Patio to lawn: step or slope

Dedekind

Hi,

we just laid a new patio, when it meets the old lawn we ended it with a line of bricks, but the builders left a little bit of sloped cement. Basically this cement slopes down from the bricks to the lawn, he said it's best to leave as it will keep the bricks form getting loose.

Anyway, my question is whether we should remove this and transform this into a step, or just make the lawn a bit sloped from the bricks, so that the cement is hidden by the soil/lawn. The rest of the lawn is far from perfectly flat so I don't care too much about not being perfectly flat, I just wonder if it will look weird.

Fairygirl

Have you got a photo @Dedekind?
It does sound like it would be much nicer with a properly formed step. 
The bricks could probably be laid on a concrete bed, which would eliminate the need for the little slope too, and would look better. If it's only one brick depth, it would be easy to sort, unless it's a huge distance. 
Putting grass across the cement slope is unlikely to work well.

Loxley

Do you mean this sort of cement edge? (Haunching) I agree with FG that if you covered it up with a slope and turf, I think the turf would die off where it's over the haunching because it will get very dry.



It is holding the edge of the patio which is why it's there. To edge the patio more neatly you could remove it and add a small brick wall to hold the paving in place. You need to make sure the concrete bed that the wall is built on is designed so that the grass can grow over it.

Dedekind

Ah I see what you mean yes. This is what it looks like. I'd like to keep it simple though and removing the concrete and adding a bed etc sounds like a bit much work? 

Fairygirl

It doesn't look like much of a footing - the cement slope. 
It's difficult to tell from the photo, but you probably could just add soil and turf, or seed. The grass might grow over it enough to disguise it.
However, I'd be tempted to take that cement away. It doesn't look as if the pointing is great in the brickwork, so you could add to that, including the gap between the bricks and the paving, just to strengthen the whole run of brick. Then the grass would do better.

Dedekind

Ah well the photo is slightly old actually and the pointing was not present at that time, we filled everything with jointing compound now.

I'll try with soil and turf, can always revert I suppose. Also the difference between the bricks and the soil is larger in some sections (this is what I mean when I say my lawn is far from flat ..). But I can try to manage I suppose by putting a bit more soil..

Fairygirl

Another alternative would be to make a bed along the edge, and plant it up. The cement would be hidden, and it would disguise any uneven parts.
You would still need a space, or spaces, to step down, but it could also be worth making those steps with more of the same patio paving in those parts. It wouldn't take too much effort either. Just some mortar mix and a spirit level...and a few slabs