Making a small seating area with gravel

Blog: Enjoy your plants on a surface that aids drainage

It’s important to have a place in your garden where you can appreciate all your hard work, read a book and generally just chill out – that’s why making a small seating area is vital.

Hard landscaping can be outside many gardeners’ reach, but try using gravel. It’s easy to use, cheap and helps your garden drain naturally. Climate change is a fact of life now, with unpredictable downpours. Solid paving and concrete contribute to flooding, as the water runs straight off them, rather than percolating through the soil. My garden paths, drive, and patio are all made of pea gravel, which is rounded and in a variety of natural shades which blend well with brick or stone homes.

Before the change…

The offending area I wanted to change was a 1m square plastic-walled raised bed containing raspberries and an ailing cherry tree. It was surrounded by a cack-handed attempt to create a growing area with bamboo fencing. This contained Aster Barbados, which bullied Rudbeckia Goldsturm nearly to death. There was also a chunk containing Italian giant parsley.

The worst part of it all was that the raspberries ran amok, plunging under the raised bed and up through the path. As all this is next to the greenhouse, I’d left a tiny space to get in – not good for someone with balance problems!

Making a small seating area – preparing the area

Firstly, we dug out the Regina cherry tree and the raspberries. Most of these were given to a friend, while I kept some to use in a wooden raised bed (the plastic bed went to my sister-in-law’s allotment). I’d already removed the herbaceous perennials in March, divided the asters and coaxed the rudbeckia back into life in a seed bed, then harvested the parsley.

Now the tiresome part – sieving out the raspberry roots and gravel from the raised bed. The soil is too good to waste, so it’s now stored in a bin. Don’t put raspberry roots or runners on the compost heap, unless you want a new raspberry patch!

Now for the weed-proof membrane and gravel

Once the area is level and trodden down, time for the weed-proof membrane to go down. If this were an area of heavy usage, you’d need hardcore down, but it isn’t, so you can skip that. Our area is about 1.5 square metres, enough for a couple of chairs or one plus pots.

Overlap the membrane lengths so there are no gaps and hold them in place with metal pegs and a mallet, which are much more resilient than plastic ones. If you have older gravel areas next to the new one, secure the new membrane under the old one for a neat finish.

We used 9 bags of 20kg Quartzite 20mm Premium Pea Gravel from Kelkay. The ideal depth is 3.5mm – you always need more than you think! It’s cheaper to use bulk bags, but the smaller bags are more manoeuvrable in tight spaces.

Place the unopened bags evenly over the area, then slash them open with a knife and slowly tip up each bag. Let the gravel and gravity do the work! Once you have the gravel out of the bags, simply rake it into place. The gravel is dusty, so give it a quick watering if there’s no rain forecast.

Making a small seating area – finishing touches

I wanted this to be a solitary area, where I could sit and admire my exotic plants by the greenhouse. A simple chair and a shabby chic shelf perfectly filled the gap. On the shelf are ginger, agapanthus and succulents. The bigger bananas and dahlia, New Baby, live in new pots I bought at the Harrogate Spring Essentials Show, along with the Aeoniums.

The elephant ears (Alocasia) are now in the greenhouse, so I can sit and admire them, too, along with my other tropical plants from Chiltern Seeds’ Mac’s Mix XV. Making a small seating area is a doddle – go on, have a go. And the best bit? I can now get into the greenhouse without damaging myself or my plants!