Gravel over border, awful idea?

[FireUnderpants]

I have a south facing garden, the border in question is in full sun from late morning till evening. Soil is clay and crap quality. We used to have large bushes with the worlds biggest thorns on. We dug them out and are now left with a handful of plants and lots of weeds. New plants struggle to establish, I’m scared to dig too much to add manure and compost as there are two decades worth of pet rabbits and guinea pigs buried.

My idea is to chop everything down, cover with weed membrane, gravel and add alpine rockery type plants along with a few artfully placed rocks.

It’s a big border though,18m long and 1m wide, so a lot of gravel to scrape up if I change my mind.

Personally I think you're better off digging up and adding some sand and compost. My garden grew nothing but weeds for decades and once dug up was extremely thick clay and clods. We rotavated it well and added lots of compost, small stones and some sand for my sandy soil plants. It was hard work but paid off and a year on and things are thriving. I just dug a fresh area for veg today and after the initial 7/8" or so it's thick clay type soil but it's fine, the plants can handle it. Would be a waste of so much Sun in my opinion.

You could make an actual gravel garden. There was a description of how to do it on gardeners question time a couple of weeks ago. It’s about getting the gravel thick enough and I think no weed membrane.

Let stuff self seed but you could grow pretty much anything.

In your shoes though I’d dig up, do a cute little grave for any bones, plant a nice rose on top of them or something....and dig in lots of stuff to improve soil and plant some cistus, easy roses, lavender rosemary and oregano and have a bee border. Probably less weeding and lower maintenance in the long run.

How about doing a no dig approach. Heap up lots of compost, grit, bark chippings etc and let the worms integrate it into your garden rather than digging it in.

If you dont like gardening do you have to have a border there at all? could you grass it over?

If you want a border then the membrane + gravel route will look great for a very short while then weeds will start growing in the debris that settles in the gravel and it will be more work than you can imagine to keep it looking good.

Clay soil as a base can be great. Personally I'd go for a really good thick layer of mulch/soil improver on top then plant in roses (roses love clay and are tough as old boots) surrounded by some of the plants recommended here www.crocus.co.uk/bomcard/_/ready-made-border/clay-soil/classid.2000008597/?affiliate=googleproductfeed&gclid=CjwKCAjw_JuGBhBkEiwA1xmbRZu3xET5ZoSqA-xWa26VnyCfusU7cvMEOIOomFodNzGBfmPWy5waBxoCeqUQAvD_BwE although not the ones that like shade of course. It will be glorious.

I'm also 'no dig' - ish - we're in a newbuild with dreadful soil, so I add any spare compost and leftovers from pots when I change plants and the worms do a very fast job of turning it over - In a few months already I have much better soil.

How about a mix of paving and raised beds?