Gravel Graveyard ....... Help with designing a new layout
Hi!!!
Could anyone help/advice how to make this space more appealing, I have to keep the gravel and don’t want grass but...... want to try and emulate a sort of Japanese type style with mainly evergreen planting .....grasses, hostas etc. I have a multi stem silver birch to go by the picket fence somewhere and then the dog wood to go round it.
In the process of painting all the fencing black...long job lol.
Happy to get rid of the sleeper border, cotoneasters , the birch in the right hand corner as I think it is deceased and the concrete edgings.
The garden is Southfacing and had a line of conifers cut down against the left hand side fence last year but there are still stumps etc there so trying to disguise those.
The tree in the middle is an Acer( red October) , 3 silver birch at the bottom and 3 rowan ( red spire?) along the left.
Just trying to make a boring gravel garden a bit more exciting..... maybe patio area ,paths, etc
we are on a budget and it will have to be done bit by bit but need a goal to aim for 😃
Sorry for the long intro
Suzi x
Comments (22)
Juliet Docherty
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI love a gravel garden. The sleepers could be used to create a fan pattern set into the gravel like the image below (I did similar in my last garden). Also you could buy the book abotu Beth Chatto's garden or even pay it a visit.
Slimgimli thanked Juliet DochertyRelated Discussions
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Carolina
3 years agoOh, lovely :-) Good start! I'd say you need a water feature, patio decking, perhaps with a pergola to give you some shade, ornamental grasses would be great, stepping stones perhaps. If you want to add some more privacy you could use either trellis screens dotted around the patio area for example, or even wooden poles to act as a screen (I'll see if I can find an example of that too)
Slimgimli
3 years ago
Sonia
3 years agoGrasses love sunshine, so how about a prairie garden with grasses interspersed with flowers? Some flowers are architectural, like Globe Thistles and Crocosmia. Herbs will grow really well in a sunny site. This is a prairie garden with a gravel path.
Slimgimli thanked Sonia
rachelmidlands
3 years agoOoh, a gravel garden! I was reading through this a while ago and 1st thing I also thought was the Beth chatto gardens as well. Also look at knoll gardens, think they specialise in ornamental grasses but have a fab gravel garden display.
But then I started googling about Japanese and South East Asian gardens, their history and aesthetics etc. Well several hours later and I’m enlightened..... fascinating stuff 🙂.
As a small summary I gather that Japanese gardens are intensely manicured and maintained and like a much larger landscape but in a miniaturised form.
Doesnt mean you have to go full on with one style tho. I think mixing different elements can be good thing.
You could also look at Desert style gardens (California, Arizona for eg.) for inspiration, not all their plants are suited for UK climate but there are always alternatives.
I could go on for ages with ideas but I’ll just show some more inspo pics.
Crevice garden great for alpine plants, sedums, sempervivums.....
Slimgimli thanked rachelmidlandsrachelmidlands
3 years agopaving in gravel idea
And you could also use a different colour gravel or larger pebbles to emulate water
Slimgimli thanked rachelmidlandsSlimgimli
3 years agoCarolina
3 years agoSlimgimli
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoThanks Carolina 😊 Think im finally getting the ideas in my head and would love a water feature but would have to be solar powered .
Last nights laying awake at 3am vision was move all the old gravel from around the middle tree and make a large circle with edgings and have smaller gravel in the middle to be able to do the zen patterns , then have the planting in the area surrounding it.
who knows what tonight’s vision will be lol
Slimgimli
3 years agoCarolina
3 years agoSo, I was thinking along these lines, just to give you a visual of how it comes together if you define shapes. You might want the 'islands' somewhere else and shaped differently. I think that laying out shapes with rope will help you enormously to get an idea of how the garden will feel.
Hope it helps:
Slimgimli thanked CarolinaSlimgimli
3 years agoCarolina
3 years ago
Sonia