Laying slate chippings

Hi. The bottom half of my garden was extremely overgrown with well established brambles, nettles etc. we've dug it over and pulled out as many roots as possible. We intend to cover the area with slate chippings. I've been advised to hire a 'Whacker' and go over the soil, then lay membrane. The plastic tarpaulin type and pierce it all over, then cover with Scalpings, go over with the Whacker again then add the slate chippings. Does that sound right?

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

I'd go with a proper geotex type material, if there's any couch grass roots left in there they'll be straight thru the holes in the tarp

It's not very expensive, you can buy it by the metre at most garden centres

 

Wow! That sounds much easier. I was told to use Scalpings to cut down on the cost of the slate as it's quite a large area. Have raked it all over and levelled it but it's soft under foot.

 

Might pay to just tread it down like you were making an onion bed first then

Tried to find a vid of someone doing it, but this chap uses a spade at about 5.56 in the film

 

I'm intending to use 40mm slate chippings. What depth do you think is needed? The area will just be walked over.