My OCF is about 45 feet up straight line.
80 meters is Europe good signals, outside Europe a bit less, but still DX can be made.
Living on young seaclay annd good R.F, ground.
My inverted L 77 feet high alu tubing and 77 feet wire running down to 45 feet above ground uses a autotuner at the feedpoint at the bottom of the antenna ( MFJ 998), and 3000 feet of copper wire in and on the ground.
That one works quite nice on 160/80/40/20 where the vertical component is good for much better DX as the OCF.

For 17-10 another vertical is on the roof.
Using a homebrew active loop antenna for 160 for recieve.
Get the dipole up as high as possible and just try, you can always build the more elaborate L antenna or if you put down the gravel first install ground radials just in case.

A dipole should be 1/2 wave of the ground, nobody except the lucky few can do that, we all use compromise antenna's.
Even 1/8 wave above the ground will give more losses to the ground and a changed elevation of the main lobe pattern, but there iis no switch off, you will still be able to work DX but with a bit more difficculty.

Good luck putting the antenna up ;)