"W.D." wrote:

I'm considering adding a one-car parking space adjacent to the driveway in
the front of my home (where I'm having trouble growing grass anyhow). I
initially thought I'd pay someone to pave it for me but am now thinking that
I could just throw some gravel down, bordered by railroad ties. I'm thinking
that this would:

1. be more aesthetically pleasing
2. require less maintenance (i.e., no cracking concrete)
3. be better for drainage (our front lawn slopes downward to our house)
4. be cheaper and something I could do myself

If you've got the money, there's a new, specially porous pavement
that they use where they don't want a water-impermeable surface.
Gravel isn't really low mantenance.

If you go the gravel route, dig out all the topsoil, and put in a
bed of mixed larger and smaller rock, and cover that with
gravel.