I have a covered car port (open to the sides) with the remnants of a concrete base, quite cracked and obscured by soil in places.
From there, the land slopes down over 5m length to meet the road. The edge of the road is in very poor condition where they meet.
The slope looks like it was made with some kind of rubble or base once, but at this time of year it becomes very muddy, and large puddles form at the bottom of the slope where it joins the road.
We also use the area just to the left as extra parking, which is on grassy soil. Someone recently scraped that with a mini digger for us, but because they've removed the grass and compacted the top layer it has become incredibly muddy too.
A friend who dabbles a little in landscaping said I should just get a load of gravel to put over the top of the whole lot, but I'm dubious. I'm torn between just trying to reduce the mud (which gets everywhere) for this winter even if it's not a long-term solution, and trying to sort this out properly. I'd lean towards a quick fix at the moment as long as it's not too costly, to buy time to figure out the right way forward.
I know from reading this site that normally you'd put a 10cm base layer of Type I down before doing anything else. I also know that gravel will migrate down the slope (I was thinking of a kerb or concrete skirt or hump at the bottom). The slope and car port are pretty solid already, whereas the area to the left is just chalk soil.
Would laying gravel straight down help a bit, or just be a disaster? Would it be better if I tried to put a thin base down with a wacker plate first?
I'm a bit stuck as to how to proceed!