Driveway paving, landscaping, and retaining walls - OH MY

Paving the driveway would be cheaper than both the walls and the culvert and would solve the erosion problem as well.

You need to think long-term maintenance as well. If you're having erosion problems that means your culvert will need to be cleaned out. If you don't put the proper time, effort, and funds into a wall it will fail on you.

>>1195292
Thank you for your input. The driveway is the thing that is mostly eroding. The rolling hills sometimes erode, but that's on my neighbors land. Those eroding hills sometimes deposit sediment in our ditch, which builds up over time and becomes an issue. Preventing that sediment would be the job of the retaining wall, but perhaps I would need something else to manage that issue.

I'll probably have to hire someone for a consultation due to the complexity of this problem, but that wouldn't be the end of the world.

>>1195331

I would fill in the ditch and let the stormwater sheet flow across the driveway, unless the topography is causing the flow to concentrate at a few points and/or you live in an area where temps fall below freezing for a significant portion of the year.

If you are still concerned about your neighbor's erosion you may want to Google permanent sediment control devices. You would need a linear device, not one that covers an area. I can't think of one off the top of my head but if I think of one I will come back and post.

>>1195340
You are a hero. Thank you for sharing that wisdom.

I dont want to start my own thread but I have a few questions about landscaping. I'm helping my dad out with clearing out an overgrown patch of thorny weeds with the end goal of planting a garden there. He has a Hitachi gas weed wacker and I bought a brush cutter for it that came with 6 adapter bolts, but none of them fit. Is this a safety thing because the weed wacker cannot be used to clear weeds, or can I simply buy a different bolt that fits and use that with no issues?

There are a number of holes on the lawn that need to be filled it, at least two are gopher holes. Can I simply fill them in with dirt and plant grass seed, or are there additional steps involved?

Around the house and on the front stairwell there is exposed concrete that looks like shit and I want to put in some hedges or bushes to cover them up. Do I need to take any precautions to avoid the plants disturbing the foundation or anything like that? The exposed concrete ranges from 37" to 48", any suggestions for vegetation that would cover that? ? My dad lives in NY if that helps.

>>1196285
Former dairy farmer and fencer here, best thing for weeds is fire, if you can't do that then take a machete to it until you can reach the base. And for rabbit holes stomp them in along the hole until it gets to a point where you jump up and down on the ground without any spring back. Then fill it in.

>>1195251
Get another boiler and run pipe through the hills so You can heat them throughout the winter and not have to worry about a bunch of snowpac melting all at once.