Replacing/replenishing gravel & weed barrier matting

So - this will be the first of many questions I will be posting on this awesome site! Unfortunately, having moved into my terraced house in South Wales around 4 years ago, when the garden was neat, tidy and generally lovely, I then had to live in temporary accommodation for nearly a year after a house fire. To say my mind was 'elsewhere' is something of an understatement and, tbh, the garden was totally neglected for nearly two years. I now have a new fence coming in April (yay! Hopefully at least a partial barrier to my neighbour's brambles?!) so am starting to try and knock it back into shape. Apart from the flower beds (which is a whole other story), much of the garden is laid to gravel - unfortunately, without any weed barrier matting underneath it! Consequently, there are now many weeds/grass growing up, plus the gravel itself is looking rather colourless. So, as funds are very limited, I am planning on 'scraping back' the old gravel, doing what I can to rid the soil of weeds, putting down the weed barrier, and then either just 'replenishing' the existing gravel, or maybe replacing it all together. My question is, what weed barrier matting? Also, I've read that it's NOT a good idea to have weed barrier underneath flower beds (due to difficulty in removing the weeds that do still grow, mould, and bugs/pests)...would you all agree with that?

 

Just use a heavy duty weed membrane. regarding the gravel depending on if you want to change it colour I would reuse it, if its a bit grubby you could try and blast it off with a hose in a wheel barrow ( it will need a few holes in the bottom of it ) or some similar to make a giant sieve .

I am personally dead against membranes in flowerbeds not really for the reasons you've mentioned , mould bugs and pest aren't a problem with weed membrane. In my opinion it just gets in the way and give a dotted effect on small herbaceous plants, its difficult to change planting if you change your mind, I have seen the odd good one and it looks ok with a shrub border but not for me. If you use bark as well it will break down and make a lay on top of the membrane for weeds to grow instead, same can happen with stones/gravel over time dust / leaves etc get blown onto it they break down which eventually creates a seed bed for weeds.

Pictures are always helpful for members to give more specific advise. And welcome to the forum

 

In my opinion synthetic weed barriers are more trouble than they are worth so I think you should consider not using one at all. There are still weed plants that will grow regardless of matting being used and when an area with weed matting is left unattended it often makes its way to the surface where it does not look very good.

 

Thanks guys - so are you both saying I shouldn't put weed membrane under the gravel either?

 

That's my opinion anyway. We have an area of driveway here that is similar to gravel with recycled road surface material used and I just keep the weeds under control by picking them out with finger and thumb and maybe a trowel if I allow one or two get a bit too big. If there was a membrane down under this area it would definitely have come to the surface in places with the way the material has shifted over time. I see these membranes very often showing in commercially landscaped areas and they can look terrible. It is not to every ones taste but I also allow some flowers self seed on the gravel which would damage a weed membrane.

Happy gardening!