Gravel gardens are now largely forbidden. And that's a good thing, because they harm people and the environment. You can find out how to remove the remains from days gone by here.
In the following we deal with a phenomenon that some garden owners describe as modern, others as simply horrible: It's about the so-called gravel gardens. This sparks many a conversation, because one thing is clear: you are either for the rocky desert or against it. We get to the bottom of the trend.
What is a gravel garden?
To clear up any misunderstandings: stones are often used in garden design and the resulting gardens can vary greatly. This is now about the modern gravel garden. In contrast to other rock garden variants, the type of garden design referred to as a gravel garden is neither used for the cultivation of special plants nor for meditative relaxation or artistic-spiritual examination of the element stone.
But: Gravel gardens are intentionally kept very simple. There are no differences in height, area orientation, water or planting areas. On an area covered with gravel there are several larger rocks and isolated grasses or shrubs, the latter mostly in topiary. The reason for creating such a garden is often the desire for a clean and tidy look and the simultaneous expectation of minimal maintenance. For this reason, front gardens in particular are often designed as gravel gardens.
The following are the alleged benefits of gravel gardens, why they are so popular at the moment and what critics think of them. Since gravel open spaces are not permitted by the building regulations in almost all federal states and therefore, strictly speaking, may not be created, we explain at the end of this article how you can keep a green garden easy to care for.
Gravel garden or rock garden?
A few stones in theOf course, gardens do not make it a gravel desert. There are clear demarcations between gravel and rock gardens.
In the rock garden, the focus is on the vegetation. Alpine or drought-tolerant plants, such as the Caucasian goose cress (Arabis caucasica) or the alpine aster (Aster alpinus), establish themselves in stone gaps and cover them with it barren rock. The creation of a rock garden is to be welcomed insofar as it creates a habitat for specialized plants and animals. That's why we've put together some tips for you later on.
A gravel garden, on the other hand, is like a tragedy in terms of environmental friendliness. Plants are largely undesirable here. If a few specimens are found, then they are usually species that cannot be used by the native fauna or that are rendered useless by regular topiary.
Why are gravel gardens trendy?
Like many other areas, there are fads in the garden. The gravel garden suggests a welcome ease of care in a fast-paced world where most people have little time for chores outside of work. Appearances are deceptive, however, because a gravel garden requires a lot more attention than you think.
Disadvantages: What speaks against gravel gardens?
Unfortunately, the hopes of modern front garden designers are almost always disappointed. In fact, the ease of maintenance of a gravel garden never lasts for long with us.
Gravel gardens take a lot of work:
- Algae develop first on the stones, and leaves and other organic matter accumulate in the joints.
- The result is an Eldorado for wild herbs. If you don't want to let them proliferate, you have to have the entire area renewed after a few more years of regular fight against the green flood - or resort to total herbicide directly. By the way: Since gravel surfaces are probably considered to be paved surfaces, the application of herbicides or even just household vinegar could be punished with a fine of up to 50,000 euros if a subtle neighbor is out for trouble.
Gravel gardens are bad for the environment:
- Gravel gardens are home to only a few selected plants and offer none to animalsHide and insects no food. In addition, they heat up so much in summer that there are real death zones for all living things.
- They also reflect sunlight during the day, which leads to heating of the adjacent buildings and reduced living comfort.
- Gravel areas - unlike green areas - can only store a small amount of rainwater. This can lead to basement flooding, especially during heavy rain events, especially if the ground beneath the gravel surface is rather impermeable.
- A lack of plants leads to increased fine dust pollution: A gravel garden has no filter function, so it indirectly causes poor air quality.
- Sound waves are not swallowed but bounced back, making the environment louder.
Gravel gardens are prohibited:
- In addition to the problems that accumulate over the years in the joints of the gravel, there is also the fact that the creation of a gravel garden with little or no planting is not permitted in almost all of Germany, as you will see directly below be experienced.
Are gravel gardens forbidden?
When talking about a ban on rock gardens, the gravel gardens that are hardly planted and theoretically also the Zen gardens that are just as sparsely planted are meant.
However, it does not necessarily need a new ban to declare the gravel gardens illegal, because in fact they are not permitted in almost all of Germany anyway. With the exception of Saxony-Anh alt and Bremen, all German federal states stipulate in their building regulations that areas that are not built over must be greened. Only functional fortifications such as driveways or paths are exempt from this regulation. Instead, Bremen forbids the defacement of open spaces that are not built over, which means that the vast majority of gravel gardens should not be permitted even in the small city-state. However, the existing regulations are simply ignored by a number of property owners and the executing companies also do not point out the violation of the applicable building regulations. The consistent enforcement of the existing regulation by the respective state government should actually be a matter of course, since it serves to preserve valuable natural areas in building areas.
