Gravel
Posted By Judith on 16th July 2016
Wherever you live in the UK you will not be far from some gravel. There are tons of it up and down the country, in suburban gardens giving that Mediterranean look to a flower bed or spread along paths and driveways.
I’m sure we’ve all seen examples of poor gravel. Laid far too thick so it feels like you’re wading on a pebble beach, spread too thin so the membrane beneath shows through or used in the wrong place, resulting in half the drive being washed into the road after the first heavy downpour.
In a word gravel can be ‘tricky’ if not done properly.
So how do we ensure that such horrors are avoided when putting the finishing touches to the garden project?
Just like bricks, when you start shopping for gravel the variety on offer is amazing. Following months of searching Peter finally found what he wanted, “After all” he said, “if it’s good enough for the Queen then it’s good enough for us.” Who am I to argue?
What is it? Well it’s actually crushed limestone, sold commercially as ‘self-binding gravel’. Apparently HRH has it at all the royal palaces, presumably because it does exactly what it says on the tin.
It’s drawback is the cost, the attention to detail required when laying it, along with a heavy roller and the fact that it has to be allowed to ‘set’ before it can be driven on.
This ‘setting’ process is much helped by warm, dry weather, so you can see how we might be having some difficulty with that given the state of the weather here over the last few weeks.
I’ve already written about the first 20 tons which were laid on July 1st, but we needed more and so exactly one week later we started the whole thing again with a further 8 tons to finish from the back door up to the road.
It will be a while before the car can go back in the garage, but that’s OK as it means we can paint the shed doors (when they arrive) under cover so the weather won’t be a problem.
However, it’s an ill wind etc. etc. and all this wet weather has been a God send for turf skimming and sowing grass seed. We’ve employed both methods to try and mend the quagmire at the front of what has become ‘Adrian’s Wall’ (which you can see here back in December)
into something resembling grass.
Notice I resist the temptation to say ‘lawn’ at this stage but it is beginning to look a bit more like a garden.
Happy days!
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