Some Landscaping

[Herb]

I would like to remove the grass that is between my house and the walk and put down rocks. My questions are as follows:
1. How deep do in need to go, so weeds will grow
2. Do I need to put down landscape cloth?
3. The area has a pitch and water runs down the area and I want to pur in a drain to catch the water and run it off my concern is do I put the drain under the stone or about even with the top?

Thank you,

[Snipe Hunter]

Yes, put down heavy landscape cloth. The brown fiber stuff not the plastic black. The black doesn't last long. I'd probably change the pitch to near flat. Pitch and walkways don't always mix well. I'd certainly put something in at the low side of the walkway to hold the rocks from moving down the hill. Maybe sink a 2x10 with just enough sticking up to hold the rocks in place but not enough to catch the mower blade. I'd probably do something like that if it were flat too. Rocks move and sink into the mud unless you prevent it. You might even think about putting Crush and Run over the cloth and under the rocks. Make sure you use rocks big enough where a gully-washer won't displace your walkway. This house had gravel on a pitched grade. The gravel is basically gone after three years. Sure looks odd in the lawn.

Weeds will grow. No matter what. Love em or kill em.

[Wild Turkey]

One thing to remember about landscaping -- things change over time.

Sounds silly but look at some houses that were nicely landscaped when they were built and haven't been pruned, etc since.  Bushes too big, sidewalks blocked, etc.

Rock is the same but the problem is dirt/leaves/seeds gets washed/blown into it and it builds up to where the seeds can sprout which leads to more problems if you don't aggressively clean it out.

Yeah, I have a running problem with LOML over planting, etc and not watering or weeding until it's a jungle

[Willyou]

Both Snipe Hunter and Wild Turkey make good points. You don't explain why you wish to do this and that's OK. Just keep in mind that if you are trying to minimize maintenance, what you suggest won't necessarily do it. You are just trading one type of maintenance for another. As stated above, your rocks will tend to catch leaves, dust, etc, and will gradually be overcome with weeds and other growth unless you occasionally vacuum and/or blow it out. And, you may need to use weed killers on it occasionally. I'm not trying to discourage you. Just saying that it won't be maintenance free.
If mowing is your issue, another way to reduce or eliminate the need is to fill the area with a variety of plants and ground covers that don't require it. Again, you will still have maintenance issues of one sort or another; mostly weeds in this instance.
Assuming you are dealing with a plot that slopes from your house to your walk, if you need to drain it, then you can put in a trench drain that more or less parallels the house and/or walk and carries the water to a lower area somewhere. Google "trench drain" and you can get all the details but, it is essentially a perforated pipe surrounded with gravel in a shallow trench. This would, of course, be installed on the low side of your slope.
Good luck

[hbmcc]

No solutions; just know that even civil engineers design drains at the surface of rock, incorrectly, if removing water. And, you will be far happier chopping through solid black plastic sheet--and removing same--than fighting with a woven underlayment the first time you pull a weed. Excavation for the rock layer is always a factor of how big it is and how much underlayment you want showing. Most DIY's have a budget constraint.

I have black plastic under gravel, under a deck, on the north side of a house. It's dark. Very little grows, hasn't for forty years, and some plastic is still there under about an inch of detritus. Rock worked for practical reasons and I leave it alone; it's actually my rock bone pile.
 
Disturbed landscape always brings grief ... for a time. The wrong landscape will foment nightmares that never go away. If rock and gravel are not your native groundcover, that material will never work. That. Is. Never. Unless you like lots of work. Normally, one should allow what wants to be present, short of dangerous, to thrive. Think of and follow the practical aspects of your situation.

There are so many conditions and constraints which impact or influence what you have going on it's nearly impossible to wave a finger in the air and pronounce a solution .....