A gravel garden on clay

From bog standard front garden to great gravel garden!

This was a rather uninspiring laid to lawn front garden in St. Leonard’s but with inspired new owners. Having recently visited the National Welsh Botanical Gardens in Carmarthenshire John and Clare wanted to grow the beautiful species they saw in its new scree and rock gardens.

The brief was to create a garden where a prized olive tree and circular tree bench could sit amongst plants from the Mediterranean biome such as Dierama pulcherrimum and Tulbaghia violacea that desire a free draining soil.

With the underlying soil being Wealden clay and the garden slope facing North we needed to create an environment entirely different to the existing site conditions!

The client, having moved in recently and knocking down a conservatory had a large excess of brick rubble. This was actually the perfect material for creating free draining mounds in the garden. After scraping the existing turf and creating a low retaining oak sleeper wall we quickly requisitioned our helpful rubble from being dumped in the builders skips. These mounds would not only create interest through the undulations themselves, but also allow for and accentuate the pathways within. They also meant we had the beginnings of a brilliant substrate for a free draining soil and allowed us to create specific niches for key plants.

Once the brick rubble was down and solidified over upturned turves we back filled with a very gritty compost mix between the rubble and set into the mounds large locally sourced rocks for added seating, planting niches and soil retention.

In a pinched space the planting worked well with the individual species light and airy feel and the overall impact is impressive rather than oppressive. It’s always nice to use a waste product in an effective way too, both cost wise and environmentally it feels like a win.