Beginner Gardening: Design Ideas Needed, 0 by goodchap

goodchap wrote:
We have had quite a few good rains since I ripped out the wall and there's been no seepage into our basement. From talking with my new neighbor, I understand that the guy who owned it a while back brought in a couple loads of dirt, packed it against the house, and the built that ugly cinderblock wall (and yes...it was the look of the block that bothered me...very cheap). The workmanship was terrible...I even found trash tucked in the holes of the blocks, cigarette packs, cheetos, etc. I also spent the summer digging my house out and uncovering quite a few strips of siding in the process. The went overboard with the dirt and didn't address the real problem, which was the slope and the fact that the house did not have gutters. By digging out those flower beds, I corrected the slope (at least it appears that way) and we had a new set of gutters installed. We have not had water leaking into the basement since installing the gutters, so I doubt that wall was really doing any good at all.

Here's another photo for a difference perspective. We're doing a lot of tree plating next fall. I was thinking maybe a pathway through there to the driveway which is located to the left of the large grassy spot (we don't have a garage).