A question regarding our parking lot

[mrs.jacinthe]

(LOL, that just cracks me up.  We can totally host a huge party and not have to park on the street!)

Anyhow, we're thinking about tearing out half the driveway and replacing it with grass.  However, the other half would still be asphalt and kind of ugly, complete with a handicap parking space.  Admittedly, even though the house isn't commercial, I'd feel weird about parking in a handicap spot.  So I got to thinking - what if we tore out ALL the asphalt and replaced it with something like this:



Would that be weird or inappropriate to our house style?  We don't get a ton of freeze-thaw here as it rarely gets below 32.

The other option at the moment would be concrete, which is BORING.  If you've got other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

[Blueper]

That would be extremely fun and unexpected!

[Deleted]

Would you be parking on this new space?

I like the stones, especially if you used something drought tolerant in the gaps (some sort of low-growing thyme?). Definitely better than concrete, which contributes to stormwater flooding/pollution; not sure how much problem you have with that but it's a huge problem where we are. Many of the old homes around me have two strips of hard surface for tires with permeable space between and around; I think it looks nice.

Please don't put in grass in Sacto. Our water system can't take it. There are some lovely low-water plants out there; get creative

[Blueper]

www.stepables.com/3/find_the_right_plant_for_your_area.html This might help you find something to plant in between the steppers

[kitty]

What is the condition of the asphalt? I think it would pain me to tear it out if it was in good shape because of how $$$$ it is. We had our driveway widened recently and then they put a sealer over the entire thing to make it all darker so that the new very dark piece didn't stand out so much. Maybe a sealer would cover up any markings of the handicap space?

[mrs.jacinthe]

Jan 25, 2013 12:56:56 GMT -5 @juno said:

Would you be parking on this new space?

I like the stones, especially if you used something drought tolerant in the gaps (some sort of low-growing thyme?). Definitely better than concrete, which contributes to stormwater flooding/pollution; not sure how much problem you have with that but it's a huge problem where we are. Many of the old homes around me have two strips of hard surface for tires with permeable space between and around; I think it looks nice.

Please don't put in grass in Sacto. Our water system can't take it. There are some lovely low-water plants out there; get creative

I'm so aware of that, actually.  Our new HOA (which is more of a set of guidelines and a private park) requires that new landscaping be low-water-usage.  Since we'd be paying city water prices for any irrigating we did, it is unlikely we'll use anything that requires a lot of maintenance.  We've been thinking of using fine fescue or hair grass (as per this article in Sunset: www.sunset.com/garden/garden-basics/plant-no-mow-lawn-00400000029555/) because we HAVE to have grass so the dog has somewhere to poop.  She won't go on a hard surface, so true xeriscaping is out.

[Deleted]

OK, I know nothing about grass; since my mom hated it, we never even had it growing up. If Sunset is recommending that type, more power to you. Silly dog. Low water doesn't have to mean hard surface if you wanted to explore things outside of grasses (if she would go in areas with mulch, wooly thyme, etc.).

I'm really, really happy to hear about that HOA requirement. So many of them require high-water landscaping. I wish the legislature would get involved in that area if they haven't already. I thought I heard some rumblings, but didn't do any followup reading.

[mrs.jacinthe]

I don't know if she'd go in mulch, but honestly, the idea of dog poop getting on mulch is kind of gross. I mean, dog poop is gross in and of itself, but I feel like it would be more visible, KWIM? We've considered other low maintenance plants but we're just stuck mentally on the idea of increased lawn space. We do have to be careful with our landscaping and keep it "green" (so-to-speak) because of wildfire precautions.

[InBetweenDays]

I agree with Juno about using something other than concrete or other impervious surface (I actually work in the stormwater industry). What about some type of porous or permeable pavers?

[FoxInFiji]

Yeah that always looks beautiful but it is extemely hard to maintain and keep looking nice. We put in a big flagstone path and tried to plant moss between the stones. The problem is to keep the stones from shifting you want to have a hard compacted surface (most landscapers recommend untouched soil so you only dig down for the rock/paver) but the plant in between the stone wants soft fertile soil. It is basically just a weedy mess after 2 years of busting our butt trying to get various ground covers to grow there. It it super hard to get the full weed out because you can't dig and even in areas where the moss, Irish moss, and other ground covers are growing there are weeds around the edge of the stones. In comparison we put in flagstone along the driveway at the same time but similar to a patio (compacted bed of stone below and polymeric sand in between the stones) and it looks beautiful. No stones are shifting like the ones on soil are and there is no weeding, watering, or mess.

Anywhere you have a mix of hardscape and living plant you'll have these same issues so I would go with a pervious concrete or asphalt myself. Grass alone even the nice fescue stuff is hard enough to grow! We use for work on projects that want to be green. But it's not good enough to use in a cold climate yet with lots of freeze/thaw. In CA it works great. It's of course not cheap.

Also why are you keeping a handicap spot? Paint over all of that with that asphalt sealer and call it a day. You can always redo it with some pervious material later that way.