Planting between paving slabs?

[Rapscallion]

Hi all,

i have some paving slabs in part of the garden that are forever growing weeds in the gaps. Could i plant something in the gaps instead? Hopefully something i find online as all garden centres are closed...

Excuse the mess, i am still in spring cleaning mode:-

[nickdub]

If you like herbs, then see what you can find seed for parsley, for example.

[quanglewangle]

We've used thyme to good effect. It needs a bit of managing: clip after flowering to promote fresh growth and so on. We raised a lot of plugs and stuck them in rather than trusting to seeding between the stones. We used a creeping variety. Needs watering in the summer.

Wonderful smell when you walk over them.


Thyme between stones

[DannyK]

Corsican mint but it won't take a lot of foot traffic.

[Snadger]

Chamomile and thyme are what I have used in the past.

[Rapscallion]

Thanks all. There will be a bit of foot traffic so i think i will have to avoid the corsican mint Danny.
Have just ordered 4200 Thymus serpyllum seeds for £1.84 delivered!
Are these best scattered over a seed compost in a propagator then transplanted once past seedling size?

[SarrissUK]

I've done both seeding in place and sowing in modules and then planting out Raps, and the direct sowing had no success at all. The modules were very successful though, but I have more gaps than stepping stones, so maybe that's why. You don't have very big gaps. Maybe rip out all the grass and push in compost mixed with seeds into the gaps and see how it goes?

[quanglewangle]

Thanks all. There will be a bit of foot traffic so i think i will have to avoid the corsican mint Danny.
Have just ordered 4200 Thymus serpyllum seeds for £1.84 delivered!
Are these best scattered over a seed compost in a propagator then transplanted once past seedling size?

I don't have any feeling in my fingertips so I can't deal with pricking out from a tray. I always use module trays.

This is what I did. Gouge out any grout and back fill with compost/topsoil mixture. Poke the module-grown seedlings into the gaps, spaced out a bit. Water well to establish them. I feed them in the spring and top dress with compost (tease it in with fingers). Remember that growing in a 10mm crevice between stones is a harsh environment, not to mention being walked on!

They will flower, hopefully, in the summer. Once the flowers start to fade clip the growth back. You have to do this with all thyme or else you get die-back in the middle of the clump and new growth at the outside.

Worth it, though.

[Chestnut]

I did something similar with our allotment path, but deliberately separated the slabs by a few inches to give the forget me nots a bit more space!

[veggiechicken]

Thanks all. There will be a bit of foot traffic

You're too young to remember but we used to play a game on he way to school where you couldn't step on the cracks between paving slabs on the pavement. Worse still, some slabs would be marked "EL" (electricity line) but we thought its meant Elephant Legs - so, if you stepped an an EL square, everyone would shout "Elephant Legs" and you'd feel shamed!

So the moral of this is - don't step on the cracks for the sake of your legs and your thyme.

[Rapscallion]

Hi, so ive got the seeds. I imagined that 4200 would be easy enough to spread out between the paving slabs…
Thyme seeds are tiny! The 4200 could fit in a thimble!

I’ve steam cleaned each gap and filled with soil, compacted slightly to ensure each gap is filled.

Any advice how to spread them evenly, i estimate that there are about 25m i need to seed.

[nickdub]

Mix the seed with something first before you sow it is one way - dry sand for example.