I'd be favouring 20mm granite gravel. Red, green, and black all look good in rain or shine. I'd avoid the white stone chippings as they can tend to a green tinge over time with algae.
Once cleared, to keep weeds down, have a depth of 50mm of gravel (height of a brindle brick), with a weed liner underneath.
Plant into the gravel with choice of low maintenance slow growing plants. If the site has lots of sun and well draining soil, I'd be tempted to try one of the smaller pine varieties, or a golden conifer. It does depend on how the driveways were constructed, as roots may be a problem.
Pinus Mugo 'Carstens' and the numerous various 'Wintergold' types look nice. 10 yr size is supposed to be around 4 ft or less, but the candles can be trimmed to reduce the growth rate and make it more bushy.
Juniper ground cover conifers will take a fair amount of pruning. Some have a higher profile than others, over time. Just avoid planting too close to the house/pipes etc. Juniperus x Pfitzeriana 'Carbery Gold' is a rather striking plant.
Taxus Baccata 'Standishii' is a pleasant narrow yellow conifer. Taxus aren't hugely fussy of soil, so long as it drains well. They can be clipped and pruned well, and do regenerate from older wood. Needs the sun for some part of the day to keep the yellow colour.
Glyphosate weed killer will take about 3 weeks to show that it's working. So, if you go that route, don't be surprised to look at it in a week and wonder why only the grass is turning yellow.
I probably wouldn't plant neat the utility meter boxes. Roots and the pipes being close to the surface, and when a human has to read a meter, they don't really want to have to be minding where they tread.
Plant pots, especially heavy ones might not get stolen, who knows, there are strange thieves around. However, some morons just go around breaking stuff and running off. I have no idea why, it can't be rationalised, it's not funny.
Oh, and as you can see one of the neighbours has dropped some boulders around the edge of the lawn patch to stop driving on it. That's a good idea, as an earlier post points out. Get a few rocks/boulders and place them around the edge when done.
..Glyphosate weed killer will take about 3 weeks to show that it's working. So, if you go that route, don't be surprised to look at it in a week and wonder why only the grass is turning yellow...
That's exactly what I was wondering!
She's just told me someone
came round about a week ago to mow the lawn in the rear garden and they
gave the front garden a spray afterwards.
How about adding a bit of colour with blue/purple slate. It doesn't move and cats hate it.😁
Someone joked about pea gravel looking like a giant cat litter tray and recommended to go larger. Now I'm wondering, would cats actually use it as such if the gravel was small enough? Thinking about it, I see why not. If so, I'll be sure to let my friend know!
The larger boulders are to stop nobs driving over it when they reverse in.
Thank you for the photo, it does look nice. I'll see if she likes it too.
I now know what you mean about the large boulders, if you look at one of the photos that I uploaded you can see the neighbour opposite has put some on their patch too. I was wondering if that was the reason!
Unfortunately, nobs are becoming more common nowadays.
Posts
Once cleared, to keep weeds down, have a depth of 50mm of gravel (height of a brindle brick), with a weed liner underneath.
Plant into the gravel with choice of low maintenance slow growing plants. If the site has lots of sun and well draining soil, I'd be tempted to try one of the smaller pine varieties, or a golden conifer. It does depend on how the driveways were constructed, as roots may be a problem.
Pinus Mugo 'Carstens' and the numerous various 'Wintergold' types look nice. 10 yr size is supposed to be around 4 ft or less, but the candles can be trimmed to reduce the growth rate and make it more bushy.
Juniper ground cover conifers will take a fair amount of pruning. Some have a higher profile than others, over time. Just avoid planting too close to the house/pipes etc. Juniperus x Pfitzeriana 'Carbery Gold' is a rather striking plant.
Taxus Baccata 'Standishii' is a pleasant narrow yellow conifer. Taxus aren't hugely fussy of soil, so long as it drains well. They can be clipped and pruned well, and do regenerate from older wood. Needs the sun for some part of the day to keep the yellow colour.
Glyphosate weed killer will take about 3 weeks to show that it's working. So, if you go that route, don't be surprised to look at it in a week and wonder why only the grass is turning yellow.
I probably wouldn't plant neat the utility meter boxes. Roots and the pipes being close to the surface, and when a human has to read a meter, they don't really want to have to be minding where they tread.
Plant pots, especially heavy ones might not get stolen, who knows, there are strange thieves around. However, some morons just go around breaking stuff and running off. I have no idea why, it can't be rationalised, it's not funny.
Oh, and as you can see one of the neighbours has dropped some boulders around the edge of the lawn patch to stop driving on it. That's a good idea, as an earlier post points out. Get a few rocks/boulders and place them around the edge when done.
Someone joked about pea gravel looking like a giant cat litter tray and recommended to go larger. Now I'm wondering, would cats actually use it as such if the gravel was small enough? Thinking about it, I see why not. If so, I'll be sure to let my friend know!