pea gravel over grass?

I want to reduce my yard. Around the perimeter, I am going to have about 4' of pea gravel, with large river rocks to mark the divide between the grass and gravel.

Question. Should I waste time excavating 4 inches of soil, laying down fabric cloth, and then install the pea gravel?

Or, should I just put fabric cloth atop the grass, and then add 4 inches of pea gravel?

The river rocks are about 4-6" in height, I have them sitting in the grass now. I have no problems if the yard has a terraced look to it (ie - the perimeter is raised up due to the gravel).

I really just don't want to dig the soil up, and then figure out how to haul it off.

Any unforeseen problems of just putting gravel atop grass?

 

Yes, the grass will grow though it. Grass and weeds do an amazing job growing where you don't want it. I would recommend at the very least killing the grass with roundup.

 

I agree that the grass will grow through it.You could rent a dumpster, to haul the grass. Then you could either brick the entire yard or lay artificial turf.

 

If you don't mind it being elevated, and the river rocks will border it on all sides to keep the gravel more or less in place, then I think you can get away without removing the grass. I would kill the grass first with roundup or the like. The gravel will eventually sink a bit as the organic matter decomposes, so you might have to add more gravel at some point.

Just be aware that you will quickly accumulate enough organic matter in the gravel to support weed growth, so this won't be as much of a low maintenance solution as you might think. And keeping the grass trimmed around all those stones will be a fuss too.

 

If you have Bermuda grass, typical in Cal, it's tough to kill.
I recommend you use a grass killer, scrape the grass, and turn over the soil. While turning over you need to clear out most of the roots.
After the grass is dead you can lay your hardscape. I recommend a mow curb between any remaining grass and the gravel area.

Cal is in a long drought. You can get ideas and even incentives from the water authority for eliminating grass and reducing watering. Checking those incentives out could be worth your while, it's usually based on SF of grass removed.