ROOM TO BLOOM
PAVING, gravel or pebbles have been laid over many front gardens, usually for the convenience of parking cars off the street. But do those frontages need to look so deadly dull?
The answer is no. The scene is easily made more attractive if small plants are grown in cracks and gaps where they will soften the look of hard landscaping. Many spread, usually by seeding themselves.
There is a wide choice of plants, among them the familiar purple aubrieta; sweet alyssum, either the common white type or a coloured-kind like lavender-pink Easter Bonnet; thyme varieties such as Bressingham Pink, which smells great when trodden on; lesser periwinkle – the variegated kind looks best; trailing rock rose helianthemum; and the daisy-like fleabane Erigeron karvinskianus, which is easier to plant than to say and self-seeds freely.
These all remain small while looking good for much of the year and needing very little nutrient because they originally grew on rocks and cliffs where they survived on tiny amounts of food and water.
Some tolerate being trampled by passing feet. In general, the more low and spreading a plant’s growth habit, the less it will suffer when trodden on. They can be planted in cracks or gaps in paving, or slabs can be removed to create gaps for them.
There must be enough space to insert the roots without damaging them as well as some rich soil or loam-based potting compost such as John Innes No 2. Settle the plants in with a light trickle of water and repeat this whenever the weather is dry until they are established.
Less common plants will also grow in paving or gravel. Achillea, best known as a large herbaceous plant with flat yellow flower heads, has small, tough relatives ideal for paving.
Achillea chrysocoma is a vigorous spreader with golden flower heads while Achillea x huteri makes neat hummocks of grey-green leaves and has white flowers. They grow no taller than 15cm (6in) and bloom from May through summer.
More delicate kinds include Acaena adscendens, with ferny foliage and rustyred, burr-like flowers on red trailing stems;
Acaena caesiiglauca, with silky blue-grey leaves; Antennaria parvifolia, which produces white, fluffy flowers on 15cm (6in) stems; Erinus alpinus, the tiny ‘fairy foxglove’, with spikes of purple, pink or white flowers on 5cm (2in) stems from early summer; and the miniature Phlox subulata which grows a mat of fresh green foliage and copious pink flowers.
Small forms of stonecrops, such as
Sedum spurium, and the common houseleeks, Sempervivum tectorum, usually seen in pots or on roofs, will grow in paving spaces and gravel.