Go with crushed rock, and put enough down that you a have decent walkway or whatever, but not so much that you sink into it--you'll know the right depth when you get to it. Use a large rake to rake it out. We have that around our trees in the front mostly because the grass didn't grow under them, and our dogs run back and forth barking at the kids playing in the street. We found it to be a very good solution to the problem. And we did put scalloped edging bricks around the whole area.

Hi Michelle - It looks like treated pine to me, and looks as though it has been recently built. If you did nothing it would fade to a grey colour within 6 months or so. This would probably blend in with the house quite well, and you wouldn't have to do a thing! Otherwise I would stain it - there are lots of stains on the market - see if there is one you like. A dark one would create a nice contrast with the house and make the fence look more like a feature. Good luck!

Is your stone veneer to be laid on a slope? I would want to see an example of that beforehand. The stones in a sloped wall are still set horizontally, but the veneer will have joints that look skewed if laid sloped so it could look quite odd.

i changed my setting to OZ as i was told there are not a lot of kiwis here on the forum to give advice:) hopefully some wonderful aussies can help me:)