Green driveway?

We're getting ready to get ready to build a small retirement-friendly SIPS house in the woods, on a little pond, in Michigan.

The planning is underway, pricing struggles have begun...I'll have a lot of questions, but today's struggle is the driveway... help?

I need ideas for building an appropriate driveway. It'll be a fairly long drive, in SW Michigan, near the big lake, through a dark woods, where we get a lot of snow. I'm over budget already, and want to do the right thing where the drive is concerned. I'd like it to be easy to plow, easy to maintain, or better, maintenance-free, and not too scary environmentally. Is plain old gravel the thing to do, or are there other options?


We don't start until we sell our current family modern home, however:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27365959@N00/sets/72157594163076054/

Check out www.invisiblestructures.com for some interesting ideas.

Ben

GrassPave 2 is the name for the Invisible Structures product. Think of a network of 2 high plastic rings, that are filled with sand and where grass grows. Much more attractive than grasscrete.

I've looked into it, and am a fan, but it won't solve your budget problems. I got a quote of $3/sf for the product, and it'll be about $5/sf installed. They're also saying a price increase is on the way.

They also recommend keeping the grade to 5% or less, since the grass will interfere with traction. The sales guy said that he had a customer who used it on a 12% grade, but I haven't been able to verify that.

In my part of rural Wisconsin, the fire department has a very onerous requirement for a large diameter turn-around, so even if I don't do GrassPave for the whole driveway, I'm considering it for the turnaround/car park to avoid having a big chunk of asphalt on the property.

Can that product be used to work around max hardcover limits on property?

How about standing up to winters in MN. Or is it renewable meaning I have to re plant it every year? lol

The point of GrassPave is to allow drainage and allow more grass, so I would think that it would help address your hardcover problem, but you'd have to get the powers-that-be to approve it.

As for the winter issue, supposedly you can plow over it (with skids) and it's been installed in Wisconsin, so...

Here's something I have seen installed locally (Portland, OR) and although I haven't done my research on it yet, it looks very promising to be our driveway when we repave.  

Previously Carolyn Talarr wrote:

Here's something I have seen installed locally (Portland, OR) and although I haven't done my research on it yet, it looks very promising to be our driveway when we repave.  

Hm, I can't post a link anymore--don't know why--but google "turfstone" and you'll find it.  Don't know about plowability etc. but you could find out.  The same folks also make "ecostone" which has less open space but may be more plowable?

http://www.interlockonline.com/turfston.html