Idea for low maintenance driveway

Sam W

We bought a new build a few years ago and there are a few very small patches of grass on my driveway - like 2m x 0.5m big each.

This is my first house and I had been living in apartments all my life prior to that.

There were many things that are new to me - I had to tend to these lawns, remove weeds, get rid of the grass that sprouts out of every crack of stones... and I absolutely hated doing any of these.

Is there any good way of changing these small patches into something that requires much less maintenance? How difficult will it be for me to do it myself? Any idea on how much I should expect if I need to hire someone to do it?

jmBuildExt

An oul picture would be helpful.

But sounds like easiest thing to do would be to dig the grass out and put in decorative stone (or bark) - if you can work a spade and a wheel barrow your're on a winner.

If you leave the stone level slightly below the driveway they would be less likely to go all over the place.

You could concrete it or pave it - but you would want to be careful there as the grass areas were prob left there for the exact purpose of drainage. The stone solution wouldn't affect this.

Calahonda52

just spray them

looksee

Are these like mini lawns or just patches of weedy grass?

Sam W

jmBuildExt wrote: »

An oul picture would be helpful.

But sounds like easiest thing to do would be to dig the grass out and put in decorative stone (or bark) - if you can work a spade and a wheel barrow your're on a winner.

If you leave the stone level slightly below the driveway they would be less likely to go all over the place.

You could concrete it or pave it - but you would want to be careful there as the grass areas were prob left there for the exact purpose of drainage. The stone solution wouldn't affect this.

Thanks for the suggestion! I was too lazy to take a picture but I got one from daft which shows a similar front mini lawn.

Sam W

looksee wrote: »

Are these like mini lawns or just patches of weedy grass?

See above please. Not sure what is the correct terminology for it

Shaunoc

Sam W wrote:

See above please. Not sure what is the correct terminology for it

Many people acquired greener fingers over the last year. There looks to be about 2 minutes work in that square every few weeks or months
You could make a sand pit, sunken trampoline or burn it
Or dig out and pave

Lumen

Sam W wrote: »

See above please. Not sure what is the correct terminology for it

I'd call it a flower bed.

ted1

That’s the lowest maintenance garden. Learn as you go

You can dig everting out. Put down a weed membrane. Cut a hole where you want plants.
Go to a garden centre tell them to you want plants that last more that a year and are low maintenance. Cover the membrane with bark

Bass Reeves

Look into it every time you are going in the door and pull one weed.

Sam W

Thanks everyone. We already have a back garden that nobody in the house wants to maintain. As I said, nobody in the house likes gardening unfortunately.

We also have a shared flower bed with our neighbour, which makes it more awkward as they are not tending to it at all (I at least get rid of the weeds every once a while)... Their weeds there are as tall as an adult...

I guess I'm just going to dig it out and cover it with pebble for now.

LenWoods

Sam W wrote: »

Thanks everyone. We already have a back garden that nobody in the house wants to maintain. As I said, nobody in the house likes gardening unfortunately.

We also have a shared flower bed with our neighbour, which makes it more awkward as they are not tending to it at all (I at least get rid of the weeds every once a while)... Their weeds there are as tall as an adult...

I guess I'm just going to dig it out and cover it with pebble for now.

keep an eye out on Aldi & Lidl for some Japanese Maple trees, also known as Japanese Acer, they can be purchased elsewhere but easily cost 70 each in some places but not aldi or lidil,

plant some of those and surround with decorative stone,
if the flowerbed is shared with a neighbor then perhaps consider fitting a wooden frame to your section prior to fitting the stone.