gravel garden

Vetch

Novice gardener here and would appreciate some advice. I've bought a house and there's a gravel dog run in the garden (south facing) which is around 9-10 inches deep. I'll investigate better tomorrow but there seems to be a membrane under the gravel.
It would be way too much hassle to get rid of it so I'm wondering if plants would grow in it to take the bare look off it. It's very ordinary looking, fairly chunky gravel. Thanks for reading.

looksee

You would have to scrape back a good bit of the gravel, cut an x in the membrane - quite a big one as you will need working space. The ground underneath will likely be compacted and will need a good bit of work to loosen and break up the soil. Put in plant, replace membrane, replace gravel.

Is it worth it, probably not. There is every chance that the gravel and soil is well polluted with the dogs' droppings. Having broken through the membrane weeds will be delighted to grow up through the cuts (though you could put a 'collar' of new membrane over the cuts) and the disturbed soil that will get into the gravel will also grow weeds.

Dig it up and mix in some new soil, make a decent job of it now before wasting money on plants.

Lumen

Grass will quite happily grow over a gravely soil mix.

Pull up membrane.

Carefully remove adjacent turf equal to area of dog run.

Thoroughly mix soil and gravel between both areas, aiming for more soil near surface.

Replace turf.

Sow grass on new area.

macraignil

Depends what you are looking for after planting. Advice on cutting an X in the membrane and putting in shrubs in soil under gravel and membrane would match what is done in some landscaping projects so would not be a waste of time if just a row of shrubs or small trees you like is what you are looking for. I think even after the work if you are not extremely messy with contaminating the gravel with soil you should still have enough clean gravel and membrane to keep the majority of weeds under control. The extra nutrient from the old dog droppings might allow enough nutrient for some alpines to grow directly in the gravel.

Vetch

Thanks a mill for the replies. The house is terraced so getting rid of the gravel would be messy. I wouldn't hesitate otherwise but I suppose I was hoping to find an alternative. The garden is very small; the dog run runs down a side wall of the garden, and it's about a third of the width of the garden.

I was looking at some evergreen alpines like saxifraga and sedum that I thought might be low to the ground so as not to split the small space and would spread out and narrow the effect of the gravel. The clothes line is over the dog run so the gravel is practical from that point of view, there's just too much of it! Then I thought I could have some small shrubs in containers along the wall. What I wasn't sure about was whether anything would grow in the gravel, the effect of the dog droppings and if there is enough room above the membrane for plants to grow. My 'research' has been limited to walking around Woodies as I don't have a clue as to whether anything like this would work. I'm willing to do some work and learn but I don't want to spend money foolishly so any thoughts gratefully received.

blackbox

Have you considered making it into a Japanese style (Zen) gravel garden?

looksee

If anything is going to grow, saxifrage and sedum would be just about the best bet to try.

Hocus Focus

If you do decide to dig out the gravel, don't just dump it in a skip, offer it cheap or free on Donedeal or Adverts, someone will want it. You could barrow it through the house and fill it into ton bags.

standardg60

Go back to woodies, find the section with small 2-3 euro plants labelled "alpines", buy a range, scrape a whole in the gravel, remove the pot, chuck em in and water well for a couple of weeks and they should be fine.


Remember these plants are usually found growing wild in scree and thrive in low nutrient sunny well drained positions. Gravel is just another medium (like soil) through which plants gain anchorage, nutrients and water. If you left the area alone for a while you would see how many weeds would seed and grow quite happily in it.