Levelling a garden

Roberto_gas

Hi folks I am in the process to level a part of my garden which is currently stepped using wooden blocks. Plan is to level and put weed fabric and then gravel on top.

Any tips on reuse of soul dug from higher level to lower side ? i have heard old soil may have to be thrown out and new soil is the way to go. Can i not just remove weeds etc from old one and reuse. Also do i need to do anything on levelled surface before putting gravel? Possibly put a layer of top soil but is it required for gravel finish?

Thanks

Lumen

A photo or diagram would be helpful.

Weed fabric doesn't really work, at least more than temporarily. There are various types of landscape fabric whose main job is to keep dissimilar materials (e.g. gravel and soil) separate, and they might be marketed as a weed barrier, but that only works short term. As soon as the gravel is laid, nature will start filling it with stuff that isn't gravel (leaves, seeds, bird poop etc) and eventually grass will start to grow. You might get a couple of years before that starts to happen, but once it starts it becomes unstoppable and there's no way of dealing with it except spraying or burning, until you re-do the job.

You can slow this process down by removing all leaves before they start decomposing, but if you want gravel for low maintenance that's not appealing. This is why is when you see big country houses with gravel driveways, there usually isn't a tree or deciduous shrub within 20m of the driveway. Or they have a team of professional gardeners.

In any case, landscape fabric is still useful under gravel as it'll stop it mixing with the soil. Woven stuff (which looks like the material used for "tonne" bags) is less water permeable but much tougher than unwoven (which looks fluffy).

Regarding the soil, the top 6-12 inches is topsoil, will grow things well, but is not very stable. The soil below is subsoil and will not be great for growing stuff but is stable. Therefore, if you want to grow stuff (e.g. grass), you move the topsoil into a big pile, re-grade the garden, and then spread the topsoil back on, and if you want to do paving, you move the topsoil to the planting areas. With gravel it probably doesn't matter either way.

Try to avoid bringing new soil on site, as it may contain weeds (in the worst case, japanese knotweed, but bindweed is also bad), and may not match your local soil, making it more difficult to plan planting.

FWIW I'm currently about four months into a six week re-landscaping project, and we're about 50% done. It's going great 😂

Calahonda52

if changing the level by more than a metre IIRC, you need planning.

Also there are limits, under the SUDs regs, re hard landscaping, as % of total area

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122713865#Comment_122713865

Yeah, but SuDS criteria are used in assessing planning applications. If the development is exempted (e.g. class 6) then there's no planning application to consider, so SuDS is irrelevant. As far as I know there nothing in the exempted developed regs that requires consideration of permeability, like I could theoretically pave over half an acre of back garden and drain it to the public system.

Please correct me if I have this wrong.

In any case, but the sounds of it this gravel project is permeable.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122713894#Comment_122713894

I see it differently but let's not fuss over it, the drought will sort it!

[It coiuld arise on sale re compliance and I dont think is building work is exempt that you can ignore the hardlandscaping ]

Keep well.

Roberto_gas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122713845#Comment_122713845

here is the before and after did the sloped level yday. Back did not thank us😃. Do we just put out the weed barrier now and gravel?

Lumen

OK, from those pics it appears that you're not levelling the garden (making it parallel to the horizon), you're flattening it by taking out some small retaining timbers.

Those timbers are there to stop the gravel moving down the slope.

Unless you use a gravel retaining grid, or at least use large, angular gravel, the project is likely to fail. Landscape fabric will make it worse as the gravel will slip over it.

awec

I am not a landscaper, but I suspect you're going to have to construct a more robust retaining structure than those loose blocks at the bottom of the photo.

Otherwise your level-ish area won't stay level-ish for too long.

GreeBo

Yeah, you need to install some of this stuff if you are going for flat but not level

you could try to get away without it, by using a number of horizontal breaks to stop the gravel, but likely you will end up back where you started in a couple of months/years.

Also I dont think SUDS is going to come into it, since gravel and soil are permeable.

Roberto_gas

Thanks all getting a proper retaining wall built, 804 and grit to fill, flatten using a compactor. Artificial grass post that !

And yes went with a prof landscaper.

Roberto_gas

really happy with the result !