How can I clean my gravel?

[Rolson77]

I live in rented accommodation. My front garden has about 10-15sqm of gravel which is directly on top of mud. Looks OK but it is a bit grubby. Anyone know how I can wash it?

I’ve got white chip stones and they come up nicely if I put water and bleach over them on a sunny day!

My drive is gravel on compacted earth. The old fashioned way is effective - rake it regularly. When it rains, the mud rinses off. The raking helps keep weeds at bay too.

Please don't do this- the soil below is full of small creatures that will be killed by bleach which is very destructive to the environment.
Pressure washing?

Omg please don’t bleach your garden! What are people thinking??

don't bother. the outdoors is meant to be mucky.

if the mud is sticking up through the gravel, it probably means there is not enough gravel and you need to buy more to put on top. but that can get expensive.

Gravel on mud, the wettest 18 months on record. The best idea is more gravel if it's been driven into the ground. Have a chat with your landlord

Try this.

This has made me feel quite sick.

I keep reading your title as the somewhat more macabre ‘How can I clean my grave?’

You pour bleach on it??!! 😠🥹 I've just posted on the plastic grass thread, I honestly totally despair of humanity at times 😔

You can’t pressure wash gravel, the pieces will fly everywhere followed by the mud!

More gravel works best. Or put a black barrier layer under the gravel.

@Leeksinthesun
I know - people are obsessed with neat, tidy, clean, fake, grey houses and lurid fake plastic gardens.

We need more education in schools about the environment.

I couldn't agree more.

People seem to want to treat their garden as an 'outdoor room' - an outside version of a room in the house, and expect to be able to keep it completely clean, sanitised and totally free from anything that could possibly be considered to be a living organism.

Ironically, white gravel is as common as muck.

Wtf 🤬

Bleaching the mud off of gravel. Oh my days.

Back in the day, one of the leading F1 team principals was a man called Ron Dennis. He was famed for being very particular - his drivers weren't allowed facial hair, for example. The anecdote used every single time to illustrate his fussiness was that he had his gravel sent away twice a year to be washed.

I'm with @parietal - add a bit more gravel and rake it regularly, but the outside isn't meant to be clean.

The OP rents so it's really down to her landlord

So she should call her landlord and tell them that the gravel "looks a bit mucky"?

Put a layer of larger pebbles over the top, it cleans off nicely in the rain or with a watering can.

Don’t use bleach! No wonder the water courses are in such a state with idiots bleaching their gardens.🙄

This! I hate how badly people treat the environment.

Bleach becomes inert very quickly when exposed to light, check your chemistry.

Anyway when you're renting it's accepted practice to contact the landlord.

Yes bleach degrades in sunlight but the bleach is not staying on the surface of the stones. It will be draining off and sinking into the soil beneath where it causes environmental damage.