Gardens
Grit and determination
Ursula Buchan
0 ne of the more consoling aspects of writing a gardening column is the corre- spondence I receive from readers. Hidden away, as I am for much of the time, in an ivory bower, these letters open a window on the wide world of gardening. And not just here but abroad. In the last ten years, I have received several letters from, usually titled, expatriates living along the choicer reaches of the Mediterranean.
The latest letter to arrive is from an Englishwoman in Tuscany, whom, as she does not say whether she is Mrs or Miss, I strongly suspect of being a modestly- inclined Lady. She would like advice about making a new gravel bed on ground never gardened before; her concern is how to minimise weeding and watering on what she says, and I can believe, is very dry land. It is very nice of her to ask for my advice. However, as we in this country have adopt- ed 'gravel gardening' after observing the way plants grow in the wild in southern Europe while on our hols, I only hope that no one will think that I am taking San- giovese to Graves.
Gravel sets off plants well, and looks clean and fresh especially after rain. It is as suitable in town as in country, but works particularly well in gardens where stone is already the main building or paving material. The technical reasons why 'gravel gardening' succeeds are these. Although a surface layer of grit — because it dries quickly after rain —. gives the impression that whatever below it must be dry also, this is by no means the case. Water soaks in easily enough but the grit inhibits it from evaporating at the rate that it would from bare soil. Therefore, unlikely as it may seem, it acts as a sterile mulch, almost as much as bark chippings or cocoa shells, say.
Moreover, as the gravel shields whatever is below from the heat of the sun, a 'cool root run' is assured; Mediterranean plants, used to growing their roots under rocks, appreciate this — as do alpines from coun- tries further north, incidentally. Provided that plants are well watered when they are planted and continue to be so until the roots have become well-established, they should only need to be irrigated thereafter in prolonged spells of dry, hot weather. Yet the necks of plants remain dry in winter, which ensures the survival of many plants too tender to stick it out in a conventional border. Plants, both wanted and unwanted, seed very freely into gravel but weeds are far easier to pull out of grit than out of soil, because of the size of the air spaces. In any even, if desired, they can be hoed off easily. It is amazing how quickly a gravel bed looks mature.
In a garden I know, where many of the gravel beds are also meant to be informal paths, 75 mm (3 inches) unwashed `hoggin' has been laid and rolled, and then covered with a thin layer of washed pea gravel (a deep layer would be uncomfortable to walk on). Although a crowbar is often necessary to make holes for planting, plants flourish.
If the gravel bed is not to be walked on, it is not necessary to go to such lengths, although rolling the soil beneath if it has been well-worked in the past, prevents a bumpy surface developing. A 25 mm (1 inch) deep layer of 4 mm pea gravel should be sufficient; a tonne will give you that cover spread over about 35 square metres. Flattish stones of the same kind can be used as stepping stones.
It is wise, though not imperative, to choose plants which are natives of the Mediterranean and accustomed to summer drought and impoverished soil back home. There are plenty of them: all the grey- leaved plants like artemisias and lavenders, together with tulips, irises, cistus, sisy- rinchium, euphorbias and Grecian paeonies.
In this country, late spring is the ideal time for planting a gravel gartlen, but that would hardly do in Italy, where autumn, when the rains come, is more suitable. So my correspondent has leisure to marshal her plants, take delivery of a supply of gravel from the local quarry, recruit Mario and Pietro to push the wheelbarrows and, if necessary, borrow a crowbar, before it is time to plant. I am prepared to bet that, were she to invite her friends and neigh- bours round to admire her gravel bed this time next year, even those of rank in Tus- cany could scarce forbear to cheer.
Carmen 1994.
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