Should I slate-chip this area?

This area is a corner of my front forecourt garden. I'm fed up of the weeds and am keen to make the base more attractive. I'm considering laying down either slate or bark chips. All I have learned is - bark chips can be placed on top of soil and may not stop weeds coming through, but slate chips require weed lining first.

What I'd like to know is - should I really be considering slate chips, since there are plants, not in containers, to be retained in this area? How would these shrubs take water if there is weed liner and slate down? Would I slate everywhere but leave the bases of the shrubs and trees unchipped? Perhaps at the base apply some bark chips instead? The combo could look quite good.
Plants you see in the pictures:

• Front hedge.
• Flowering shrub - pyrus of some kind, apparently?
• Rhododendron.
• Sweet-smelling, white-flowering shrub, growing awkwardly in background.
• Large conifer-type tree.
• Smaller tree, which is impinging on the larger tree and I think I should remove.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

If it were me that conifer would be coming out - that Rhodo looks quite poorly next to it so you might want to think about moving it elsewhere. I'd then fill the border chock full of plants so there'd be no space for weeds

Back to your original question, bark chips would be your best bet, not least because slate chippings would look out of place whereas bark would blend in.

 

Thanks for your reply.
Personal choice, perhaps, but am interested in why you think slate might look out of place...
Good stuff.

 

Personal preference obviously but I think it would look out of place because it's quite a 'traditional' setting and the bark chippings would blend in with the colour palette

 

Slate chips would look really great for the first six months,but as they get older and get covered in debris as they most certainly would ,they would look tatty IMHO.
Bark for me.

 

I would go with the slate, if you make it deep enough you won't need a weed control fabric. Bark tends to get messy as it ages and you'll find birds will toss it around looking for grubs, insects etc. I've used paddle stones around plants in my front lawn and I think the weight is keeping the weeds down.



Personally I would remove the large conifer and keep the smaller one. The larger one looks as if it's starting to die from the base and once they start to go the whole tree tends to follow.

The flowering shrub is a Pieris.

 

Slate for me as bark gets thrown all over the place with blackbirds being the worst culprits. Also most bark just rots away quickly .

 

I would take out the two conifers, the paving slabs and put down slate chippings. Blackbirds toss bark chips all over the tarmac. Maybe have a two tone effect by using slate chippings in conjunction with another differently coloured stone. I have seen that done to considerable effect.

The nicest effect of all is leaf mould but again, blackbirds distribute that all over the place. Leaf mould looks lovely and natural and conditions the soil but has to be applied annually.