replying to JoeSpareBedroom , Sid in Sacramento wrote:
newstrash wrote:

My central air conditioning unit is located in a spot where the eaves are
so
deep that even after lots of rain, it's still bone dry, but bindweed finds
the area delightful and it's eating my air conditioner. I thought of
covering the whole area with plastic and then a few inches of stones right
up to the foundation, but I have another concern. In winter, it's not
uncommon for several feet of snow to drift into that corner. When it melts,
I'm not sure I want that much water ponding in the plastic and overflowing
along the edges near the cinder block. The basement's always been dry, but
still, something about the plastic idea seems iffy. So, some sort of
landscape fabric seems like a better option.
Regardless of the material on top, I'm thinking of edging it with Trex
buried with just enough above ground to contain 2-3 inches of stones.
Comments?

If it were me, I would gently elevate the supporting platform, since the
copper tubing supply line is pliant, might even use a level to give it a
slight slope away from the house, then i would use road base material (
from a local landscape material supply shop ) One inch minus , with fines,
would be the road base size. I would then tamp it down to compress the
road base material, again slanting away from the house, then cover it with
commercial grade landscape fabric, then small crushed rock, blue or green,
depending on what color suits your tastes. You could also build a movable
lattice wall, painted in the same color of the house, to disguise the
sight of the unit, or paint it white, for contrast? We have used lattice
walls to hide our trash cans storage area in Los Angeles

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