@Fire Love your photos my kind of garden. A skill to achieve, a garden doesn't want to be over or under managed a fine line and you understand that well.
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
Have you got a photo of your site @joanrayers89287? That will also help with advice. Are you sure it's actually grass coming through, and not something else? If it is grass, it's most likely that it's seeding in from above, as @punkdoc has said, rather than coming through from below, but it wouldn't usually be problematic to remove. If it was coming from below, it suggests the site hasn't really been prepped well enough. A proper layer of gravel over membrane should inhibit grass for a long time.
I don't think you can easily just turn it into a lawn though, unless there's not a huge amount of gravel, and if it's finer -pea gravel or similar. There's always a risk of of gravel being thrown up by the mower blades. If there had been no membrane, you could simply have dug any finer gravel in, and added soil and seeded, or turfed, depending on the site. A small raised border would easily contain that extra soil.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
a garden doesn't want to be over or under managed a fine line
I think this really depends on the aesthetic someone is going for. Very contemporary styles favour hard surfaces, clean lines and closely clipped verdage (industrial or show garden inspired - prioritisng socialising spaces). This is what young designers seem to pull towards. There is a type of high-control, high-maintenance that many people favour.
We bought our house in 1987 from people who'd only had for 2 years. Before that it had been in the origanal owners family from new about 1920. The 'new' people had poured gravel instead of a patio with no discernable preparation. We just let the grass (and weeds) grow and then cut it and cut it etc. Today you'd never know.
I had a very low maintenance garden when I worked, and it wasn't until I retired, I realised that, so I started adding other plants and making projects for myself because I get bored with it all very easily. I often take stuff out and completely change it. The back garden is now all gravel, rather than having a lawn, with the original raised beds and borders, and now quite a lot directly into the ground. I have to actively look for things to do in the garden at this time of year. I do very little in summer other than deadheading and watering pots of annuals, or sowing seed etc.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When I came here the garden was all grass bar one sapling and a spindly rose against a fence. I had most of it taken up and gravel laid without any membrane. My builder said I'd be forever weeding. However, what I've found is it has been a real asset for self-seedlings, particularly love-in-the-mist, malva alba, and things like that. Plus plants that want to spread, like waldstenia ternata (the most under-rated ground cover in the history of horticulture, IMV) can do so easily. Beautiful greenery in abundance with no effort on my part.
I have never had a problem with the old grass growing back through.
I don’t have a photo but I have decided to give it a try and leave the
grass blades, which are lovely to take a natural course and keep cutting
it. I am a novice and enjoying watching how things grow so well.
Thank you everybody xx
Good luck with the process, Joan. Please keep up posted.
a garden doesn't want to be over or under managed a fine line
I think this really depends on the aesthetic someone is going for. Very contemporary styles favour hard surfaces, clean lines and closely clipped verdage (industrial or show garden inspired - prioritisng socialising spaces). This is what young designers seem to pull towards. There is a type of high-control, high-maintenance that many people favour.
I am trying to achieve natural not modern chic. It would appear that the ground wasn’t prepared correctly, but, hopefully in 6 moths I will see some changes. Thank you
Posts
If it is grass, it's most likely that it's seeding in from above, as @punkdoc has said, rather than coming through from below, but it wouldn't usually be problematic to remove. If it was coming from below, it suggests the site hasn't really been prepped well enough. A proper layer of gravel over membrane should inhibit grass for a long time.
I don't think you can easily just turn it into a lawn though, unless there's not a huge amount of gravel, and if it's finer -pea gravel or similar. There's always a risk of of gravel being thrown up by the mower blades. If there had been no membrane, you could simply have dug any finer gravel in, and added soil and seeded, or turfed, depending on the site. A small raised border would easily contain that extra soil.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I think this really depends on the aesthetic someone is going for. Very contemporary styles favour hard surfaces, clean lines and closely clipped verdage (industrial or show garden inspired - prioritisng socialising spaces). This is what young designers seem to pull towards. There is a type of high-control, high-maintenance that many people favour.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
The back garden is now all gravel, rather than having a lawn, with the original raised beds and borders, and now quite a lot directly into the ground.
I have to actively look for things to do in the garden at this time of year. I do very little in summer other than deadheading and watering pots of annuals, or sowing seed etc.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have never had a problem with the old grass growing back through.
Good luck with the process, Joan. Please keep up posted.