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What Aaron said, lots more gravel will make it much better.

stt64 is exactly right. you should have at least two inches of gravel covering the space.

Gravel comes in lots of colors. Buy a bag of your own, and add more decorative border rocks. You can also use sea glass for drainage, and keep layering in those succulents. Hens and chicks are fabulous.

Yes, a layer of fresh gravel.

sweep up as much of the gravel as you can , put it in some kind of barrel with some oxy clean and water, let it soak for some hours, then wash and drain the gravel.

of course im not sure why you need to have so much of that little gravel, because you could also get some plants that love water. There are plenty of plants that love moist soil, just do a search. im curious why you've planted some succulents that don't need or like a lot of water. they like dry soil, and don't need water to grow, so im thinking that they may or may not like this area if its too wet.

Ditto with the fresh gravel, and then maybe you could put planters along the borders - on top of the concrete - to give a green edging. Could be filled with more succulents, or herbs, or even grass.

Just because the gravel 'must' be there (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me) doesn't mean it's the only thing that must be there. I agree that a fresh layer of gravel will look nice. If you .insist. on cleaning the gravel, you'll probably have to do it by hand. get a couple of big buckets, some slightly soapy water, gloves and a scrubber and get to work. But you'll only scrub off the dirt, not the natural rock coloration.

Purchasing or acquiring pots for plants of your choosing will not hinder any 'drainage' requirements. If they're colorful and happy you will help to freshen up the space with their artificial color as well as the goodness of growing things. I'd suggest leaving the gravel as is and distracting from it by adding lovely plants. Oh! And garden art!!

After that fresh layer of gravel, load it up with varied pots of low maintenance plants, covering those planters with grit, a tiny form of gravel which will serve as mulch to keep moisture in and weeds out. There is no such thing as No maintenance, so you'll need to get in the habit of bending down and plucking up leaves and debris from the area but if you bend from the waist, it's like Downward Facing Dog, a yoga pose and you'll enjoy a slight buzz whilst also stretching your muscles. :-}

gravel is nice and fairly low maintenance, but hard to clean. more gravel, yes... but more plantings, too. perhaps a cluster of containers (pots, planters, etc.) to hold more (and larger) succulents -- or plants that go with your style: ferns, if shaded, perhaps. also, a few larger stones (boulders) for scale would help to break it up. contrast and scale is the thing to look for here -- you have none/little. ikea generally has a good, affordable selection of planters (and some plants -- we bought a cordyline there last week). the white gravel also tends to look dated/cheap, especially when surrounded by gray concrete (as opposed to azure water). you might think about scraping a good bit out and replacing the top-most layer with small river rock or pea gravel in a gray/tan color. the old gravel can be used as a good base in your new planters.

You could even take off a small layer of the yucky gravel before adding the new. Pea gravel is perfect. A low-growing sedum would be nice too along w/hens and chicks. And I think this is an area that the water runs through and then is dry, which is why the succulents would work. I don't think it's a place for standing moisture, right?

I have a similar problem! Our house has a large rock garden with a porch swing. It should be a nice area, but unfortunately it's under several large pine and oak trees - very poor planning on the previous owners' part. My gravel always looks gross. My current plan is to buy lots of large flagstones to lay across the area, covering most of the gravel. I think it will be easier to care for.

I think you need some more color in your courtyard. Add a bright welcome mat and some brightly-colored clay pots with plants that grow well in your area. If you have enough sunlight for herbs, grow them! Many, like mint, will help you keep pests away.

If you're in the north, get big planters/pots for your plants -- the bigger, the less likely they'll die over the winter (16" at least). For shade, I like plants with interesting foliage - varigated hosta, Japanese painted fern, coleus. We also have a bunch of azaleas in pots in our similar-sized urban backyard -- you can often find them for half price at garden centers now that their blooms are done, and they'll look amazing in the spring. I prefer dark-ish plastic/fiberglas pots - ceramic is way too heavy.

Moss! See: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/05/04/moss-carpet-grows-in-the-heart-of-your-home/ for COOL ideas.

Create a layer of soil mixed with chopped up Sphagnum Moss and a top layer of Coco Chips or Peat Moss.

I think this would look very modern/Japanese against the gray stone. Your very own tranquility garden!!

Forgot... fresh gray gravel as everyone else mentioned! Let us see the final result!!!!

Some climbing plants in pots would look great trained up the walls. And if you get a fragrant variety it's an added bonus.

