Is your driveway constantly wrecked whenever visitors park in the wrong place? Do you need a way to bring vehicles to a proper parking place without ruining your yard? There are multiple ways to protect your yard while giving a breath of fresh air to your landscaping. To avoid muddy tire marks and swampy yard pits after a house party or a friendly dinner, here are a few ways to make your driveway a lot safer while keeping to comfortable aesthetics.

Gravel For A Faster Driveway Delivery

Many driveway types involve dedicated construction and require professionals to get it right. It's not impossible to pour a concrete driveway yourself--far from it, in fact--but to avoid wasting money and time if you get it wrong, gravel is a much easier choice.

You can technically pour as much gravel as you need into your desired driveway and designate that area for vehicles. Unfortunately, without a few preparation steps before dropping off the gravel, your investment will slowly slide further into the yard and road over time. It's not a big deal for most people who just want to guide drivers into the right path, but it will need replacement after a few years.

There is no set date for adding more gravel. It all depends on how violently people drive across the gravel, whether they spin their tires, the amount of flooding and storm winds in the area, and other local factors that can move rocks. Rock movement is the only issue here.

Making A More Long-Term, Aesthetically-Pleasing Gravel Driveway

There are a few things you can do to make your gravel driveway or other gravel placement more permanent. Compacting dirt and creating barriers are the main techniques, but there are multiple ways to get the job done.

Compacting soil and base layers of gravel is key if you want to make sure that the gravel stays put. This means using a compactor to press down the soil, placing an even layer of gravel, then compacting the gravel as well. This creates a new floor of sorts that is as close to solid as you can get without concrete or solid stone.

On top of the compacted soil and gravel layer, all of your other options can come into play. You can add the rest of your gravel for a country, construction, or otherwise rugged look, or add decorative stones such as jasper, lava rock, river rock, granite, or marble to add color.

You can even lay bricks or other stones in smaller, precision cut pieces rather than using bigger slabs that can crack over extreme weight. In addition to driveways, these make great walking paths. The compacted soil and gravel underneath can keep your yard more firm if your area floods often or has swampy conditions during rainy seasons.

Contact a gravel delivery professional, like those at Hanson Aggregates, to discuss the amount needed, as well as lessons learned for different projects and unique ideas that work well for your yard.