Hello,

I am working on a backyard project to add raised beds to our yard (the ones on the grass will move to the dirt area). Naturally mid-way through the process I end up with a bunch of questions. I placed some images at the bottom of the post for more context (arrow shows position from camera angle)

I have removed the sod in the area where we want the raised bed garden (4 beds, you can see some of them there on the remaining lawn). I need to run drip irrigation to the raised beds but otherwise they will just be placed on the current soil (clay) and the DG would be poured around them, hopefully keeping them in place.

My questions are:

1. You can see two drains near our concrete patio (one in the foreground and one near my goofy dog) -- I am assuming I should control my excavation such that these still are a low point (like a couple of % grade) rather than even with the rest of the yard as I would think we'd want to avoid water draining towards the small retaining wall.
2. If I am correct above, I assume I will need to cut the drain pipe such that it's grate/pipe are lower? I think the water will just go straight thru the DG and slowly work thru the clay layer so if the pipe opening is 4" above the clay it'll not really be doing much unless I am mistaken.
3. I have read different things about how much depth I would need for the DG. I have dug the small trench near the lawn to ~6" below the concrete patio but the rest of the yard is probably about 2". I am thinking I need a 1-2" layer of Road Base and then 4" of the DG compacted in 2-3 layers so I should dig out the whole yard to 6" below the patio and make my edging line up with the patio height?

Any other tips for using DG or just this general plan would be awesome :)

(Or we could always just leave the new dirt patch as my 2yo and dog have suggested, or better yet rip out the remaining lawn and patio and go full dirt everywhere...)

Thank you!