I am a do it yourselfer working on my front porch/ walkway. My concern is the area behind the retaining wall (at the left in the picture) where I would be installing pavers for the porch at the back and a flower bed at the front part. The flower bed will be sandwiched between the drainage zone and the pavers, with landscape fabric separating it from them. I will be compacting the gravel base for the pavers in stages ( every 6"), and the total height of the gravel base should be around 18" (Two more rows has still to be added to the retaining wall) . How would you guys deal with this scenario? My concern is that even if I compacted the paver base properly, in time, the front part next to the flower bed will settle and shift (I will be using paver edgers). I am thinking of somehow supporting the gravel base with some kind of a grid to hold it back, or maybe a retaining wall below grade between the porch and the flower bed just to support the porch area. I would really like to hear how you guys would deal with this.
Also, what do you think of the drainage system. The picture shows where I dug a hole just big enough to accept a 5 Gal. plastic bucket. I drilled several 1/2" holes in the bucket and filled it with gravel. A 4" PVC pipe, also filled with gravel runs under the gravel base to connect the weeping tiles to the bucket. Should I leave the bucket full of gravel open to air or cover it with top soil and sod.
