Ground cover

[DigbyTheDigger]

I have a gravel border that currently has a membrane. I want to pull the membrane up and plant ground cover, but I can’t face pulling up all the gravel. Can I put a layer of compost on it and then plant groundcover like clover?

Oh, the reason I can’t just turn it into a gravel bed it’s because it’s quite shady. So plants like thyme don’t work.

I pity the poor person in the future who's going to be left dealing with that. If you want to get rid of the gravel, remove it and the membrane properly.

Why? Won’t the gravel work its way into the soil eventually? And ground cover is much better for the environment than membrane.

Gravel doesn’t work its way into the soil. I have a pain in the backside border with loads of gravel in it years later. I need to dig it out and riddle it properly really to be able to plant things properly.

I have low standards as our whole garden is full of stones (newish build on a brownfield site), the dreamy loamy soil of garden shows is never going to happen.

Should have said, I'm also interested in no dig, so I wondered whether repeated topping up with compost/mulch would also help.

If you offer the gravel free then someone may come and dig it up for you?

What aspect is the bed?

The planting palette is fairly limited for dry shade as most plants that grow in shade are adapted for growing in a moist, humus rich forest floor. However, you could try Vinca major/minor, Lamium maculatum, a groundcover ivy, Geranium macrorrhizum, Carex flacca.

I don't know how big the bed is, but planting all of that and it failing could be costly. Scraping off the gravel would be a better bet.

It’s a curved bed, approximately 4m long, mostly facing north/north west, but it’s a fairly open aspect. It has a few shrubs: ceanothus, forsythia and a lavender (the lavender gets light through a gate), plus a couple of grasses that seem to do ok.

Could you just cut holes in the membrane and pull aside some gravel, and plant through it? Keep the gravel as a mulch. If you fill it full of shade tolerant plants and grasses but plant directly in the ground, that sounds like a half-way solution?

Hhm, that's interesting, look at the gravel as a mulch. I'd like to still get the membrane out, but maybe I could just plant it up more.

I would agree with cutting holes in the membrane and planting through it. For shade I suggest woodruff, lily of the valley, wild strawberries, hellebores and London pride, although not all of that list are evergreen. You could plant some shade tolerant shrubs too if you wanted some height, mahonia soft caress and eunonymous grow quite happily in shade.