@zak99 Gravel with sleepers/ paving/ or grass and lots of sweeping will be involved especially if disturbed by cars. Gravel is often used so that you can hear someone coming on to your drive. Do you need planing permission when making changes to a front garden? Maybe not for just a drive? Drainage/ the slope all need considering, you certainly don't want water in the garage. Do these contractors know their hard landscaping but not their plants. Easy to test them out on a few plant names. Maybe they have some sort of horticultural qualification.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
@Slow-worm and @McRazz thank you, worth considering and will investigate but I have to consider a vehicle will drive over this at least several times a week so it needs to be durable and generally pedestrian safe.
An inspiration for a lot of low impact driveways came from this RHS show garden https://www.wendyallendesigns.co.uk/showgardens You can see how the designer broke down the surfaces by creating the necessary load-bearing bits for the car and then working the gravel and planting around it. The hardest part is judging peoples' driving ability and allowing for mistakes to happen. A bit of snow cover to hide things and you could accidentally get a front wheel stuck in the gravel.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
To give more of an idea of plot, the contractor did this sketch, his adaption of the designers thoughts. He is probably more skilled in groundwork than plants but he has done some nice landscaping ground work in the area, The whole space is roughly 11m square. Existing blossom tree top left with drive entrance beside it, theres another to the right side not on drawing. Existing gabion cages to left (straight n curved) Bungalow at the bottom with from left, garage, living room window, front door and kitchen window. We will probably put wheelie bins behind hurdle screen bottom right We are considering a small forest garden top right, designer has also suggested a small acer near bins bottom right and another on island.
We are not necessarily attached to the path around the island as although it looks ok on paper it wont ever be used and increases gravel area which mu wife is not 100% sure about, personally Im ok with gravel but know that it can bunch up. A few 'green' builders said use recycled grid pavers to contain gravel We are wondering to extend the 'lawn' out to island so cobble island bridges drive area and lawn area. And perhaps if sleepers or gravel end up not ideal or feasible, maybe accept the CO2 and pave the driveway (its broken concrete now) with staggered edging and a few slabs left out for planting and or cobbles, another nice thought of the designers. In fairness to them I know there have been a few minor health delays and the wife and I have struggled to agree on this, I guess things and thoughts change throughout the design process. I am keen on the eco/wildlife aspects and the wife is more focussed on the practicalities which is rather sensible of her 😂
Any thoughts or alternative ideas very welcome, we are going round in circles here now !!
@McRazz I have seen composite deck boards used to edge a flat oblong lawn and they looked really good. Infact I thought they were wood, until you touched them. No one walked over them though, they were used to obscure the wires of a robot lawn mower and it worked really well.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
We are clueless re design but I did this dodgy sketch in case we needed to move to a paved drive, I can see from my sketch the minute you start changing materials things can look busy, the designer was saying about a 3 material rule.
If it was me, I would lose the sleepers and use some of the gravel grids and have the drive bit gravelled, then have the area to the right as a big gravel garden (maybe gravel at the front transitioning to border further back depending on the style you like)
very rough sketch!!! You could add some staggered paving if you wanted a path to the front, I wasn’t sure where your front door is!
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Drainage/ the slope all need considering, you certainly don't want water in the garage.
Do these contractors know their hard landscaping but not their plants. Easy to test them out on a few plant names. Maybe they have some sort of horticultural qualification.
Quite a few porcelain and composite deck boards now on the market that are wood effect too.
I wouldn't compromise considered design when there are plenty of options that enable you to maintain the aesthetic.
Existing blossom tree top left with drive entrance beside it, theres another to the right side not on drawing. Existing gabion cages to left (straight n curved)
Bungalow at the bottom with from left, garage, living room window, front door and kitchen window.
We will probably put wheelie bins behind hurdle screen bottom right
We are considering a small forest garden top right, designer has also suggested a small acer near bins bottom right and another on island.
We are not necessarily attached to the path around the island as although it looks ok on paper it wont ever be used and increases gravel area which mu wife is not 100% sure about, personally Im ok with gravel but know that it can bunch up. A few 'green' builders said use recycled grid pavers to contain gravel
We are wondering to extend the 'lawn' out to island so cobble island bridges drive area and lawn area.
And perhaps if sleepers or gravel end up not ideal or feasible, maybe accept the CO2 and pave the driveway (its broken concrete now) with staggered edging and a few slabs left out for planting and or cobbles, another nice thought of the designers. In fairness to them I know there have been a few minor health delays and the wife and I have struggled to agree on this, I guess things and thoughts change throughout the design process. I am keen on the eco/wildlife aspects and the wife is more focussed on the practicalities which is rather sensible of her 😂
Any thoughts or alternative ideas very welcome, we are going round in circles here now !!
very rough sketch!!! You could add some staggered paving if you wanted a path to the front, I wasn’t sure where your front door is!