Dog-friendly alternatives to lawn

I did have some slate and I do like it but not sure how it holds up under foot traffic, it does slide around, I found.

 

Hi,

I thought I would provide an update.

The dogs seem to be fine with slate so that's probably what I will go for, though I am still considering some "ice blue pebbles". I am dreading the delivery process - the street is rather narrow and last time they also blocked the shared drive. I plan to pay extra (£90!) for Saturday delivery, so that I can use it right away and minimise the disruption.

Regarding membrane, there are some good arguments against it (e.g. it negatively affects soil quality), but I have decided to use it. The main reason is that it stops dirt from rising up. At some point I was looking into the option of compacted finer gravel and sand as an alternative to stopping the weeds, but I think there would be lightly coloured dirt rising which would be noticeable on the blue slate.

On Saturday I divided a big carex and planted in the area that will be covered in gravel. I do want to have more planting but the rest will probably be done at a later date.

Next step will be to decide on border edging, then remove the lawn in that area, put the membrane down and order the slate chippings. As I work full time, it probably will take a while.

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

Hi,

I thought it would be nice, if someone runs into this thread in the future, to see an "in progress" update. I am just waiting for the slate chippings to be delivered on Saturday and come Spring I want to add more pockets of planting

I will follow up with a further update when I have laid the slate chippings.

 

The slate chippings should really go well with your patio, @CostasK!

 

Thank you

 

Hi. I thought I would post another update.

The slate chippings were delivered on Saturday. It took me hours to lay them because I wanted to do it well. It was exhausting & not great for my back but I finally got to the point where you wash the stones to reveal their real look and sit back to admire the fruit of your labour..

Expect I was in for a disappointment. Basically all of the chippings have stripes of another stone, which is white. Of course I was expecting some imperfections as it is a natural material but not the whole 1.7 tonnes of slate to be striped. I hate it. It looks as if the garden is covered in striped hard candy instead of slate. To have spent so many hours preparing the area, doing the border edging and then laying the chippings for such a result is very disappointing. I have emailed the supplier and I am waiting to hear what they say.


In addition to that, it really is crying out for more plants (especially near the border with the lawn) but I have to wait till spring. Right now it looks pretty boring and doesn't sit right next to the area of lawn.


The dogs don't seem to mind the chippings too much, but they always walk through it to get to the lawn instead and like to stay there. Some training might help.

So all in all, it's been pretty disheartening. On the other hand, compared to other things in life, this is hardly a drama. And I do have a plan :

1. Remove some of the chippings at the top and replace with better quality ones, that I will buy as individual bags from my garden center.
2. Add a lot more plants.
3. Add a little path with stepping stones leading to the patio circle, for a bit more visual interest. I quickly threw some stepping stones on top of the chippings just to help me visualise that, but I haven't done it properly yet.

Don't you just hate it when a plan doesn't come together? But there's no going back, I will just have to do whatever is needed to make it a success in the end. This isn't over.

 

Oh @CostasK that's so annoying! I have plum slate at the front of my house, and there are absolutely no white streaks. And the slate I "acquired" from the sides of the road in north Wales has no streaks either. You need to pursue this strongly with the supplier - you've wasted money and effort. Hope you get some comeback.

 

@Alex Bain you've posted about your mower in an unrelated thread. I suggest you look through the forum to find the appropriate one otherwise you'll get no help

 

Thank you very much @CarolineL. I was quite firm in my email. I told them this should not have been shipped to a customer and that it looks awful. I asked for a partial refund to at least make up for the cost to replace the top layer of slate. What they will say I don't know, or whether they'll even respond. Hopefully I won't have to call them on top of it.

 

That’s a big disappointment for you @CostasK. Trying to be positive, the good thing is that the grey in those chips does match your paving well. The darker coloured slate can be slightly depressing. Your supplier should offer a replacement or refund if the slate doesn’t match the original description. If you don’t get a satisfactory response from the supplier and you paid by credit card (over £100) you should contact your credit card provider. I’m not sure that adding a layer of unstriped slate will work, with time the two will merge. I know that doesn’t help but it should strengthen your request for a replacement or refund.

 

Thanks for the advice @Plantminded

I am not hugely optimistic based on the information about their refund policy here: Returns, Refunds and Cancellations | Stone & Surfaces Direct | Stone & Surfaces Direct. Obviously I'm not going to re-package nearly 2 tonnes of slate chippings and put it on pallets! (Plus, I have gotten rid of the bulk bags).

I don't think I was too soft on them in my email. This is part of it:

"There were always going to be chippings with imperfections. However I wasn't expecting my full order to be in this state. This should not have been shipped to a customer. I have ordered the same product from you before and the difference was very stark, the past order had some imperfections as expected but overall looked in line with expectations and the photos on the website and I was a happy customer, hence the fact that I decided to order again. This time, the quality is completely different.

It really looks awful, in real life it's even worse than the photos (attached) - it's as if I have laid my garden with striped hard candy instead of slate chippings. To have that result after the hard work I put into preparing the area and then laying the chippings is very disappointing. It gives me a bad feeling in my stomach whenever I step to my garden."

Let's see what they say...

 

Different maybe but when working we made some oak doors for a customer, the oak was quarter sawn and showed good figure, at least we thought it did, the wife said it looked awful and wanted it replaced for "ordinary" stuff, we ended up replacing the doors at the cost of the company.
Really all I'm saying is its a natural product, if you want plastic buy plastic.

 

Hi @pete

I get that, and I definitely wasn't expecting slate without imperfections because I was well aware that I was buying a natural product. It's not my first time buying slate chippings... But there has to be a level of quality control as well. If you have extracted slate that is mixed with another stone to such a high percentage, you should not turn it to chippings and sell it.

As for the "plastic" comment, I am not sure if that was in reference to the incident you described or the slate chippings. I definitely do not want plastic nor am unrealistic. I want a natural product but of a reasonable quality. We can discuss and agree to disagree on what constitutes reasonable quality, but that's not quite the same.

 

The terms of their refund policy look fair. As you are a returning customer they may be more lenient and offer a partial refund. I hope you get a satisfactory response.

 

Oh, that’s really a shame, @CostasK. I can see why you are disappointed. I agree a layer over the top may not work to cover the white for long. My only suggestion would be to actually add a small quantity of white chippings, scattered through the grey. You could try a small area first and see if it works.