Is gravel or stone the best for your pathway?
GARDEN DESIGN
Garden designers Lesley Hegarty and Robert Webber compare and contrast the two surfaces
Gravel and stone both offer tempting ways to move around your garden. They can constitute a strong design statement, which may make your garden look sharper and more stylish. So it is worth deciding what your look is before you buy into the products. Technically, like most of life, there are plusses and minuses to both.
They are texturally completely different. Both visually and in feel. Gravel offers the more complex texture and has that extra ‘sensory’ crunch which can sound luxurious (but can be treacherous for those stiletto heels!). It comes in a huge range of colours and sizes, from rounded pea gravel through to coarse and angular. The finer, angular gravels provide a more stable walking surface, and, importantly, are less likely to be
used by cats for a lavatory. In addition, the more worn areas can also be easily refreshed when required.
Gravel alerts you to foot traffic in your garden, so helps you to feel more secure. It also enables sideways seeding from adjacent borders to soften the sides of the path and give a charmingly relaxed look. A membrane can be used beneath the surface to minimise perennial weed growth, and gravel boards can help to hold the gravel in place on either side. The timber edges will give a relaxed and casual effect, whereas, if bordered by setts or bricks, the feel is more confident, smart and county.
But you can have too much gravel! It is generally considered to be unwise on steep slopes, since it shifts relentlessly to the bottom - and even on gentler slopes retaining cross strips and linear drains are advisable to minimise excess downward travel. Depending on how houseproud you are some raking and smoothing may also be needed.
Stone, by comparison, generally provides a smoother
surface. You can, of course, go to the luxurious extreme of polished Portugese limestone, which is silky to the touch beneath bare feet, if sauntering round your garden barefoot is your whim! Ribs of plants such as Leptonella, Cotula or dwarfing Ophiopogons will give a contemporary feel and added interest, and setts can, of course, be used to provide intriguing patterns too.
Most stone is relatively easy maintenance, but depending on your choice of surface can be slippery in shade. The manner and style in which it is laid will contribute hugely to the success of the look.
Why not combine both gravel and stone for a look that gives textural variety, easy foot fall and low maintenance open space? If you have a gravelled garden on either side of a stone flagged path the look is then completely harmonious. Another quintessentially British way of combining stone and gravel is to step out of the house onto a flagged stone terrace which may lead into a more relaxed loose or consolidated gravel pathway as you move out in to the garden. This allows not only a change of pace but also a sense of progression. Think of any National Trust property!
Area for area gravel is the cheaper product and surface to lay, although there are now a huge number of good stone imitations around if traditional York stone is beyond your budget. Given some research and a firm foundation of at least 100mm depth of consolidated hardcore, the laying of both surfaces could be tackled by the confident amateur, but issues of safety are obviously of paramount importance. For the truly professional look and safe construction you may prefer to use a locally reputable craftsman.
Lesley Hegarty and Robert Webber
www.hegartywebberpartnership.com
22
Country Gardener
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