We built a GRAVEL GARDEN | South-facing terraces & DRY STONE WALLS on our steep hill

This is the story of how we turned the neglected crumbling terraces on the hill in front of our house into a delightful terraced gravel garden. We ripped out the old concrete blocks, built new dry stone walls from local stone along reshaped curved lines, added a small pond, laid gravel pathways, planted garden beds with shrubs, perennials and grasses and created a secluded sheltered seating area.
Gravel gardens are often associated with Mediterranean style plantings. Here in Mid Wales typical drought tolerant plants tend to struggle in our wet climate so over the years we have adapted our plantings to suit the weather conditions.
In this video we look at the gravel garden planning and design, the build, plants and plant combinations throughout the seasons.
Our organic garden is on a steep hillside in the Upper Severn Valley near Llanidloes in Mid Wales in the UK where we enjoy a temperate climate.
0:00 Introduction
1.17 Life before the gravel garden
1.57 Inspiration and planning
3.39 Design, layout and materials
4.21 The practice dry stone wall
4.55 Building the terraces
5.20 The dry stone walls
5.58 Dry stone steps
6.30 Laying the gravel
7.16 The small pond
7.29 Planting up
10.51 Creating a seating area
11.08 Other features
11.32 Through the seasons
12.19 Issues
14.01 In conclusion
Tune
Orange in Bloom - traditional tune played by Graham Brand on cittern.
My Twitter | / jacnewey
My Facebook | / jac.newey.9

[@nicholasryan5401]

Beautiful looking the garden, Its the bees knees.

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

We looked up the expression "bees knees" as we couldn't remember its origin. Apparently the pollen collected on bees' knees is thought to be especially nutritious! How wonderful! Thanks for your lovely comment 🐝🐝🐝🙂🙃🙂

[@MattUFL]

Beautiful garden and an amazing transformation from those initial photos. Well done; it looks like a very relaxing place to spend time.

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

Thanks it's been hard work but it keeps us fit and we love spending time here 😀💚

[@jossgreen9318]

How fab! What wonderful inspiration your garden is!

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

Thank you - it's great fun being creative in the garden - it's our playground really! 😄

[@brooklynnygarden]

This was a labour of love and you are reaping the benefits! Beautiful!😍

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

That's a brilliant way of describing it! Thanks for your lovely comment 😊

[@pinkpoodle7100]

Your property is amazing, such a labor of love!! Thank you for sharing. I’ll be saving this video to watch multiple times. Thank you for Boston, USA❤️

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

Hiya, so glad you enjoyed it - lovely to hear from folk over in Boston, USA! Thanks for watching and commenting ☺

[@susanpaynton8734]

Hi Jaci. Love the video of your garden. I wonder if you might be interested in opening it for us (the NGS) next year? Love to have a chat with you about it. We met at Llanidloes Open Gardens. Best wishes Susan

[@stevegreenwood8168]

Thank you for the inspiration.

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

That's lovely that you found it inspiring, thanks! 😊

[@TheTreeHugger1]

Lovely video! Much thanks! It might be better if you separated the two narration voices more. Maybe per part, or at least per paragraph.
The constantly changing voices made it harder for me to concentrate on what was said. Though it might be due to english not being my first language.

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

Thanks for your suggestion - we'll have a think about this for future videos 👍

[@beccabuchalter8719]

Your videos are wonderful, thank you for sharing.

[@TheTenterhookTimes]

Thanks for watching and so glad you enjoyed finding out about our gravel garden! 😃👍