Imagine an eco-friendly garden that is easy to care for, that you don’t have to water, with – best of all – no grass to mow? I’m not talking about paving it all over, or, heaven forbid, astro turf, but a gravel garden. In the right position, and incorporating the right plants, this could be a naturalistic, low maintenance alternative to the traditional lawn with borders.
Gravel gardens have been around for a while and are popular in contemporary landscapes, an extreme example being the much visited and admired garden on Dungeness made by Derek Jarman, who planted straight into the shingle. The late Beth Chatto made a gravel garden in what was once the carpark of her famous garden in Essex – the driest county in England. A parched and inhospitable place, it was chosen as an experiment to see which plants would survive in such challenging conditions. Beth pioneered the ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy and chose plants with adaptations to drought. Once established, the plants in the gravel garden are never watered. We increasingly suffer periods of drought – often in the spring and early summer, just when our plants (and the lawn especially) need good amounts of rain for healthy growth. By choosing resilient plants that are adapted to harsher environments, a garden can positively thrive when there’s no rain. If you have poor soil, if your lawn becomes parched and dry in the summer, if you would like a low maintenance, wildlife friendly garden, a gravel garden could be the ideal solution.

How to Make a Gravel Garden

Choose the sunniest space for a gravelled area. Shady or damp situations are better suited to woodland or bog gardens. South or west facing is ideal and if possible not overshadowed by buildings or tall trees.
Prepare the ground by either digging it over, or preferably, covering with cardboard to suppress weeds – digging unfortunately brings weed seeds up to the surface. Avoid a weed membrane – they sound great, because they suppress weeds (although after a while you may find the weeds start to germinate on top of the membrane). With a true gravel garden it is better to use a good thick layer of the gravel mulch straight on top of the soil. This more natural approach will be better for the health of the soil ecosystem that supports the plants and will ensure a healthier result all round.
Choose the right size of gravel. If it is too small and more like grit, it may either wash away, or compact together too much. Larger pebbles will be too chunky, not allow for plant growth and might look out of place. The best size is a gravel of between 10-20mm – it looks right, is easy to manage and the plants will thrive in it.
If your soil is clay, you may have to improve the drainage first, by digging in lots of grit and some of the gravel to improve the drainage, as the sorts of plants you will be using will prefer free draining conditions.

The Plants to Grow

Just by looking at the shape, texture and colour of a plant’s foliage, you can start to spot the plants that will thrive in the dry. These are the visible adaptations to difficult environments and niches. Small leaved plants will tolerate drier conditions, because each leaf will have less surface area to lose moisture from. A tough, leathery texture, or a waxy coating will also help prevent water loss. Hairy or woolly foliage is another adaptation to an arid habitat. Combine several of these attributes together – say: felty, grey, needle-like – and you can immediately see why a plant like lavender will love a gravel garden.
Aim to extend seasonal interest as much as possible, using plants with long flowering periods, architectural seed-heads, some evergreens and early spring interest from bulbs too.

Shrubs and Perennials

Euphorbias (spurge) – there are many varieties of this drought tolerant plant, but most share the distinctive lime green bracts in the spring. Beware the latex sap that can burn your skin and prune back with care.
Eryngium (sea holly) – these architectural, spiny plants are loved by bees, and their seed-heads will look good in the winter.
Nepeta (catmint) – This is a billowy, relaxed looking plant, and long-flowering, especially if you cut it right back after the first flush. The lower growing varieties like ‘Walker’s Low’ and ‘Junior Walker’ are great for edging.
Salvia – this is a big family of plants, so there will be a colour to suit every scheme, and most prefer a sunny, free draining position.

Ornamental Grasses

Grasses bring almost year-round interest, because their stems and seed-heads persist in attractive dried form all through the winter. Cut back deciduous grasses in early spring and interplant with sun-loving bulbs like tulips and alliums while the grasses are growing up.
Stipa – try S. gigantea for drama, impact and punctuation, and the diminutive Stipa tenuissima for soft airy movement lower down.
Pennisetum – these have tactile plumes in late summer. P. ‘Rubrum’ has dark leaves and seed heads, but is not fully hardy.
Festuca glauca – this is a compact grass with striking, metallic blue foliage, ‘Elijah Blue’ is one of the best and bluest.

Self-seeders

Self-sown plants will make a natural looking display, often planting themselves where we might not have thought to – and looking all the better for it. This is the ultimate in ‘plants for free’ and – if you have a steely heart – you can easily remove those that pop up in unwanted places. Gravel can make for a good seed bed, so be careful which self-sowers you choose. The lovely, tall growing and airy Verbena bonariensis can tun into what some might call Weedara weedariensis, because if it likes your conditions, it will be prolific. The same goes for Nigella (love-in-the mist), while Eschscholzia (Californian poppy) and Allium sphaerocephalon (the drumstick allium), will be a little more restrained.

Maintaining your Gravel Garden

On the whole, a gravel garden is a low maintenance space – there’s no grass to mow, no edges to cut. Weeding will be an occupational hazard in this situation, although to some extent the stones will be a good mulch and suppress them. Weeds are also easy to pull out from a loose substrate.

The gravel can shift and get displaced over time, especially if the ground is not level, so some topping up and redistributing may be needed – this is a Zen activity though – imagine you are in a Japanese garden and it might not seem like a chore…
Even the most drought tolerant plants will need watering to establish. Once they are growing well, they should manage without any extra watering – and this is one of the big benefits of a gravel garden. Lawns may be turning brown, lush and leafy plants wilting and flowers rushing to seed in periods of hot dry weather, but your garden will thrive.
With thoughtful planting and a good initial setup, a well designed gravel area can deliver colour, structure, and texture for years without much effort, or the disturbing sounds of strimming and lawn mowing. You – and the wildlife – can enjoy the space in peace, with just the occasional gentle crunch of gravel underfoot as you walk to your relaxing chair.

Find out about Jo’s gardening courses, run from her beautiful home in Woodchurch, Kent, by visiting hornbrookmanor.co.uk.