A Tad Dampish

[T1 Terry]

So are the bricks sinking or the ground rising ..... or you collecting someone else's top soil?
You need some of the grass they grow on a loom, it stays green and holds onto the dirt, relay a new lot when the dirt starts to wash over the top again

[supersparky]

Unfortunately that is the down side of owning a block that slopes the wrong direction to which you desire.
I used to have a place where, after every decent rain event, the driveway would try to fill the garage.
Bigger drains would help, but only delay the inevitable.

[jon_d]

Unfortunately that is the down side of owning a block that slopes the wrong direction to which you desire.

Fortunately, there is an up side of owning a block that slopes the right direction to which you desire too.

[Greynomad]

Unfortunately our “upside” becomes part of our “downside” every time we have heavy rain.
It’s not the bricks sinking or the ground rising... the ground is shifting: from the uphill garden bed & grassless “lawn” area to the brick garden border which stops its progress down the slope.
When we moved into the house the carport concrete was 2” above ground level... it’s now ½” below ground level.
We tried fertiliser-laced grass seed, digging compost into the soil, spreading sand & sowing grass seed with lawn-booster... nothing has worked. The soil always appears dry.
The Eucalyptus trees just suck all the moisture away from the surface. We’ve earmarked five trees (out of 12) for removal early next year.

[T1 Terry]

That grass you buy on a roll seems to grow ok, always looks green anyway The amazing thing with it is, you put it down because nothing would grow, but within a few mths things start to grow out of it. You either do the round up trick or just mow it with the catcher on and set at the high position. Even if the actual grass dies, the lawn stays green and holds the dirt in place. The seeds have somewhere to settle and as soon as conditions suit, the lawn grows again.

T1 Terry

[BruceS]

Terry a good strong lawn is just like a good strong pasture growth in a farmer's paddock. It'll compete & choke out the weeds after a while.
A run down pasture will soon be nothing more than weeds!

[T1 Terry]

The good strong lawn needs stability and regular water and feeding. The grass mat carpet stuff produces the stability and seed retention, I'm guessing the regular redressing with top soil as the yard moves should help with the nutrition part, it's just the water part that is difficult to maintain without a regular water supply.
Our front lawn was going strong until the pump died. Now I need to rerun cabling etc to get the new solar array output back to the original pump position. I've finally fixed the pump drive coupling issue so hopefully that should be a bit better than the hit and miss set up I had, but the original panels still being under water means an alternate solar set up was required

[Greynomad]

Unfortunately in our part of Victoria, water is VERY expensive!
After our first 3months here we were hit with a $700+ water bill!
Same watering schedule in Melbourne was around $200.
House has 2 x 22,500 litre tanks & 1 x 5,000 litre tank.
We’re a bit more judicious in our water use now, have dripper system on all garden beds, and timers on all taps.
Even with those, we can’t afford the water to lay instant turf.

[T1 Terry]

Not instant turf Ray, fake grass like all the green lawns in South Australian cities and towns use. That lovely green on the nature strip and traffic island isn't grass that grows, it's grass that gets vacuumed The same for the majority of front lawns where they don't live beside the river and have water use rights. They either use fake grass or crushed rocks, neither requires water but look better than dust. The fake grass is just easier to vacuum or clear with the leaf blower.

[Greynomad]

Not sure The Hounds would appreciate fake grass.
Might start to pong after a few wees... and picking up the other stuff from it doesn't bear thinking about!

We've already admitted defeat in the centre of the back yard... planning to install a 'dry riverbed' type rockery/garden bed there.