Help! What do I plant in an area with chuckies?

[TamiTayorismyparentingguru]

Out the front of our house we have a raised area up from the street which is flat and covered in chuckies. There is weed control fabric under the chuckies. The previous owners of the house have some plants - some look like mini (tiny) bushes/trees and some are flat plants which just kind of spread over a largish area.

My problem is that the planting seems to be rather irregular - one side is quite full looking, the other side is really sparse with massive gaps with no plants. I want to fill them in but I have no idea what to put in.

I can’t afford a gardener to do it for me but I am clueless with anything plant related. I’d like something with a bit of colour which requires minimal (and by minimal I mean zero) care.

Any ideas/advice gratefully received!

What are chuckies?

What they said ^^

Like wee stones. What do you call them?

Que?

These

That's commonly known as gravel!

Gravel or pebbles. V. fond memories of an old children's book, The Serendipity Shop' which mentions chuckies. Set in Scotland

I’ve never heard of chukies. What you’ve got is a gravel garden: there’s a list of things you can grow here:
www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=500

Chuckies= shingle

Oo-er. I just googled ‘chuckies’....
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chuckie

No, not shingle! Small stones, but bigger than gravel. Scottish term!

Op, you can plant anything in chuckies. How about a structural plant like a phormium?

Thank you stormchaser! Who knew a term which is so normal to me could cause such confusion! (Definitely not shingle, and I wouldn’t call it gravel either - stones are too big to be either one of those.)

Anyway - I appreciate the assistance and will go and hunt for what has been suggested at the garden centre today. (Might be the first time I actually buy anything garden related (other than road salt) at a garden centre!)

I opened this thread just to see how many folk knew what chuckies were .
I have alpines growing in ours although the dandelions do well too.

Tami are you Scottish? I opened this thread to see how many people asked what chuckies were I knew what you meant.
You could plant anything really but you might have to cut through the weed control fabric although some things will grow in minimal soil put between the fabric and the stones.
What garden centre will you be going to? Ask for some help there they should have some good ideas based on what they have for sale.

I’d look at alpines to fill the gap. Some have beautiful flowers and are normally fairly hardy.

Fascinating ,I'm adding chuckie to my vocabulary .What a charming word .And I can just picture them .like river pebbles ?
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/chuckie

Have a look at hebes ,lots of different kinds and apparently if you look for ones with pinguifolia in the name ,they won't grow too big .

I thought you meant chickens and was coming to say - nothing, you can plant nothing.

You need “the gravel garden” by Beth Chatto. All your answers will be in there.

You are welcome

Thank you all! I’m heading out to Raemoir Garden Centre this afternoon to see what I can find. (Aberdeenshire) Wondering if I will need to buy more top soil to pop in under the weed control fabric first?

The only gardening I’ve ever done was in an old house where we dug out all the old stuff (only a couple of ratty looking bushes) and replaced with all new, put down weed control fabric and covered with bark. Oddly this seems more difficult because I don’t want to start from scratch. (Well, actually, I’d love to start from scratch because I hate the look of what we have and I hate the chuckies because kids/teens walking past are forever picking them up and throwing them. It would be such a waste though to start again, and most houses on the street have the same granite chuckies so anything else would look odd.)

Haha, I wondered if you were in Aberdeen! Nice :)

I don't know what I'm doing so please take this with a pinch of salt. But i used that weed fabric (topped with bark) a few years back and I have to admit it did my head in a bit as it was always showing where the cats scratched it, it also meant i couldn't plant new plants easily.
But back to the reason for my post! The flowerbed needed topping up, so yesterday i put the topping bark in a wheel barrow, pulled up the weed fabric (cutting it in the areas near the plants). Topped up the flowerbed and put the bark back. It went surprisingly well, i don't see why you couldn't do the same, but put down new weed fabric and put the chuckies back (or not if you don't like it). That way you could plant your new plants and fit the fabric back properly.

I thought they were a type of plant!!

Lol chuckies (west coast Scotland any chance?)

Whatever you do don't disturb the fabric underneath so maybe plant pots with scented herbs and lavender- very easy to manage and generally keep bugs away.

That's what we did on our driveway.

I thought you meant chicken. Not worth planting anything as they eat everything.
Gravel, meh, alpines. Bear in mind if you put in bigger stuff and have to cut the membrane you'll get any dormant weeds coming up.

No idea, but I know what chuckies are! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I've found the staff at dobbies (the ones working in the outdoor plant area) quite good for advice before.