Replacing gravel in yard - paving, AstroTurf, something else?

[IAmACuboid]

We live in a Victorian terrace with a very small back garden/yard (approx 5x3m), there's York stone paving up the side of the kitchen which extends round across the back to the gate, with brick edging. The rest of the garden is gravelled, with fairly nasty sharp flinty stuff. In the past the gravel has been a giant cat litter tray and is now very shallow and scruffy.

DS2 is crawling, and now we have two I imagine I'll need eyes in the back of of my head to stop him putting the gravel in his mouth, plus it's horrible to walk on.

I would like to pave it over before the summer with either brick or more York stone, DH is keen on AstroTurf, and I wondered if there are any other options I'm overlooking?

I was thinking of leaving 6" of gravel around the edge as runoff and maybe a few missing bricks/gaps for planting herbs in.

do think what happens if you put an impermeable surface down. Much as I hate astroturf, I think you can get it with holes in to let the water through.

I think it will be difficult to get cat muck out of Astroturf.

Consider paving.

I expect your gravel is small pea-shingle or broken stone with no binder.
If you had it replaced with proper rolled gravel, which includes sand and clay to form an amorphous, solid mass, it will not kick about.

If you think DS will eat gravel, he can still eat it from a 6" edge strip.

As you live in a Victorian house and it's a small area, I would definitely go for a courtyard effect and have the whole thing paved with nice stone. Then you can soften the effect with lots of nice containers.

We have a bigger garden and part of it is done like this and I love it. We also have a couple of areas with astroturf which I don't like so much but we have it in places where we've given up trying to get grass to grow - such as an area under some trees. Also it's further away from the house so it gives a nice green effect when you look out of the window. I wouldn't want it immediately outside my back door though and the only thing in the garden. Also, we have a lot of trees so the astroturf gets a nice sprinkling of leaves, twigs etc which softens the look of it.

Friends have a very small garden which was paved when they moved in to the house. They took up the paving and put down gravel with planters which looked lovely but was really impractical with small children and they now have AstroTurf which looks great. Get the most expensive one you can, there is a big difference between the cheap and more expensive versions.

I would get AstroTurf as it is nicer for little ones.

Thank you for all your replies!
Surprised to see that more of you lean towards AstroTurf, I think I need to go check some out in person.

PigletJohn sadly not pea shingle, just jagged cheap gravel, mostly 1"-2" long, really not meant for garden use IMO. The previous owners cut a lot of corners in their DIY, quite a few cheap shortcuts.
DH reckons we could hose down/scrub AstroTurf with disinfectant if the cat issue came up again. He would prefer a softer surface for the boys to play on.

I guess I was wondering if there was some softer composite surface like playgrounds use maybe? Definitely not keen on bark chippings tho due to cat issue!

Off to Google AstroTurf versions now!

You can get your garden paved with the rubber tiles they use in playgrounds. I'm not sure they'd look better than asteroids though!

True Daisy, but then I'm not sure asteroids would look great either!

I've just been searching for artificial grasses and some look pretty good actually, soft touch and not all bright green. I beginning to be persuaded...

I just want to be able to sit on the ground in my own garden without flint digging into my legs! Gravel's for driveways not gardens! (IMO)

Haha, bloody auto correct! Though if I had the option of having my garden done with asteroids I'd go for it,wouldn't they be all sparkly and lovely!