Use Slate Chippings to Enhance the Look of Your Home

Discover how slate chippings and decorative pebbles can create a beautiful and low-maintenance garden.

Fashions come and go in the world of garden design. The craze for decking and paved patio areas has created a renewed interest in using the garden as an additional room for dining, relaxing and even entertaining, so anything which makes the work of garden maintenance easier is to be welcomed. Nowadays most of us would prefer to spend our valuable free time enjoying the benefits of our gardens rather than endlessly weeding. It is possible to gain this extra time by using low maintenance products such as slate chippings or decorative pebbles.

Using coloured slate chippings for pathways, drives and patio areas adds texture and interest to your planting scheme. The flat pieces of stone are surprisingly comfortable and resilient underfoot and make a welcome change from the ubiquitous gravel and paving slabs which we are so used to seeing.

All gardeners understand the importance of providing a good mulch in order to enable border plants and shrubs to thrive. Encompassing a range of products, including bark, compost and artificial products, a surface mulch helps to preserve moisture within the soil whilst deterring predators. Slate does not provide any nutritional benefit to the soil, but is a fantastic deterrent to slugs and snails, not to mention dogs and cats prone to digging in gardens.

Where soil requires the addition of fertilisers, these should be dug into the soil before covering the area with a weed-proof membrane. Then simply add a layer of beautiful and decorative slate chippings in the colour and size of your choice and sit back to admire your garden. Weeds are unable to thrive amongst the slate, making garden maintenance a breeze.

Slate shrugs off most forms of algae, meaning that your investment will keep looking good for years to come and require only an occasional hose-down to remove surface dirt and dust. Your slate borders and pathways will keep their good looks year in, year out, adding a touch of colour and style to your garden throughout the seasons.

Browse our site to see some of the many options for buying slate chippings, gravels and decorative pebbles. Choose by size, colour or type and select from a range of delivery options, including a next-day service. We even provide a useful calculator so that you can work out the exact amount you require for the most cost-effective solution to your garden needs.

 

 

Why are decorative aggregates and play bark chippings are great for gardens used by children

Decorative aggregates are increasingly popular with parents that want a beautiful garden even though it is overrun with kids! Read on to find out why.

When it comes to having a garden that you can be proud of, you’d be surprised how difficult it is to keep a garden tidy if there are kids constantly running around in it. Many parents of young children are continuously exasperated and embarrassed at the state of their garden, especially when they compare it to their childless friends’ gardens. There is no doubt about it – children certainly leave their mark. But then again, why shouldn’t they? Surely the garden is a place for all of the family to enjoy, and while they are running about it in they are enjoying some much-needed fresh air and exercise.

Many parents are discovering that the solution that keeps everybody happy is decorative aggregates. Using garden additions such as bark chippings and slate chippings means that they can turn their garden into a place that is suitable for children and adults alike. Read on to find out why.

Less Mess

Decorative aggregates are the perfect solution for a tidy garden because they create far less mess. Rather than soil in the flowerbeds which gets easily spilt and kicked about, bark chippings and slate chippings tend to stay in one place. This is still the case even in high winds and pouring rain. Using these decorative aggregates and play bark chippings means that everything in the garden stays where it should be, no matter what.

Safer

Parents choose bark chippings to place under children’s play equipment because it provides such a safe landing. The adults can get on with their jobs safe in the knowledge that the children will be okay if they fall. Simply build a rubber or wooden border around the play area in order to keep the chippings contained and you have a dedicated play area (which will go a long way towards keeping the kids out of other areas of the garden!)

More Attractive

Not only are play bark chippings safer and more practical for gardens with kids running around, but they also add a wonderful design feature to any garden. Practical solutions which are also beautiful are in short supply, so it’s no wonder that this option is so popular with so many people.

Decorate aggregates are the perfect addition to your garden if you have children flying around. For more ideas on how they could feature in your garden, simply speak to the experts at Stones4Homes. They will be happy to advise you further on the many benefits of these surprisingly low-cost garden features.

 

 

Why every landscape gardener has bark chippings in their arsenal!

