GRAVEL GARDENS!

hi all. new member who needs some advice, as a bit thick when it comes to gardening! got the enthusiasm though! got v. small front "garden" with little grass but loads of dandelions. want to get rid and put gravel down. how far down do i dig up the grass and do i have to put any covering down first before gravel? cheers for any advice. :confused:

 

Not that I am an expert or anything but from my experience you do need to lay some weed supressant down first because the weeds will come through especially dandelions and its a real pain trying to weed gravel.

 

Hi, a friend of mine has a gravel area, with pots and tubs, he is having a bit of trouble with cats using it as a litter tray.

 

Hi there and welcome Cherokee - me I would skim the turf off to about 3 inches and then lay a semi permeable membrane on top of that and gravel on top of that.

 

There is a cat sanctuary near Cambridge that has huge pens with 60-80 cats in each. They have 'flower' borders round the edges of the pens about 3 feet wide filled with pea shingle which the cat's all use for their litter tray without exception! The kennel maids go round several times a day cleaning up the pickupable bits and hosing down the shingle so that it never smells.

Moral to this story: don't use pea shingle in your garden! The cats take the name seriously!

[ 27. September 2005, 01:59 AM: Message edited by: michaelmasdaisy ]

 

Hi, we covered a large part of the garden with gravel, we just scraped of a couple of inches of the top put down a black membrane,covered in quartz gavel, it has been down for about five years now and we only get the odd weed. We have three cats and they don't even like walking on the stuff.We have some plants planted straight into the gravel and soil and some in pots and it looks pretty good. :D

 

Perhaps it is about gravel size. My pussies have long gone to heaven and are not being replaced due to my winter retreat.