Help on planting between paving slabs in gravel….

Hi everyone,

We are landscaping our garden and I’m in the mid construction phase. Our lower garden area is going to be gravel with Indian sandstone slabs dotted around to form a path. I’ve seen a number of gardens online and in magazines with plants growing in between slabs and I’d like to create something similar. I’ve included a couple of pics to show what I mean.

I think the plant with purple flowers is some sort of thyme and I have seen Irish moss? mentioned too. What other plants might be suitable for this purpose?

Also, do the plants grow in the gravel or do they need soil?

Any help/advice is much appreciated.

Ed

 

I seem to remember seeing that article in Gardens Illustrated magazine and liked the look of the garden. The pink flowered plant is a thyme, Thymus serpyllum Pink Chinz. There are lots of other thymes which many garden centres stock in their alpine section or you can buy them online from alpine specialists. I grow Erigeron karvinskianus in many places in my garden, including in crevices in sandstone walling. It has pinkish white daisy like flowers and a long flowering season. Have a look at Beth Chatto’s website or books for other plant recommendations and growing advice, her gravel garden is legendary.

 

I agree with Erigeron karvinskianus, you can sprinkle the seeds directly in the cracks where you want them to flower. One of my neighbours has them in between paving stones in their front garden and the are very striking.

 

Excellent thanks for the heads up, I will take a look.

 

It depends on what the soil is like below the paving/gravel, and what sort of site it is, plus your general climate.
I grow all sorts of things in my gravelled area - some are ground covering plants which have been grown in very little soil already and are then just plonked on top. They bed themselves in over time, but are barely touching anything below the gravel layer. I've just moved a couple of patches of a red sedum from one area to another, and that's all they had. Saxifrages, Ajuga, Aubretia and Arabis all grow in various spots like that too, plus things that seed in by themselves - Aquilegias and Welsh poppies, but I also have larger plants which are planted in the same way as they would in a standard bed/border.
There are some very good very low growing Thymes which would certainly be ideal for poor soil between paving slabs - T. Russettings is one I had in a previous garden.
It largely depends on the look you want, plus those initial factors re site etc.

 

thanks for the gen Fairygirl. My main decision is to do with the construction of the gravel areas. My plan is to put down a 100mm sub base layer of hardcore and then the gravel on top. With this method there will be no soil at all, just gravel. However, if some soil is required I can change the plan and put some soil between the slabs.

 

I see @machtucker. You'd still be able to have plants directly into the gravel, in the way I described with those little sedums I have, if you grow them on initially in pots or trays, so that they have a little layer of soil to help them. Those sorts of plants which need very little help [thymes and sedums etc] can manage with an inch or so of soil/compost, no problem, and just transplanted carefully in among the gravel. As long as they have drainage, they'll manage fine.
My site here was basically slabs and compacted gravel, on top of a similar mix as you're intending to use. The hardcore was partially mixed with coarse sand, and then the slabs had just been laid on top of that. It's all compacted clay here, so they didn't move, but it was great fun shifting them all when I started creating a garden!

If you wanted to have more intense planting areas, you just need to prep the ground properly, so that they had a good chance of thriving.