LAYING DECORATIVE AGGREGATES
Category: Landscaping
Published: 16/04/2021
How do you choose the best gravel for your garden
when you’re creating a driveway, path or border?
Do you go by colour, texture or durability?
We want to help with your decision in making the right choice for your garden project.
Decorative stone helps structure and landscape your garden for a professional looking finish, where gravel can be a fairly low cost and low maintenance material for covering large areas, or for adding decorative finishing touches to outdoor spaces.
HOW TO LAY DECORATIVE AGGREGATES
| Clear The Area Firstly, you will need to clear the whole area where you will be laying your gravel or decorative stone. Remove all loose material around the garden area – you really need to be thorough here, using weedkiller on any deep-rooted weeds to make sure your finished garden landscaping remains weed free. | Laying Slate Chippings, Stones or Gravel We advise laying your decorative stones to a depth of around 40-50mm for the best coverage, but this measurement will generally depend on the size of the decorative aggregate used. Once your gravel or chippings are down, use a rake or similar to create a flat and even finish. |
| Level the Ground Once you have cleared the area, level using a steel rake. Keep raking until all stones, twigs and leaves are removed, creating a smooth flat and levelled area. This will make things easier when laying your membrane to help reduce the number weeds coming through. | Choosing the right size of aggregate As smaller chippings lock together well, they are best for areas that will be walked on and can be great for fitting in awkward spaces and gaps around the edges. Paddlestones, cobbles, pebbles and rockery stones can work better in larger areas and as features. |
| Lay a Weed Control Membrane We highly recommend using Proweed Landscape Fabric to cover the area and help reduce weeds – our heavy duty weed control membrane allows water and air nutrients to permeate the ground and helps maintain healthy and fertile soil underneath, whilst helping with weeds and contributing to keeping a low maintenance garden. You will need to lay the membrane to a depth suitable for the type of decorative stone you are using. Please ask a member of our staff for assistance if you are not sure. | Get the right look for your garden Choose a stone that complements the rest of your garden. Chippings like slate or polished pebbles can look striking in a contemporary garden, whilst others like Cotswold Buff might fit a more traditional garden scheme. And remember your aggregate will look different when wet. Try and pick something will look good against your pots, flowers, decking, furniture etc. You don't want to have to be changing these year after year. |
How much gravel do I need
We generally say that 1 bulk bag covers approximately 10m², if you are laying it at a depth of 50mm. We also offer various sized bag pallets that consist of 25kg bags. A 50 bag pallet will cover around 12m² and 25 bag pallet covers around 6m², again if you are laying to a depth of 50mm.
To calculate the amount of gravel you require you need to measure the length and width of your space. Then multiply them together to work out the area in square metres. For example, a garden that is 3 metres by 5 metres is 15m². We have a handy gravel quantity calculator on our site to help you calculate how much gravel you need.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of a particular gravel or chipping product for your application, our friendly sales team are just a phone call away to answer your queries.
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