Grass/weeds growing through gravel and I had a thought...

[SugarCubes]

Had planned on replacing the gravel barn pad and driveway with asphalt or concrete or something down the road, but for now it’s just gravel that is being overtaken by weeds and grass.

One area to the side of the barn wasn’t supposed to be gravel, but the dump truck dumped a pile there, so just for kicks, I seeded the area this spring and surprisingly have nice grass growing there again. Which gave me an idea…

You know those grids that you can make a driveway out of where grass grows through them so it’s kind of an “invisible” driveway? Well, could you do the same thing with a gravel drive? Seed over it and make it kind of disappear but still be able to drive on it? Or is this just a ridiculous idea? The idea of having a hidden drive under a pretty lawn surrounding the barn sounds great, in theory. But I can also see the grass only growing in spots and ending up with a very sloppy looking driveway. Thoughts? Sorry, I’m bored today and thinking way too much

[tangledweb]

It would depend a lot on your local climate and driveway traffic volume. It should not look random and “sloppy” but you are likely to get stripes of visible wear where tires mostly travel.

[FreshAir]

Try it. We have that going down to our ring. Pieces of asphalt peak through but it is mostly grass.

[Guilherme]

Grass becomes slippery when wet. If you’re in AZ that might not be a problem. Anyplace east of the Big Muddy it would be a catastrophe!

Get some persistent RoundUp and treat the driveway. You’ll only have to do it once a year.

G.

[neversaynever]

You will eventually have a layer of “dirt” build up as the grass blades and weeds die and/or you mow and it composts. I second what G. suggested with the Roundup.

[poltroon]

The problem with grass growing through gravel is that it is dangerous to mow. If you had some sort of retaining structure over to hold the gravel down, or if you mowed it only with say sheep, that would be fine.

And of course, pressure from tires, especially any time it is wet, will generally kill the grass, leaving two tire tracks on the side.

[CFFarm]

We made a driveway out of “rip-rap” once. It’s large pieces of recycled concrete and after 10 years is still going strong and looks nice. Pretty much maintenance free because we like the look of grass growing around the pieces. You could add something like this and leave your gravel in between the pieces. We’re in Florida so I don’t know if freezing and thawing would be a problem. It was free except for our labor. Installing it is not for the faint of heart. Very, very hard work with levers, shovels and most important…a sense of humor.

[Palm_Beach]

Ditto about the mowing.

[SugarCubes]

Good points! The driveway gets very, very little use. It’s mostly foot traffic, the only time tires touch it is 1 or 2 times a week when I hook up the trailer and haul out for a lesson. However, we do get real winters and I’m assuming the freeze/thaw would affect the stability of the driveway, and I didn’t think about the grass dying if driven over when wet…ah well, guess I’ll keep fighting that losing battle against the weeds until we put down asphalt/concrete

Thanks all!

[DHCarrotfeeder]

@poltroon;8747778

The problem with grass growing through gravel is that it is dangerous to mow. If you had some sort of retaining structure over to hold the gravel down, or if you mowed it only with say sheep, that would be fine.

The proposal was gravel leveled through a grid. If done right, the gravel won’t have much liberty to make mowing a mess. Plus you if you don’t mow it short, the mower might not lift up the gravel.