Gravel gardening ......
This month we continue the no lawns theme and look at plantings which work with gravel. Using gravel in a garden reflects light and heat and provides added drainage for plants that don't like to be soggy over winter. If you have a hot sunny garden which is primarily south or west facing with dry soil conditions think about Mediterranean or coastal style plantings.

You do need to consider that even though gravel is often seen in makeover gardens as a quick fix - it isn't! Whether you eradicate weeds beforehand with chemicals such as glyphosate or plant through weed suppressing membrane [which is not recommended for mass planting], over time the weeds, [and more welcome seedlings], will find a roothold. Gravel will need maintenance such as weeding, raking over and refreshing every so often to keep it looking good.

When choosing gravel think of how the colour and the type of rock will blend with your surroundings, Cotswold chippings for example are very flat in tone and colour and can jar to start with before ageing to a greyer beige colour. Other types of gravel come in pinks, greys and golds.

The plants that grow in hot sunny and dry conditions have adapted themselves to conserve water with silver-grey, furry, waxy, succulent or spiky leaves. Classic Mediterranean planting schemes feature a lot of silvery leaved plants. Silver needs lifting with greens - too much silver can look very dull en masse. In the UK the damp and low light levels of winter are a problem and silver plants often look dejected through the winter months so include evergreens such as cistus and hebes for interest.

The Mediterranean style of planting should be in blowsy drifts, let plants flow into each other. Think about lavender, thyme, ballota, nepeta, artemisia, phlomis, oregano [great for butterflies] and salvias. The heat reflected off the gravel in summer will also bring out the scent of many of the leaves which adds another dimension to the garden space.

Use grasses such as Stipa gigantea and S.tenuissima to give movement. Throw in dashes of hot colour such as the pink of Geranium palmatum.

For an eclectic architectural style imagine English pebbled beaches and look at Derek Jarman's Dungeness garden. Use spiky Eryngiums with steely blue and white veined leaves, the thimbled flowers often surrounded by a stiff ruff. Grasses such as the powder blue Leymus racemosus make a fantastic show [but it runs wildly], Helictotrichon sempervirens will give a similar but more contained effect and Festuca glauca is more obliging still, forming humps of fine steely blue foliage.

Sea Kale or Crambe maritima is a native of our pebbly shores forming mounds of crinkly cabbagey leaves topped off with sprays of white scented flowers from May - August; add a dash of colour with the fragile tangy orange poppy flowers of Glaucium flavum f. fulvum, the eye-popping scarlet trumpets of Zauschneria californica and vibrant Eschscholzia californica.

Bulbs add interest through the seasons, choose the smaller daffodils and species tulips for spring, alliums for early to late summer, stately galtonia and species gladioli.

Include single tender specimen plants in pots - agave and paddled opuntia cacti from the deserts of the US and stately South African agapanthus, most of which will need some protection over winter.

Annuals and biennials add height and ephemeral interest allowing you to tweak and change the look and feel year by year. Verbascum bombyciferum with large flannelly leaves and tall flower spikes and thistly plants such as onopordum work well as does the somewhat maligned Verbena bonariensis which often overwinters or will self seed.

See
If you are looking for ideas close to home, the Meadows Nursery at Mells has a formal walled garden which uses gravel and variously hot and exotic plantings including tender agaves and gingers. If you fancy a trip to Essex visit the gardens of the doyenne of the gravel garden, Beth Chatto, it is worth looking out her book on gravel gardening.
Grow
It is not too late to take cuttings of favourite lavenders and tender perennials if you have space to overwinter them somewhere light and frost free [Early Sept].
Buy
Now is the time to order bulbs, try local specialist suppliers like Avon Bulbs and Broadleigh Gardens or visit local garden centres for ideas. Trevena Cross Nursery near Helston in Cornwall is worth a trip especially for more tender specimen plants such as agave, opuntia, and aloes.

[Originally printed in The Bristol Magazine September 2005]