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I would very much appreciate it if you could ping me for the next gardening thread because I'm probably too late to get my question answered on this thread.

Nonetheless, I will give it a shot because most Freepers are quite knowledgeable about a variety of topics.

Here goes: I have an area in the back yard measuring roughly 12' x 18' bounded by the house on the south (including my walkout basement door), a steep hill to the west, a shed to the north and my driveway to the east-- about the only direction from which sunlight is consistent.

Thus it has a combination of poor light and poor drainage. I've built up the area by 3.5' or so on the house, so it is really about 8.5' x 18' with the 3.5' area being under the eaves and a good place to store the trash cans, barbecue grill and garden hose.

I've experienced with different plants over the years. Clover: hydrophillic but not good with all the foot traffic which occurs. Grass: good for the foot traffic but not the poor drainage. Paving stones: look nice, but sink and receed from year to year. Mulch: Same as paving stones.

What I mostly get now is peat moss which, while useful for gardening elsewhere on my land, really isn't my wife's favorite. What I am thinking about next is digging down a ways, dropping in a water permable weed barrier and filling it up with gravel on the bottom and sand on the top. I need to mention that I need to keep good drainage because, if I don't, there is occassional basement seepage during the massive downpours we sometimes have in SW Pennsylvania.

If I was made of money, I'd build a deck and roof it. But I really need to look at low budget options which would make the best use of the poor drainage, poor lighting combination and keep water away from the buildings to the north and south.