Replacing a lawn with gravel (so glad I did!)

I just thought it might be helpful to others to record my experience of doing this.

I live in a small terraced house in London, with a small back garden. It had a lawn, but between the dog and the shade from an overhanging holly tree it never looked good, however hard I tried. I began to think about how I might redesign it - hence the canes visible in the photo below. (Ignore the spider, which belongs to the dog!)

Last autumn I bit the bullet, and decided to replace the lawn with slabs and gravel, and take the opportunity to widen the flower beds a bit at the same time. I knew pretty well how I wanted it to look but wasn't up for doing the work myself - there was the lawn to be dug up, the turf to be taken away, hardcore and a weed-proof membrane installed, then the gravel and slabs brought in and installed - so I asked about and got some quotes from local landscape gardeners. That's a bit of a minefield in London, if you don't have a personal recommendation ... one came in ridiculously high, another ridiculously low (couldn't have done a proper job at the price), one never got back to me, but the other two came in at more or less the same figure. So I went with the one I thought the most sympathetic and trustworthy, and actually that worked out very well - he did the work when he said he would, worked to a high standard, and stuck to the quote.

I had already chosen the central circle of slabs I wanted, in the design of an astrological sundial, so ordered that online to come once the workmen were there and available to offload the pallet. I live on a Red Route and there is no access to the back garden except through the house, so we needed to be organised! The landscaper also calculated the amount of gravel needed so I could order that online too (20mm Cheshire/ Staffordshire Pink, pretty and inexpensive - it came in two huge bulk bags which were dumped on the pavement down the road and had to be carried in through the house in tub trugs). For the retaining walls for the gravel we reused the old London Stock bricks already edging the lawn, plus some similar ones sourced from a local builder's merchant. We also added in two sets of round stepping stones, and cut back the bank at the far end of the garden and built a low retaining wall around it.

What we ended up with was this (shown soon after installation, with Ken the greyhound muscling in):

Looking back towards the house:

Couple of shots taken today, now things are growing over the new areas of bed:

and the other way:


It took me several years to bite the bullet and do this, but I'm so glad I did! I love grass but my lawn was never going to look good. I'm really pleased with my makeover, the mixture of gravel and slabs looks good I think and it is great to have the extra space in the flower beds. Other good points: not having to pick my way through mud to the compost bin during the winter, and not having to mow the lawn now!

Any questions, please ask!

 

What a beautiful transformation. I think the vision paid off. Well done.

 

Hey Clare, I did exactly the same thing in my own garden - except the circle in the centre, and I am now tempted to copy that
I have acres of grass to mow out front, and the shingle and slabs are so easy to keep clean after my own dogs.
Your garden is looking really good - impressive!

 

Looks great. I like the way that the plants (nasturtiums?) are starting to creep over the edging to soften it slightly in the 3rd picture.

Rusty

 

Top marks.

 

It looks lovely nice work

 

Forgot to say, that Ken is one handsome dog

 

Many thanks for the compliments, everybody - and special thanks to @Tetters from Ken!

Yes, those are nasturtiums @rustyroots. I've planted various other things like saxifrages, pinks and a couple of groundcover roses (Snow Carpet and a deep pink Fairy rose) which should further soften the edges in due course - with the very dry spring we had they've still got a way to grow.

 

Bravo @Clare G It's a stunning transformation

Ken looks suitably pleased - he's gorgeous! - with his new garden space and the planting is beautiful

I'm sure others will find it very inspirational.

You'd never guess that from your garden; you've created a right little haven there.

A courageous decision then - but executed very well

 

It's beautiful. I didn't think it could look better without the grass but it does. I especially like the dog plant in the middle!

 

Thank you so much, everybody (and from Ken!).

I was trying to think if I had any recommendations for anybody else wanting to do the same sort of thing and came up with the following list:

• Take your time planning it out - measuring, sketching, using pegs/ canes/ rope/ sheets of plastic to see what it will look like on the ground. (I tried to see if I could find any computer software to help but all the free stuff was pants!). The landscapers too found it helpful to have both a sketch plan and the position of the central roundel marked out, then we worked out exactly where the retaining walls needed to go.
  
• Nice materials don't have to be expensive, though that will depend a bit on the look you are after I guess - cut stone would soon bump up the bill. But I knew I wanted gravel and cast slabs, to match my existing patio, and both of those worked out pretty cheap - about 10% of the total budget. (And as both are British probably a greener/more ethical option than say Indian sandstone.)
  
• The internet is great for research - both for ideas, and for materials. I checked out local garden centres/ DIY sheds/ builders merchants for materials too, but the prices were mostly higher and choice much more limited. The zodiac roundel is exclusive to one maker, I actually found it on ebay but then got it £5 or so cheaper buying from him direct. With the gravel I dithered between Solent (a bit more local) and the Cheshire Pink, but both were actually only available online. But we did go to the builder's merchant for recycled local bricks, something they get asked for quite a lot, and also for hardcore and the weed-suppressing membrane.
• You could do the work yourself I am sure if you are handy. Easier too if you have transport and don't have my constraints for site access and parking. But having watched the landscapers I can tell you that it is physically demanding - the digging out, the installation of hardcore, the levelling with a whacker, the transporting of materials etc. etc. And if you don't do it properly you will end up with problems down the line with weeds poking through the gravel, wobbly slabs and so on.
• So I was very happy to get someone else to do it! As I said before I got five different lots of people to look at the job and ended up using not the cheapest, nor the most expensive, but the one in the middle range who I felt the most comfortable with. He did a really good job but, finally:
• Make sure you are around while the work is being done. Not that I didn't trust the chaps but they did need a decision from me every so often - I spent a fair amount of time running up and down to check how it was looking from an upstairs window!