Oddly enough, I am presenting Phase IV of a 1970' condo redo tomorrow morning. The thing that you might find interesting is that they are converting a lot of area into lawn to save on maintenance costs. The cost of bark mulch and weeding has been killing them. The maintenance crew cheif loves it more than anybody. Mowing equipment is very fast and just about anyone can do it with good results. Environmentally incorrect? Well, here's the thing. There is high nitrogen in the ground water from septic systems that migrates from miles away toward the coastal ponds in the area. Lawn is a heavy consumer of nitrogen. One way to look at that is to assume that excessive fetilizer will be dumped onto the grass to try to make it greener than green resulting in the excess going into the groundwater and eventually causing algae blooms in the ponds. An alternative is to harness the grass's ability to consume nitrogen by using wells to remove the existing groundwater with its excessive nitrogen from the ground and feeding it to the grass. The water returns to the ground and continues on to the ponds with less nitrogen than it had before because the grass uses it up. I'm sure that it is a very different ecosystem where you are than what we have up here, but it is interesting in terms of regional differences. Think about all of the conditions the various parts of your site are in such as lawn, natural woodlands, perennial beds, younger shrub plantings, treed areas, understory areas, buildings, pavements, surface water or whatever else there is. Ask yourself and others what they really like about where the current landscape. That is how we started with this and another similar condo redo project that I was involved in. That will give you (the collective you) a better understanding of the quality of life issues that are part of what you as a community value. Those quality of life values have to balance out with other values such as cost, environmental consciousness, or others. It can be very easy to make a mistake in applying only your own balance of values and imposing them on your community with only the best of intensions. You stated that one of the problems that is driving up the cost of your maintenance is the mature planting. You also make a strong statement about the unused lawn area in terms of energy, water, emmissions, and money. The assumption is that what lies between these two extremes of conditions is either very little in terms of area, or does not drain your resources. Could converting toward those undescribed conditions keep maintenance costs down without introducing an experimental condition or changing the quality of life that the community enjoys? Look around your area to see what is working on other sites before you become a pioneer. Usually, good ideas catch on and become common place especially if they are economical. If you don't see fabulous swathes of wildflowers as you envision it is much more likely that they are not so easy or not so economical than thought rather than you being the first to consider it. One of the best things you can do for economy, environment, maintenance, and successful landscaping is to put in place what would grow naturally. You need to be more proactive than just getting a list of native plants. You need to know the local conditions very well and recreate what would grow there if we all disappeared and nature reclaimed it. You also have to be very aware of what might try to "reclaim" your plantings. The biggest problem with the wildflower "set it and forget it" seed mixes is Darwinism. Competition. Sometimes it is competition between what comes out of the seed bag, but more likely it is going to be some other crop that is better suited than what was in the mix. Local conditions are going to weaken some plants dominance while enhancing anothers. What will you wind up with? Hopefully, others in your area have found out and it is good, but you should do your best to find out before you commit.

Please note that the walk grade slope along its length does not matter at all, only that it should be a smooth walking surface. The important part is the cross slope that carries the water over the curb to the gutter, which should closely match the grading detail I provided. The transition areas can deviate from the standard cross slope if the area is higher in grade than the adjacent areas with the proper cross slope. Looking at your latest graphic I see a 10% slope from point B to C. This looks suspect to me, since this area should be one conforming to the standard grading detail and the lengthwise slope of the walk edges should be the same as the slope along the curb. Since the overall street slope is around 4 to 5%, it seems unlikely that any section of the curb would have a 10% slope. On the subject of cost, I would think you might need around 2 cy yd of fill to bring the walk up to grade. The best fill would be a something like a select road base material. In my area the cost runs around $15/yd from the crusher and up to twice that from a material supplier, plus trucking cost. Here we have some mineral soil types with clay (not top soil!) that can be compacted to support walks and drives that only carry light loads. Never use a clay with lumps. It will leave voids and result in settlement. You might want to look at renting a plate compactor for this project. A thin layer of sand on top of the base material can facilitate getting the pavers set for a smooth surface.

Based on your pictures, it looks like the neighbor blocked a natural drainage flow with his garage and pool. To me it looks like your only alternative is to take more pictures and take them before the zoning board in your community. That failing most area of the country have rules on the natural drainage systems, that a Lawyer could help you with. While a lawyer will cost, you have already spent a lot of money to correct an problem that can only be corrected on a community level. Your pump solution will be a continuing cost, not to mention the cost of the loss of the value of your home caused by the blocked drainage flow.

Al, thanks for this excellent tip. I always knew there had to be a better way to drill drain holes in hard ceramic, but I never managed to figure it out. I have spent many hours swearing and sweating trying with a variety of carbide and diamond tipped "glass/ceramic" bits that were recommended to me by local hardware stores, but it never worked out well. I gave up on buying cute little dishes with the hopes in converting them to usable plant containers some time ago. So after reading this tip, I took a trip to my local big box and pick one of these bits up. Was about $15 for a 1/2" "lenox diamond hole saw". Seems like the correct term (at least when searching online) is "diamond hole saw". The right thing looks different than a normal bit or hole saw - in particular it does not have anything resembling saw teeth or a normal drill bit at the end, but what looks like chewed up metal (which I guess is impregnated with diamond, and works by grinding rather than cutting). I just made a perfect 1/2" hole in the bottom of an old coffee cup, and it took only a few minutes and wasn't difficult at all, at least as compared to my previous attempts with the wrong tool. I used wd40 as lubricant - maybe not ideal but it's what I had handy and worked alright. The only hard part was getting it started, it's absolutely critical that you hold the work piece to be drilled securely, ideally in some kind of vice. And while this may be obvious, GO SLOW, especially as you reach the end of the hole, or it'll probably make a bigger hole than you want by breaking out the back. Anyway, this is just great, and thanks again. Daniel ps, here's what I got basically, so you can see what it looks like: http://www.lowes.com/pd_511346-28303-121096DGDS___?productId=50325481&pl=1&Ntt=lenox+diamond+hole+saw, though I got a 1/2" one.