Convert gravel gardens: low-maintenance alternatives
Under the ballast there is at least one MyPex foil, often also fleece, to separate ballast and soil. These dividing layers must be breached or removed to allow larger plants to establish themselves. Because this means a lot of work, it is advisable to carry out a conversion piece by piece for large areas. Part of the area can be used for succulents with substrate between the stones, another part can be completely dismantled and planted.
Redesign gravel garden: An existing gravel garden can be transformed into an environmentally friendly variant. On the one hand there is the possibility of planting rock garden plants such as sedum (Sedum) and houseleeks (Sempervivum). You can establish yourself between the gravel stones. Such succulents can cope with little water and nutrients, defy high levels of sunlight and suppress weed growth. They are therefore ideally suited to beautify dreary gravel gardens with little maintenance. Shrubs, bushes, perennials and ornamental grasses can also be planted. Depending on how much organic material is already in the gravel surface, you may have to help a little, i.e. distribute the substrate. Our Plantura organic universal soil is suitable for this. It has a balanced mixing ratio of the most important plant nutrients and can be used all year round. Due to its peat-free nature, it ensures good growth conditions for all kinds of plants in your garden. Simply distribute the soil between the stones and put in the undemanding succulents. For plants that need a deeper soil, the foil and fleece can be cut open at certain points, holes can be dug and filled with substrate.
Rebuild gravel garden completely: A certain amount of stones can be stacked well to form a cairn for lizards. Substrate in the cracks in the stones even allows for planting with specialized rock garden plants. However, a considerable amount of gravel will probably have to leave the garden for good. The vacated area is now completely available again.
Tips forEasy-care areas: In general, it is recommended to choose a small selection of plants in order to avoid high maintenance costs due to different requirements. Ground covers are more suitable than lawns, which sometimes have quite diverse needs. Choose robust varieties such as ice plant (Delosperma cooperi), cyclamen (Cyclamen), sage (Salvia nemorosa). ) or the mountain chickweed (Arenaria montana). Hardy and evergreen ground covers include the blue cushion (Aubrieta), the Dalmatian bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana) or the rockseed (Lithodora ).
Flower meadows for minimal maintenance:
Flower meadows are ideal for redesigning former gravel gardens. At Plantura we offer you three different seed mixtures. Depending on personal taste, the bee pasture, the beneficial insect magnet or the butterfly meeting place can be sown. They are all suitable for a partially shaded to sunny place and only need to be cut once a year. The flower meadows are ecologically valuable as they provide food for our beneficial insects in the garden over a long period from May to September. In order to create a flower meadow, the foil and fleece should be removed.
Choose easy-care perennials:
The woolly Ziest (Stachys byzantina), the pearl basket, grows on rather nutrient-poor soils (Anaphalis triplinervis), the flower daisy (Origanum laevigatum) or the dwarf lady's mantle (Alchemilla erythropoda ). The sun bride (Helenium), the lady's mantle (Alchemilla), the golden sheaf (Achillea filipendulina) have a higher nutrient requirement ), steppe sage (Salvia nemorosa) or catnip (Nepeta cataria), but they are also suitable for sunny locations. For more rock garden plants to enhance the gravel garden, see our Rock Garden Plants article.
Pay attention to quality when buying plants:
In general, roses require a lot of care. However, if you choose robust varieties, you can reduce it. So-called ADR roses are subjected to a qualitative test, which is used to evaluate characteristics such as flowering, growth habit, winter hardiness or resistance to leaf diseases. This allows you to choose a robust variety.
Also a place to go forhigh-quality plants and good advice are perennial nurseries and tree nurseries on site. Because these producers can put together suitable and well-harmonised, easy-care sets for you and deliver proven varieties that are also well hardened by professional cultivation.
Tip: Always remember: where something grows according to plan, no weeds can spread. Therefore, do not leave any floor area uncovered. This saves you tedious weeding.
If you decide to convert your gravel garden into a rock garden, you will find more detailed information on creating a rock garden in our separate article.
If you follow these tips, a front yard without the stone desert character will become an easy-care and even ecologically valuable piece of land. Conservation in your own garden does not have to be more complex than a gravel garden. And the latter are - to be honest - simply no longer up-to-date.
You can find more information about nature conservation in the garden here.