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Hi All,
I have recently moved into a town house with a small backyard. I wish to start with creating a gravel area under the shady spot under the washing line. The grown slopes from the retaining wall to the house, the difference approx 17cm. My question is where to start. I have added some extra draining infront of the patio. But that corner is still a bit damp. The turf has just been laid on gravel, no real top soil.
The ground also slopes to the right where it meets a stormwater drain.. the fall approx 25cm.
My idea is to start with gravel under the washing line, level the grass and build it up closer to the patio height , and then try and figure out what to do about that drain… any ideas, advice would be very gratefully welcome.
Hi @NIC-DIY,
A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and thank you for your question.
It sounds like you should break it down into three separate mini projects.
Start with the gravel underneath the clothesline. You can start this project by installing a garden edge or sleeper barrier to delineate between the grass and the gravel. They can be set in place with edging pegs or sleeper pegs, depending on your choice. Once the barrier is in place, optionally, you could put down some weed mat to help suppress any grass or weeds from growing up through the stones. At this point, you can simply fill the area with gravel, or you could use some decorative stones to give it a more interesting look.
You might like to check out How To Install Garden Edging and How To Install Weed Matting for some guidance.
Once this project is complete, you can move on to the grassed area. I think I would start by "boxing out" the lawn so that you can raise its level. You can do this with garden edging like before. The two main places I am looking at are around the drain and at the end of the patio.
By adding garden edging in these locations, you could gradually, over the course of a number of months, topdress your lawn to raise its level. By topdressing the lawn, then allowing the grass to grow up through the new material, your lawn will continue to grow and will flourish due to the nutrients and quality soil that has been added to it. Over time, the level will rise until a time where it is flush with the patio, and you can stop periodically topdressing. Check out How To Topdress Your Lawn for some guidance on this process.
The final thing to address is the drain. I would start by checking if this is a council or body corporate asset before doing anything. Understanding the ownership of the drain will allow you to make an educated choice on your next steps.
A simple solution would be to lay some Geotextile Membrane over the drain, which will prevent soil and materials from getting into the drain, and then covering it with your gravel or decorative stones from before. This set-up would allow water to still drain and if you are required to allow access to the drain, it would not be so difficult to remove the stones and drain matting to allow access.
Allow me to tag our fantastic members @Renowayoflife, @Tara86 and @Dave-1 to see what ideas they might have.
Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Jacob
Good Evening @NIC-DIY
I really like the steps that @JacobZ has outlined. I was going to suggest the gravel and sleeper edge under the clothesline area. I would also go deep gravel, 100mm at least so no weeds and when they do they will be easy to pull out. But the nicest part is his suggestion about how to raise angled slope of your lawn over months by topdressing.
The drain and who it belongs to is a valid point to investigate, I like the idea of the geotex to cover the grill but I am also thinking of a fine mesh and larger pebbles to cover the drain but allowing free drainage through it. (Im thinking 50mm plus size of the pebbles)
Slow and steady and I would start the lawn upgrade from spring 
Dave