Ask any successful landscape gardener and they will tell you that they always have a good supply of bark chippings. Read on to find out why they are so popular.

When it comes to landscape gardening, anybody involved in this busy industry knows that it’s all about creativity, design and thinking outside of the box. The landscape gardeners that are really making their mark in the gardening world are the ones who are constantly looking for new techniques, state of the art machinery and equipment, and exceptional materials to carry out their job. It’s not just about moving a lawn and weeding a few flowerbeds – this is conceptual art and design for gardens and it’s all about trends, fashion and style.

Bark chippings have long been favoured by forward thinking landscape gardeners because of its attractiveness as well as the fact that it provide a low-maintenance garden solution which customers simply love. It has a multitude of uses, the most popular of which is probably as a flowerbed filler. Rather than soil which is messy and easy for weeds to penetrate, bark chippings provide a great place for plants to thrive without weeds taking over. Because it retains more moisture than soil and also allows water to filtrate rather than to gather in one place, they are also a nutrient-rich and effective way of landscaping.

Not only are bark chippings great for flowerbeds but they are also brilliant flooring material for children’s play areas. Providing a soft landing pad and also costing a fraction of the price it would cost to turf an area, bark chippings are far superior in many ways to traditional play park floorings such as concrete.

Landscape gardeners also like to use decorative gravel and even decorative pebbles for a really interesting and unique design element to their clients’ gardens. These are attractive, versatile, low-maintenance and available in an assortment of styles, textures and designs. It’s no wonder that these wonderful garden additions are in such high demand.

Landscape gardeners understand that if they want to stay ahead of their competitors and maintain a reputation for excellence then it is vital that they use the finest on-trend materials. This is why any well-regarded landscape gardener will always have access to bark chippings along with other garden design aggregates, Stones4Homes offer all of these at very competitive prices.

However, you don’t need a landscape gardener to create your very own designer garden. To find out more about how these could benefit your garden, call the experts at Stones4Homes who will be more than happy to advise you and talk you through the available options for your garden.

 

Your garden and mulching

It is almost the time of year where our garden would benefit greatly from some mulching....

The time of year is fast approaching where it is the perfect opportunity to create a beautiful design in your garden to see the rest of the year through. During the late spring time our garden soil and compost is at its best quality to get the most out of your plants and flowers. This is achieved by mulching, which is the process of placing a layer of bark chippings (or aggregate of your choice) over your soil to help protect and enhance your plants. Mulching should be avoided in early spring and winter as the soil is too cold and in the summer it is too dry to achieve the best result. Here at Stones4Homes we want to tell you why mulching is a great opportunity to get the most out of your garden.

Mulching with our high quality bark chippings will save you time and effort in the long run. It does this by enriching the soil and protecting the roots of your plants meaning you can worry less about replanting and maintenance. Mulching will also supress weed growth where you have planted which means less time weeding to keep up the appearance of your garden. It really is a great way to beautify the look of your outdoor space in a way that is so easy to achieve. Bark chippings are a great choice as they keep your flower beds and borders looking neat and maintained all year round. They also add a decorative appeal to your garden which can be enhanced by adding some decorative stones around your borders.

Mulching is also a fantastic way of keeping the garden looking stunning all year round. Whether its harsh frosty mornings, or a sun soaking day, with our bark chippings laid over your soil you can still get the best out of your plants. During those hot summer days, you needn’t worry about constant watering of your plants as mulches encourage beneficial soil organisms to help improve the quality of your soil and help retain moisture during this season. This is achieved by virtue of bark chippings being a biodegradable product meaning when they gradually break down, nutrients will be released into the soil. During those harsh, cold winters, mulches will protect roots from extreme temperatures so your garden will stand proudly come rain or shine.

Why not get the best out of this lasting garden design and incorporate some decorative gravel? Although this non-biodegradable mulch will not boost the fertility of your soil, it does prevent weeds and helps retain moisture, not to mention its’ visually pleasing aspect. You can incorporate a range of our decorative aggregates for this purpose, all available at Stones4Homes.



Luxury Ornamental Bark enhances the appearance of your garden as well as cutting down on the need to weed!