I have dimple board on the wall below grade , Tyvec that will get siding above grade . There's 12-16-in. between ground and where siding starts , what do I cover this area with ? Thanks

Some form of cement product such as a base coat for acrylic stucco with fibermesh embedded into it

Look in this thread to see how I did my house.

http://www.greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums/tabid/53/view/topic/forumid/4/postid/44303/Default.aspx

Here's what it looks like after finish grading and lawn seeding.

Dmac, just an aside, but is your finished interior floor stepped stepped about 8" higher than the garage floor? And thanks for posting photos. If someone didn't know what was behind that siding, they probably would be mightily surprised to know since the house looks "normal" but nicely detailed. Good job. Dave

No. I'm making the house accessible. I plan to sell it after a couple of years. To distinguish it from the thousands of other houses on the market I'm going to advertise it as wheelchair and walker friendly. The garage, back patio, and front porch slabs, are all about 1" below the finished floor elevation. All exterior door thresholds are low profile ADA compliant.
You're welcome.

Our ICF home will be completed this March. We are using steel siding and used what is called roll stock to fill that gap between the siding and the grade soil. The roll stock we picked is the same color as our siding. It is 18 inches in height so it goes down into the ground and the siding will then lap over the top of it. It was about half the cost of parging. Our project manager brought this option to our attention and I am glad he did. Just thought I give out an additional option for you.

One of the contractors that I know has used a FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) barrier called Ground Breaker. He can get it from Menards. It comes as a 50' roll in 1', 2', or 4' widths. There are trim and corner pieces available to make for a clean looking installation. Go to http://www.nudo.com/PanelSystems/groundbreaker/groundbreaker.htm to read about this product.