Gravelling parts of garden

mutley74

Hi
in my new house parts of the garden were left as wasteland. I cleaned up all the areas and decided it would be nicer if graveled.

Some questions please …
1. What is best type of membrane to use under gravel to prevent weeds coming through? A gardener tells me to use plastic sheet - but I am reluctant as means rain water will pool in areas and not be drained.

2. What typical price for river gravel. I been quoted £50 per tonne. How deep does gravel need to be? I am only looking for it to be nice not for walking on. What coverage will 1 tonne do?


3. In the middle of the garden lawn there is an area about 1.5m x 2m where it forms a decline where rainwater pools in heavy rain. I am going to put a field drain there, but what is the best way I can raise the level of the ground in this area? (I don't have access to any roller).

Davesnave

The best membrane to use under gravel is geotextile, usually available by the metre on a roll from any good builders merchant.


The one I use sells it in widths of 4.5 m, I think.



Geotextile is often white, but it takes on the colour of the soil pretty quickly.



Some people use cheap, black spun polypropylene or the more expensive woven variety, but to separate gravel from sub soil geotextile is the professional's choice. Certainly, never use plastic sheeting.


I'd want a 50 -60mm depth myself.



There are plenty of gravel estimators.Here's one (no endorsement of product)
https://decorativeaggregates.com/pages/gravel-calculator

Grandmama

Please be aware that gravel is not maintenance free. I took over a very overgrown patch of gravel which I completely cleared. It has a good base cover and nice deep gravel but weed seeds fall into the gravel and germinate. You need to keep it clear. Good patio weed killer needed and the occasional toe scuffing!
Neighbours did not look after theirs and now the gravel cannot be seen. Covered in moss and weeds.

LessImpecunious

Davesnave wrote: »

The best membrane to use under gravel is geotextile, usually available by the metre on a roll from any good builders merchant....Geotextile is often white...some people use cheap, black spun polypropylene or the more expensive woven variety, but to separate gravel from sub soil geotextile is the professional's choice.]


Could you please clarify Davesnave? Wikipaedia says geotextile often made of woven polypropylene; and an Amazon search (for "GeoTextile") shows both white "GeoTextile"and black "Geotextile" or "landscape fabric/weed control membrane"... Most "weed control membrane" seems to be black (I searched for this a couple of weeks ago and had not come across the white stuff until following up this post).

Davesnave

LessImpecunious wrote: »

Davesnave wrote: »

The best membrane to use under gravel is geotextile, usually available by the metre on a roll from any good builders merchant....Geotextile is often white...some people use cheap, black spun polypropylene or the more expensive woven variety, but to separate gravel from sub soil geotextile is the professional's choice.]


Could you please clarify Davesnave? Wikipaedia says geotextile often made of woven polypropylene; and an Amazon search (for "GeoTextile") shows both white "GeoTextile"and black "Geotextile" or "landscape fabric/weed control membrane"... Most "weed control membrane" seems to be black (I searched for this a couple of weeks ago and had not come across the white stuff until following up this post).

Yes. On the Terram web site you can see what they call Standard Geotextiles, which are the same or very similar to what you or I might use for a landscaping project.


They also have less robust Weed Guard, which is a thinner, spun textile, suitable for planting through:

There are other specialist geotextiles there too, which we don't need to bother about.

http://www.terram.com/products/geotextiles/


However, there is also the woven, shiny weed control membrane which many people use:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Control-Ground-Membrane-Landscape-Fabric/dp/B007YT6KBI

This is usually black and has lines on it, because one of its main functions is for standing-out areas for plants in trays, and these help alignment. It's used for polytunnel floors etc. I use it on my small nursery.

Many people do use the shiny membrane in landscaping instead of geotextile. It works, but it's not the product primarily designed for that.

moneyistooshorttomention

Echoed not to use any of the shiny plastic stuff underneath gravel. I found it was down underneath gravel in garden of current house when I bought it (I wondered why drainage was so poor:cool:).

Re gravel getting weeds in - in hindsight I'd have just used a rake and given said gravel a good raking - say every couple of weeks. I would imagine that would do the trick of keeping gravel weed-free. Can't vouch for that - having now got rid of all the gravel concerned - but weeds wouldn't have the chance to "settle" if they were raked at regular intervals.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Echoed not to use any of the shiny plastic stuff underneath gravel. I found it was down underneath gravel in garden of current house when I bought it (I wondered why drainage was so poor:cool:).

Poor drainage is down to what lies beneath the membrane, whichever one is used, as they all drain, but geotextile does it better.


If you think about it, commercial greenhouses with floors covered in the 'shiny stuff' would be swimming in water from the overhead watering systems if it did not drain. There, it would most likely be laid on top of a bed of sharp sand.


As an aside, my BiL built a caravan pad on our land in 2014. He dug down around 300mm, laid a thick bed of MoT 1, bedded it down with a wacker plate and then finished with a 40 - 50mm bed of crushed granite 20mm and down. No membrane used at all. So far, he's had almost no weeds. I can't account for that!