previously used car-pad

We would like to landscape our very small back yard - but half of it was used as a car-pad for about 16 years. The ground is solid dirt and gravel to about a foot deep. I would love to put grass down, but is it possible without bringing in a back-hoe (which we really don't want to do) to penetrate this rock-hard ground? What would our other alternatives be to have a nice yard, instead of this half grass, half gravel? It would have to be durable, since we have children and a dog.

Hi brwnthumb, you do have a big problem eh, to have a grass lawn, you would have to get rid of all the gravel, then a machine to break up the hard packed soil(or the marines to do some hand grenade practice)then ome new top soil as nothing will grow in these conditions, a lawn is just like any other living plant, it needs room for roots and good soil/drainage to nurish the roots, so unless you were prepared to do all that, OR, get landscapers in to do it for you, the best I can come up with is like maybe a deck, these are hard wareing, you could leave planter holes in the deck if it was too plane, or grow climbers up a railing, that way you would only have to try dig a few planting holes and add extra compost into these holes, I dont know the size of the area you are wishing to change from gravel, but maybe you could add some enclosed planting beds around the edge of the deck, even a fire pit, which would allow even more use from the deck area and some seating, add some low level lighting and you could have a really attractive and usefull area, if you have young kids, an area for a sandpit built in would accomodate a kids area,IF, decking aint your taist, then maybe some really nice Block paveing would break this area up, it is hard to guess really, perhaps a photograph sent into the forum would help, but both these ideas would need foundations, and these would save you having to get rid of the gravel so long as your levels were OK. try going along to your local librery and look for some books on landscapeing yards etc, you will get ideas and prob some costings also. so good luck and happy digging. WeeNel.

WeeNel again, I forgot to mention that as your yard was used for all these years as a car pad, then befor you plant anything in that area, better check out the soil as you could have oil, gas spills and lord knows what else seeping into the earth below, just a warning to you that maybe you should concider that, good luck. WeeNel.

Brwnrhumb, one idea would be to dig up as much of the gravel and dirt with a pick-ax as you can then lay down a layer of sand and compact it. If you are concerned about planting edibles in this area then cover it with a solid layer of plastic. You can then build up this area as a raised planting bed with garden soil, a sandbox, or plant grass seed on gardening soil. This also could be used as an area for a garden of potted plants as lush as you would like. This problem area can be anything you want for a small amount of money, some of your time and hard work. Good luck!!