This is great. Starting next Wednesday at

This is great. Starting next Wednesday at naked notes, Missy Bateson the NYC-renown gardener will be posting about how to make your apartment more green!

Try to make it more uniform, get rid of the old dirty gravel, get new one, light gray or even white. As for the border, try to do the same, bigger, more uniform river rocks, or maybe even limestone, coral or other interesting stone chunks. I'm sorry but you should really pressure wash everything, the floor and the wall surrounding the square look like they need some help. Remember that if that space is designed for draining, try not to tangle the soil by planting plants directly in that spot. The previous owners would have done that in the first place. The right answer would be pots for me. Some oriental styled pots in various sizes and colors would be great for your succulents, and you can move them around when you want a new look, just as if it would be a rock garden.

You could use some structure in this space. Pots carefully placed. Simple and not too many. Set them up in a row across the gravel. This sort of planting of succulents may work. www.potsandpithoi.com/Imgs/Garden/14.jpg
If you google gravel gardens and look at images you can see lots of ideas, pare down for your small space.

Thanks everyone! I pretty much thought it would come down to a fresh layer of gravel! I have envied the next door neighbour's lovely slate chips for ages but I'll have to see if I can afford that; if not pea gravel sounds like a brililant solution. I'll get planting this weekend and post my initial results as soon as I can.

Heather

Could build a little low deck of nice teak, sort of in a pallet or two, trimmed to fit the space and set right on top of the gravel.

I agree with the fresh layer of gravel however I would also build some trellis up the wall and grow some climbing plants. Maybe add a few pot plants or maybe a hanging basket. Simon

didnt someone update their gravel yard in the Spring cure? I seem to remember that they had an issue with gravel also. They did a really nice spruce up. They added some found it in flkr group.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcbfly/3444018812/

I love what you have done...and plenty of really nice ideas on here ....I love that you even attempted to do anything!....So pretty!!!!

You don't clean gravel - and there's no need to get rid of the old gravel.

Just add more to the top and plant some moss, ferns, etc. in there.

I would be careful about a trellis and climbing plants up the side of the building. Plants can do serious damage to both wood and brick not only by trapping moisture against the building surface, but also potentially growing into it.

Can you line the whole thing with the larger gravel? It would still allow for drainage and be less likely to scatter about.

Those stones are lovely- would it be prohibitively expensive to fill in the entire area with those?

I agree withthe pea gravel topping and container plants. Large, colorfully glazed pots with colorful plants... Get some height there. (Good beginning)

Just another idea...

How about building a simple wood deck or platform over the gravel? Might be more work than fresh gravel...but it would still allow water to drain. And then add potted plants and even a chair if you have room.

Maybe along the back corner or around the tree you plant some nice green plants like hostas or even daylilies for a nice background border. If you can't plant directly int he ground because it's too hard and full of gravel, you could leave plants in their pots and just bury the pots in the gravel to make it look like you planted them...

You could make that into an awesome Japanese courtyard garden - check out the book Japanese Courtyard Gardens. You can browse some of it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Landscapes-Small-Spaces-Japanese-Courtyard/dp/4770028741/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books

Ideally, there would be landscaping fabric under the stones preventing much of the dirt from peeking through - I am not sure you would want to go through the work of moving the rocks aside and putting some in though... Unless it is all surface dirt coming down?

Probably adding some more of the same rocks on top would help. If you add a different kind, the others will eventually show through. Or make everything around it look fabulously Japanese (maybe add decking over the cement and tuck in some nice moss hillocks and ferns or mondo grass and craggy big rocks, keep the great rock border) and then the existing rocks will look purposely wabi-sabi (beautifully old and aged).

Seriously, the book I mentioned above is wonderful and incredibly inspiring, and is mostly tiny courtyard gardens with rocks like yours. Take a look at these pages (you can search on them on the Amazon page) to start: 22, 7, 29, 104-105, 48, 57, 106, 107, 111 is larger but has a border like yours, 38, 39, 52, 19, etc etc :)

Have fun!

Our recycling center stopped offering it, but you could for a while, buy crushed glass of different colors to use as mulch.
It was like an aquarium bottom.

If it's a relatively sheltered location, you could layer the new gravel in geometrics for visual interest. I've done this by propping up index cards in the existing gravel to form a pattern/wall, and then dribbling in the new rocks/sand/whatever inside the edges. Then, you just pull out the index cards and you have a spiral pattern or a 'stream' of white gravel over the gray. (aquarium gravel is good for this type of art project, since it comes in many many colors)