From professional landscapers to enthusiastic gardeners, gravel is a landscape material that has long been favoured in the garden. However, its place in today’s garden is a far cry from the alpine rockeries of 50 years ago and although it is still used for rockeries, today it is also used for everything from driveways to edging, and flower bed mulch.
Gravel driveways
Durable enough to support cars and other vehicles, gravel is ideal for creating driveways in areas of heavy rainfall where its permeability is of enormous benefit. 20mm golden gravel or peas shingle is a good option for a gravel driveway as both will settle over time to produce a flatter surface. Anything smaller than 20mm and you risk the stones being caught up in tyre treads. Before installing a gravel driveway, it’s vital to fully understand the importance of drainage for driveways.
Gravel pathways
There’s something quite romantic about meandering pathways making their way through a garden and a gravel pathway has the added attraction of that pleasing crunch underfoot. 10mm pea gravel is ideal for pathways as it is more comfortable underfoot than larger stones. Perfect for an informal garden the pea gravel should be spread to a depth of approximately 3 inches over a base of compacted rock.
Gravel in water features and rockeries
Gravel is the perfect medium for surrounding a water feature to transform it into a focal point in the garden. Useful for camouflaging an unsightly base, the gravel will look fetching when wet and can provide a sharp contrast to foliage. And of course, let’s not forget the rockery of the 70s! Gravel is a great solution for surrounding larger rockery stones and infilling gaps in the planting scheme and of course, it will help with drainage of water where alpine plants cannot be waterlogged.
Gravel as flower bed mulch
In flower beds and borders, gravel can be used as a mulch, in the same way as tree bark. The gravel should be added in a layer no deeper than an inch to avoid soil compaction and will serve as an effective weed suppressant.
Gravel to infill between flagstones
Where you have large areas of garden paving, using gravel in between the paving stones adds a visual twist to your aesthetic and will create clean lines in a contemporary space. Our guide to garden paving has lots more information about the porcelain paving slabs we supply and our sandstone paving.
Garden gravel from Witham Timber
At Witham Timber, we always carry stocks of 20mm or 10mm pea gravel in mini bags of 25kg, or bulk bags of 850kg. Additionally, we supply 20mm golden gravel perfect for water features, flowerbeds, driveways and borders.
To discuss any aspect of an upcoming garden project, call us on 01205 359188 or send us a n email to sales@withamtimber.co.uk where our friendly sales team will be happy to help.