I think I’d call slipping bad luck . Anyone can do that can’t they? If the gravel is thickly laid enough ,minimum weeds grow through and for me , the best for a large space or indeed driveway.Only problem I can see is pushchairs or wheelchairs …..I can’t go over gravel in mine .
Highly dangerous to lay gravel over a hard surface.
It's not a big area really @Susanperkinshome, and gravel is easy to do, and the cheapest option, but you'd need to remove the existing concrete first, and have an edging of some kind to keep it contained, depending on that the area looks like just now. If there's a problem re the undermining of the ground, as you've described, you could certainly have some areas paved or similar, but it would depend on your budget, and how you want to lay it all out. Don't forget that you can also plant into parts of the area if the concrete's removed. A photo would help people to advise more fully though
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I think I’d call slipping bad luck . Anyone can do that can’t they? If the gravel is thickly laid enough ,minimum weeds grow through and for me , the best for a large space or indeed driveway.Only problem I can see is pushchairs or wheelchairs …..I can’t go over gravel in mine .
It wasn’t ‘bad luck’ … it happened because the person who laid the gravel didn’t know what he was doing. The thin layer of gravel moved under his foot because he was getting out of the car and his weight wasn’t absolutely directly over his foot … he was told later by someone whose job it is to know these things that the layer of gravel needed either to be much deeper or ‘bound’ to the hard surface beneath it. The chap said it was tantamount to walking on ball bearings and had been an accident waiting to happen.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have gravel and it's a nightmare! It's on thick membrane, but any speck of dirt and it weeds constantly. It moves, gets into the house, and looks a mess. I'm in the process of removing all areas of it.
Our front drive is a large area and we have loose gravel. The gravel isn’t over a hard surface, I watched it being done …. it’s over hard core, then a finer sub base and then finally the gravel. We rarely get weeds, my husband washes our cars there, large vehicles ie our oil delivery tanker can happily drive on it and when we had a big problem with the drains as @bcpathome said it was just raked away. I have pots sat on it near the house and a gravel border of plants around the edge to soften it all.
Like @CatDouch we have a gravel drive laid over a hardcore base. This is its fifth summer and we don’t get any weeds growing through, we get very few self-seeders either depsite having a garden fall of self-seeding experts. It’s edged with setts so doesn’t spread into the borders or neighbouring grass, except for the occasional handful relocated by our 3 year old granddaughter 😂
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
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It's not a big area really @Susanperkinshome, and gravel is easy to do, and the cheapest option, but you'd need to remove the existing concrete first, and have an edging of some kind to keep it contained, depending on that the area looks like just now.
If there's a problem re the undermining of the ground, as you've described, you could certainly have some areas paved or similar, but it would depend on your budget, and how you want to lay it all out. Don't forget that you can also plant into parts of the area if the concrete's removed.
A photo would help people to advise more fully though
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
One half of mine is on Hoggin; just enough to stop wet hoggin picking up on shoes. Perhaps 2x ave shingle size deep.
The other half is on tarmac. Perhaps a bit deeper as it move about and is picked up by parked car tyresp
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham