How to make a resilient gravel garden, easily
How to make a gravel garden which is drought-tolerant, rain-tolerant, heat-tolerant and cold-tolerant: we take a look at two examples. Plus: will I be brave enough to plant this Must-Have plant?
This formerly sad, dark area is now a light-filled, colour-filled, fragrance-filled haven, and it’s a haven for the bees as well.
It feels like August and yet it doesn’t. There’s been a bit of rain, and a bit of sun, warmth and cold. The ground is hard, the soil feels dusty on the surface, and the roses are back in bud, waiting in the wings for their midsummer show.
So a typical August then, you might say….
Following on last week’s drought-tolerant planting ideas, today we’re visiting a couple of garden areas which have done a brilliant job of creating July-August interest: gravel gardens. They look good, they stand up to everything the weather throws at them, and take up precisely NO time in looking after them.
If you want to plant a low-maintenance, resilient garden, today we’ve got a ‘how-to’, and two plant lists - everything you need to plan your own.
Dealing with a tricky, dry area in the garden
I turned this spot below- left- into this - right.
If I can do it, so can you:
Gravel garden #1
You may think you don’t want or need a gravel garden, and I’m not necessarily talking about the whole garden - here’s a high-sitting corner of a large walled garden, which nothing could be done with due to the lack of moisture there:
Gravel garden #2
I’m going to be showing you how to create a gravel garden which will be FABULOUS from May through to October - it may sound a bit of a luxury, or even a non-essential, but I promise you, you can create an area like this in even the smallest corner, and it will bring you cheer for half of the year. It’s also a brilliant solution for a front garden, or even a driveway.
We’ll also be taking a look at another Must-Have garden plant: it’s one I don’t currently have but I’ve spotted in two of the UK’s most beautiful gardens this week, and I’m very, very tempted….
You’ve told me you’re enjoying the new Container Ideas series : the first two are here and here - I’m wondering how best to organise them so that you can find them easily - should I maybe create an index like I did for the Small Garden Design Course?
! Diary Date !
I regularly host Zooms for paid subscribers where I explain how to find your way around The Gardening Mind, and how to use Substack in general. It’s also an excuse for a general chat about gardens, plants, design - anything you like. And remember, you can easily take part without having to chat or turning your camera on if you simply want to observe. Here’s the next one for your diaries:
‘General catch-up and any questions about how to find your way around The Gardening Mind’ on Tuesday 27th August at 6pm UK time.
We have lots of get-togethers here on TGM: one of the busiest weekly get-togethers takes place online in the form of our regular Sunday Show Us Your Plots Chat - do please come and join in if you haven’t yet. It’s super-easy to take part and it’s a fabulous chance to share photos of your garden or a green space near you.
So how does Show Us Your Plots work?
On Sunday morning you’ll see a post on the Chat which starts ‘It’s Sunday 11th August and it’s time to Show Us Your Plots!’
And I promise you, your photo doesn’t need to be wonderful or edited - honestly, you should see some of mine. It’s just an honest record of what’s going on in our own gardens, or a green spot near wherever we happen to be. Will you come and give it a go this Sunday?
The Chat also acts as a Gardener’s Question Time through the week - I used to post a monthly GQT feature, but on the Chat it has taken on a life of its own. So if you have ANY garden-related, plant-related query, come and join us!
Here’s a taster of what’s been going on this week, including readers’ gardens, memories of the village show, hedge problems, design advice, plant chats and photobombing cats:
On the Chat we also now have a Midweek Mooch where we upload a quick video tour of a part of our garden, or something we’ve seen that we want to share with our Gardening Mind friends. More and more subscribers are taking part in this each week - come and have a go.
How to make a gravel garden which is drought-tolerant, rain-tolerant, heat-tolerant and cold-tolerant
Yes - this first of today’s two gravel garden examples really is all of the above.
Gravel garden #1
Whilst some spots in my garden can look a little surprised at the occasional heatwave, the one area which definitely loves the heat, and yet which also puts up with constant rain, is the gravel garden - you may remember this first gravel garden example from a couple of years ago.
It was cheap to create, and it requires barely any maintenance. I call that a win win win. And I’m going to show you how you can do this.
It all started with a soul-destroyingly dull spot - do you have one of these in your garden?
When I first moved in to the cottage, there was absolutely nothing in this west-facing part of the garden, apart from a large Portuguese laurel1 which blocked the view from the upstairs windows over the fields beyond.
How could a spot be so dark when it was the brightest part of the garden?
Sad spots in the garden
Do you have a depressing spot in the garden? If so, go and take a look at that sad corner right now, and ask yourself this:
Does it annoy you? Are you ignoring it? Perhaps you’ve had a half-hearted go at doing something to it - adding a pot or a shrub in a half-hearted hope that it might zhoosh it up a bit?
When faced with a dreadful area in a garden, the temptation really is to close your eyes and hope it will go away.
It won’t. Not of its own accord. But there IS hope: