and hits his head of one or our 1 year old tries to eat them.

They are not child friendly.

Colm R

Were you in the house last Summer with all the rain or over the winter. If, so how did your back garden perform. If it drained well, it could be because of these stones, so reducing its drainage would be a bad idea.

You need to come up with some sort of barrier. There is a couple of things you could do.

- build a little wall about a foot high in front of the stones. Make sure you put some pipes through the wall just under the surface to allow water from your lawn run out to the stones. If necessary, later on you could run drainage pipes throughout your lawn to these pipes if you find your back garden is very wet.

Then put mypex on top of the stones, and then back fill with top soil. Now you have lovely little knee high area for flowers, herbs etc. You could only really use plants which do not have deep roots. And plenty of water because, its going to drain quickly, so think carefully about what type of plants.


- You could also build a barrier flush with the stones and the grass as a kind of edging. For example either dig out a little trench and pour concrete between two wooden lats about 2 or 3 inches wide. You'd need to back fill with a layer of stone first, don't put the concrete straight on the clay.
Or use a strip of cobble lock. That way you could run the wheel of the lawn mower along the concrete or cobble lock and cut your grass nice a tight to it, without running the mower over stone. You'd still have a curious child wanting to eat stones though.

- If costs or time are a factor, as an immeadiate solution you could get a mesh, plastic or metal, and cover the stone with it. A mesh with small holes would prevent the stones from moving. You'd need to anchor it to the wall and the ground just in front of the stones. I don't like this idea.


Either way, keep the drainage. Your child in a few years will appreciate being able to play in a garden only a few hours after rain. And by then you'd ll have worry about eating snails and worms and grass - which is great for roughage

Tim Robbins

Colm R wrote: »

Either way, keep the drainage. Your child in a few years will appreciate being able to play in a garden only a few hours after rain. And by then you'd ll have worry about eating snails and worms and grass - which is great for roughage

There were big puddles at the other end of the garden. I think the builder only put the drain in at the end of the garden.

I am not saying take the drain up. If I cover it will some soil (3 inches) will it really be bad for drainage?

The drain will still be there?

Colm R

I guess if you want to lower the level of the stone, do so, but store the stone you take out and see how you get on. If there are problems in the future, take up the soil and put the stones back in and go with plan B.

Put a barrier between the soil and the stone as well.

gramar

I'd find the the gravel beside the grass a bit annoying too.

If there is say 8 or 9 inches of gravel then I'd have no problem taking 4 inches of them out and putting in soil and growing the grass to the wall.

Other options are using kerbing or something similar to would stop the gravel spilling out onto the lawn. If you want to be more adventurous you could build a little pier like Colm R suggested above and make a little flower/shrub bed along the wall.

wildlifeboy

I would instert treated wood betweent he stones and the grass buried to act as a perimeter. it wont last forever but it will keep the stones in and you can cut right up to it with the lawnmower. then lower the stones a centimeter or so behind the wooden barrier. cheap and easy to do.

wildlifeboy

what did you do?

cornflakeman

Do what you planned - take up some stone , few inches of soil and lawn seed . It may be more free draining than rest of lawn and therefore dry out faster than rest of lawn and burn up in dry weather but it's what I'd do too . Go for it

Tim Robbins

cornflakeman wrote: »

Do what you planned - take up some stone , few inches of soil and lawn seed . It may be more free draining than rest of lawn and therefore dry out faster than rest of lawn and burn up in dry weather but it's what I'd do too . Go for it

I have taken out a load of stones. Now putting down mypex and then about 5 inches of top soil and then grass will be grown.