Not so worried about grade on this one as it's the furthest point from the house and the water seems to absorb down quite readily now that it can get to the soil. The soil like is a few inches above the concrete though and there was about 10" of Clover mat that had crept over the edges of the sidewalk so the water just pooled with nowhere to go. Dug about 4" in and 2" down all the way around the edge of the grass and pulled up all the creep and surprise surprise the water did what it was supposed to. The "grass" there looks like crap though and it's too small an area to fuss with too much on that, and with ours and the neighbors water meters right there I can't really do much by planting their either. So gravel it is.
