How To Use Slate In Your Garden
If you are looking for a versatile, low maintenance landscaping product then slate could be your answer. Using slate in your garden ensures you have a wide variety of complementary products on offer. This decorative aggregate comes in a wide range of slate stone products including Slate Chippings, Paddlestones, Mini Mulch, Rockery, Monoliths and Feature Stones.
As slate is a recycled product it is also more environmentally friendly than most decorative aggregates. We offer slate products in 5 stunning colour tones, Blue, Plum, Green, Charcoal and Rustic, ensuring you will find something to suit every garden design.
Slate Ideas
Pathways
Slate chippings are great to create an easy garden path as the angular stones will bed together better than other aggregates and form a flatter surface.
Available in 20mm and 40mm sizes, we generally recommend using 20mm chippings for paths as they lie flatter and are easier to walk on than the 40mm. You could use larger slate paddlestones or rockery to edge your path and provide added interest to it.
Mulch
Slate is reflective and absorbs heat which makes it the ideal product for mulch. It will help to keep your soil cool and retain moisture in your garden during the hotter summer months.
Borders
Slate can help prevent weed growth and seed germination so is perfect to create a low-maintenance border. You can also add larger pieces of Rockery Stone or a mixture of chipping sizes and Slate Paddlestones to give visual depth to your area.
Water Features
As slate is fish friendly it is the ideal product for use in water features. Additionally the colour of the product is more vivid when it is wet.
You can easily create a water feature solely out of slate products. Slate Monoliths can be hollowed out to create a fountain and you can then decorate the base with smaller slate chippings. We also sell Tumbled Slate Stacks that are attractive ready-made fountains. Alternatively you can use slate rockery to create a waterfall feature that can also be complemented by slate chippings or mini mulch.
Pot Toppers
Using slate chippings as a top dressing for plants helps the soil retain moisture, this means you won’t have to water them as much! The variety of slate colour tones also means that it will complement all colours and styles of pots.
Ground Covering
As a low maintenance, cost effective product, slate chippings are the perfect aggregate for ground covering.
Whether you are using slate to decorate a large or small area, it will take a long time to discolour and is a fairly cheap, affordable product.
It is available in a variety of colours but for a truly effective look why not mix and match your chippings!
Use a weed membrane underneath your chippings to keep them cleaner for longer.
Planting Beds
Slate won’t change the alkaline levels in your soil so won’t kill any lime hating plants! Slate Mini-mulch is a brilliant product for use in planting beds as it is easy to sprinkle around existing plants.
Decoration around paving slabs
Slate can look stunning placed in the gaps between paving slabs and because it comes in an array of colour choices you will find something to suit most paving. Colour tones of grey/charcoal or blue perfectly complement urban paving ranges whereas the plum/ purple and green tones will complement more traditional paving choices.
Rockeries & Ponds
Use pieces of slate rockery stone to create a rockery or for decoration around a pond. As a fish friendly product it can provide a safe home for pond dwelling animals. Smaller pieces of slate can be used to provide extra interest to your rockery or pond.
Garden Features
As slate is such a versatile product, there are numerous ways in which it can be used to create a garden feature. Slate Monoliths or Tumbled Slate Stacks work brilliantly to create a focal point in your garden. Display them by themselves or complement them with smaller slate chippings or paddlestones. You could also use blue slate chippings to create a flowing steam that feeds into a blue slate rockery feature or rock garden.
Driveways
Slate is fairly durable and can be used for driveways. However it will grind down quicker than a more hardwearing material so isn’t the best product on the market for this.
Why Use Slate?
The versatility and variety of slate on the market is the best thing about this product! It is easy to match your hard landscaping products using slate and it will blend with any garden environment. We hope our blog will help you choose the right slate stone product for your project. Please see below for our helpful ‘How To Use Slate In Your Garden’ video.
