One thing I see on a fairly regular basis in this forum is someone showing up with a preconceived desire to proceed with a faulty scheme, or one that is only partially "baked." I can't tell yet if this is what is coming. Elbow, why do you want to lower the grade around the back door and create more of a step? (Usually, people desire less steps rather than more so it would be good to explain the reasoning behind the desire.) In lowering the grade, it will become important to know how the grade outside of the project area interfaces with that which is within. Of course, we can't see ANY of that and it has not been explained to us. This is not a question about water which gets into the joints between pieces of stone. It's about the much greater volume of water that doesn't get in and must run off. In the last picture, what you are showing is what most of us would call some sort of "flagstone" ... relatively flat, broad pieces of irregular shape. My own thoughts about this is that thin flagstone does not really make good paving when installed on a sand base (regardless of whether there is concrete under it, or not.) If you walk on packed beach sand, you'll notice that your feet leave an imprint because the pressure of your foot is enough to cause a shift of unprotected sand. While flagstone protects the sand layer SOME, it is THIN and CAN shift in small degrees (usually in a rocking motion) when pressure is applied and depending on the state of moisture content in the sand base. It can shift due to the action of freezing and thawing. Over time, these small shifts can add up to a cattywampus and not very pretty surface ... not the kind of thing you'd want, really, for a rock solid 100-year old barn and nice house. Thin flagstone makes a much better -- durable even -- paving surface if it is mortared directly on top of a concrete slab ... without any sand embedment layer at all. But this kind of installation, while not impossible as a DIY project, requires some learning and skill so is usually left to someone already with experience. Using this size project to "learn" on might be asking a bit much of one's self. It would be MUCH easier -- much, much easier -- to install a normal thickness (2 3/8" or greater) regular paving unit on an aggregate base: bricks, concrete pavers, uniformly cut stones, etc., if that's the type of base one wishes and if their experience is limited. One would still need to learn something, but it is much easier to develop skill for that than it is to develop skills at mortaring in flat work. You could use steel mesh in a concrete slab, but it would be pointless in paving laid on sand. I'm going to guess that the appeal of the flagstone is that you have access to it at a reasonable price ... but the other end of the equation is that its installation will be expensive (even if only in your labor the amount of time you must put in to learn, and the risk-factor of a potential botch.) As far as water that penetrates into the soil or below the paving ... consider that the soil is basically an ALWAYS DAMP medium. That's why the grade outside of a building cannot be raised to too high an elevation. If the grade is too high, the only solution is reducing it. Also, the grade around a building must be graded such that water runs away from the building (it is usually said for 10', but it depends to some degree on surrounding conditions.) If the grade elevation around the building is acceptable, then there is no reason to worry about the soil having some dampness. It's the way it is. What one should worry about is moving the excess rain water the heck away from the house ASAP. In the case of this paving, if you get the surface to drain properly, there is nothing to be concerned about with a little water entering between paving stones. The idea that you can put down a slightly subsurface waterproofing membrane to take care of water penetrating the soil is more likely to cause problems than solve them. It's not needed. And you wouldn't want to create a layer of water that has no real route of escape.

I have to say this and no one will believe me but I have red geraniums in pots on the west side of my house - no shade - and they make it through the summer, WITH blooms. I am going on two years now. By late summer my watering is probably every other day.........and some of them are even living in a big clay pot which dries out fast. Did I mention that they also make it through the winter in those same pots with no protection? In February, I pulled out a few of the plants and replaced with new ones but there are still "old" plants in the pots and they are all blooming together! Last Spring when I planted the geraniums, I thought they would be my "Spring bloomers" and that I would be replacing them in the summer but they never died or got distressed looking so I have kept them on. I was truly amazed! I guess my point is that geraniums must be hardier than we give them credit for. Or maybe they just like the front of my house! Maybe nonbryan can try some red geraniums in pots if he doesn't want to dig out clay :)

I don't agree with blanket statements that more sun is always better. While this might be true in places with high humidity and lower elevations, here in the hot arid SW at 5000 feet, there is such a thing as too much sun, and plants which receive a few hours of shade/partial shade always produce better and are less stressed. Plants here that receive 12 hours of direct sunlight will develop a blasted look in the summer where the color is more grayish-green than lush green. The lower leaves get leathery faster than shaded plants, and the leaves rarely provide a flattened surface to the sun, no matter how carefully you maintain moisture levels. At a certain point here, sun ceases to be a critical component and becomes a stress factor. Plants grown in buckets in these conditions do even worse. They dry out very quickly, and the buckets can get extremely hot when placed on surfaces like concrete, brick, or stone. To help, you can put a layer of mulch in the bucket to help retain moisture, and if your ground temperatures are high, you can place the bucket higher up on some type of stand. Regarding your plants, yellow pear does have thinner, more sharply jagged leaves. It's typical of that variety. Under the right conditions, they can become obscenely large. Since you only have one plant to compare, it might not actually be the conditions that are unfavorable, but it could be the individual plant itself. When you transplanted the yellow pear, was it still in any type of peat container?

The boards on that fence look suspiciously like green wood to me, unless they have been protected with something. A fence like that wouldn't last long in western Ks, not with our wind. Also I can't tell if they are wood posts or covered with wood. At least you got the pretty side. I have a new shadow fence on the south side of my yard, 6 ft is our limit, but since every yard on this block drops a foot, it is really 7 feet. The reason for this fence is I'm trying to block out all the soccor balls that find their way into my yard. What a nuisance, last year I lost a lot of my vege plants, and have a broken tree peony, a flying soccor ball can do a lot of damage, and now another pest has invaded. I think every child around me got a drone for Christmas, Of course they don't know how to control them, so I'm constantly having to fish one out of shrubs ect. This is going to be a whole new way to garden along this fence. I've been watching the shadow line for a month now, and trying to figure how much sun I will have, of course it will be ever changing as the season progresses. I'm hoping I can plant daylilys and clematis this spring, I need to break up this 100 foot of new thats staring at me. half of the 100 feet will be in my vege garden. I'm afraid I've built myself a gardening nightmare. Help!