How do you choose the best gravel for your garden when you’re creating a driveway, path or border? There are many factors to think about including color, texture and durability. This article should help to guide your decision to making the right choice for your landscaping project.

Gravel can be a relatively low cost landscaping material for covering large areas, or for adding decorative finishing touches to outdoor areas.

There are a few key questions to ask yourself when choosing the right gravel for your garden.

What are you using your gravel for?
Gravels for Driveways
If you need to accommodate wheels, choose a gravel that is either very fine and compact such as Goldpath, or larger angular chippings that are 14mm or 20mm in size as these will bed together forming a flatter surface.

Rounded stones will not form a compacted base for heavy wheel traffic. Smaller gravels (10mm or less) can get caught in your tyre and shoe treads and move more easily.

Gravels for Paths
Smaller sized, rounded aggregates such as pea gravel, roll underfoot and can get stuck in wheels, making it difficult for you to navigate prams and wheelchairs.
We suggest you also use a 14mm or 20mm gravel for pathways as these are easier to walk on.

Gravels for Borders
You can use gravel as a border for paving, grass or plant beds. If the area isn’t going to be walked on then any size chipping is suitable.
We suggest you choose gravels that compliment your planting or patio scheme. You can add height and interest to these areas with larger cobbles, pebbles and boulders.
If you want to help plants grow you can create a protective mulch layer with slate chippings.

Can I lay it myself?
Gravel driveways and paths are easy to create yourself and you can find out how in our short video here or download our pdf guide.
Alternatively you can hire a skilled landscape contractor to make sure the installation is done professionally. Gravel should ideally be installed on a compacted base with a weed membrane underneath the gravel to keep it clean.

What colour gravel should I choose?
Once you have chosen the right type and size of gravel for your needs, you can get creative and start to think about the colour and design of your project. Make sure that your choice compliments hard landscaping features such as paving.

Warm coloured gravels such as Onyx, Flamingo Chippings or Apricot Gravel have a Mediterranean feel and can light up a small garden. You can use bright tones like Polar White to make your garden feel more spacious. Whilst cool tones such as Polar Ice and Skye Marble would make flower beds and foliage stands out though contrast.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of a particular product to your application, our friendly sales team are just a phone call away to answer your queries.