what do plants grown in

The landscaper has come and taken up some paving stones. He said if i put top soil on top of this i will be able to grown some plants. Is this correct ? are plants gong to grow in this or should the hole just have been filled with soil
Thanks

 

What was his name?
Wild Bill Hickok.

He should have taken that lot away, That would only be any good as a base for hard paving.

What kind of plants did you have in mind?

 

Weeds possibly but only the most persistent ones.
Welcome, by the way.

 

Hi,

Yes he is right, but he forgot to tell you it needs to be about 300 - 600mm deep to grow any decent plants.

Looks like he has just dumped the flags into the remains of an old pond ?
Also looks like an old tree stump which would be better properly removed or ground down.

As said let us know what you are intending to do with that area and what type of plants, eg shrubs or smaller flowers etc.

No, Fred Flintstone of course ..

 

He was the first cowboy who came to mind.

 

'Landscaper' ? He calls himself a 'Landscaper' ? It looks a mess to me ...
and he obviously understands nothing about gardening ... but more likely he was trying to pull a fast one. You won't get anything decent to grow on top of that.

 

I havent decided what i want to grow on the area yet but i wanted to have the whole area covered in soil until i decided and the other half of the garden paved but he said it was too deep so he put the old paving stones in and said he would put soil on top of this.

He then started saying that I should cover the whole area in paving . Im wondering if thats why he was saying that because he knows that nothing is going to grow in it even if the flagstones are covered in soil.

Would it make a difference if it was somehow ground down the stones ??

 

To be fair, if you dumped a load of coarse sand or ballast on top, you could quite easily grow yucca, puya, opuntia, agave and a few other hardy cacti and succulents. Mix the said medium with multi purpose compost and there are many palms that will love that. Summer bedding could be colourful with pelargoniums, gazania and some of the pig faces, although watering would be needed until things are established.
Regardless of what soil(or lack of it) you have, there is a plant or three for ALL situations

 

I think the main point is what had you agreed with the "landscaper" and did you pay for it.

 

As @pete says , what agreement did you or do you still have with the 'landscaper'

It also sounds like you are quiet undecided on how to proceed, so they best advice for now is "do nothing "

If you could post a couple of pictures of the whole area of the garden and give us some idea of what you would like in very general terms, ie paved area/s , grass, planting areas, perhaps we can give you some better advice.

Depending on your needs and abilities you can have lots of plants on a completely paved area by using pots, tubs.

 

Basically he is employed to remove the current paving stones in half the garden and to replace them with new ones. He is supposed to make the other half of the garden somewhere that i can plant stuff in. what happened is that he removed the old paving stones from half the garden and put them in the trench in the other half - that is what the picture is. It seems at one point there was a pond there. I think the idea is to cover it with top soil after compacting the paving stones which are in the trench . Does this make sense ?

 

To my mind removing the slabs implies taking them away, out of your garden, not simply burying them somewhere else in your garden.
No compacting the paving stones does not make sense, if they are broken up and compacted it will affect drainage.
I'd get them taken off site and the trench filled with top soil.