Driveway And Parking Modifications A Job In Progress

My house was built with a tight curve in the driveway leading to the proposed RV parking. In this driveway, backing in a dually and staying on the concrete is exciting even without a trailer. So I decided to extend the driveway to make it easier to get in and out of and increase my available parking. Concrete is expensive, so is crushed concrete and coquina rock. So I decided to go with Cypress mulch. Originally I thought of going all the way to the road, but my landscaper pointed out that water flow in the drainage area would wash away the mulch. So I decided to end the mulched area before the ditch, outline the mulched area with landscape timbers and then taper the ground up to the parking area without restricting the available drainage.

Every time I come up with a project I always overlook Murphy's Laws of Projects. Well Murphy arrived almost immediately as the project began.

This is the area, right behind the utility shed, where I told the Bobcat operator to dump the soil removed i preparing the area to be mulched. The idea was to build up an area where I could later build a gardening bench for Nana.

As the Bobcat operator dropped the first load, all I saw was a huge strip of beautiful sod that would soon be buried. I then directed the Bobcat operator to lay the piles besides each other and Nana and I spent the next couple of hours pulling as much sod as we could out of the piles and laying them behind the house to extend our yard. All this happened with the heat index well over 95 degrees.

This picture shows some of the sod we managed to get down. It was rip it out of the pile and stamp it down a little farther away. Nana was also spreading bags of manure on and watering the area where we laid the sod.

Ultimately, we had to tell the bobcat operator to spread around and flatten the rest of the sod because we were to tired to move any more of it. In a couple of months, the centipede grass involved will come right up through the dirt and fill in a lot of that area.

Eventually, the Bobcat operator ripped out the sod, removed a bunch of dirt, laid groundcloth and filled in the area with Cyprus Mulch.

From this view you can see where I laid the first line of landscape timber. Originally I thought of going all the way to the road, but my landscaper pointed out that water flow in the drainage area would wash away the mulch. So I decided to end the mulched area before the ditch, outline the mulched area with landscape timbers and then taper the ground up to the parking area without restricting the available drainage.

The landscape timbers on the street side are pegged to the ground with one inch diameter oak dowels 18 inches in length.

The top of this picture shows the area being built up to allow driving in and out over the street side timbers. I hope that will keep the timbers from shifting as vehicles enter and leave the driveway.

This is one of the street side dowels along with the five pound precision instrument used for their installation.

Regardless of location, each eight foot landscape timber will be held in place by three dowels, shorter timbers will have at least two dowels. The dowels along the side of the parking area where no vehicle traffic is expected are 3/4 inch poplar dowels instead of one inch oak, they are also 18 inches in length. All dowels were treated with waterproofing to increase their usable lifetime.

Here the dowel has been inserted into the landscape timber.

This area between the back end of the driveway and the utility shed is also being prepared for the Cyprus mulch.

The distance from the driveway end to the utility shed is about 21 feet. This is mainly for looks as it fills in a no grass area however, if I had a long fifth wheel it could overhang over this area and be out of the way.

Once the mulched area is outlined with landscape timbers, I will build a ramp up to the utility shed for the lawn tractor. In this view you can see I have to install the timbers at both ends and then finish spreading the mulch evenly.