Sunny Patio Meets Shaded Woodland Retreat in a London Yard

After: Once Hugh-Jones cleared the overgrown vegetation, the yard held little beyond the mature oak tree, remnants of porcelain patio paving and a struggling lawn. She replaced the grass with gravel. “The lawn just looked untidy, and the homeowners found they were spending money on it every year,” she says. “Now there’s a lawn in the woodland area [seen in later photos] and gravel here — it works much better.

“The gravel sits within a honeycomb grid so it doesn’t kick everywhere, and it’s easier to walk on, but it still gives that lovely crunching sound,” Hugh-Jones says. “It’s much better than hard landscaping for drainage too.”

New inset paving stones connect the solid patio next to the house to the gravel paths that lead into the woodland area. “Having the paving stones running through leads you down into that space,” Hugh-Jones says. “I wanted the two spaces to merge and the beds on the right-hand side to merge into the gravel as well, keeping it very fluid.”

Choosing gravel over grass allows plants to spill over and soften the bed edges. Varieties such as Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus, zones 6 to 9), grasses and thyme have been planted directly into the gravel, adding color and structure to the pathway. In the small square bed, the taller plants are white cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus, zones 2 to 11) and ‘Amistad’ purple friendship sage (Salvia ‘Amistad’, zones 8 to 11).