Pots

There are actually loads of plants that you can grow in gravel if you want to, provided it is deep enough. As for pots, I tend to use New Horizon compost, it holds water reasonably well but is a little coarse if you want to grow things from seed. For seeds you can start them off in fine potting compost.
Plants in the pots might well seed into the gravel too, if you want a more informal look to your garden.
You probably need a mix of evergreens and other plants which lose their leaves, otherwise it might look a bit bleak and dead in winter. You can grow climbers in pots if you have a wall/fence or some sort of obelisk to tie them to, though they're obviously not as colourful as bedding plants. You can also grow roses.
Any permanent plants (i.e. not smallish annual or bedding plants that you'll replace every year) will need good sized pots.
If you can't be bothered with all this palaver you can simply grow ordinary geraniums and bedding plants in smaller pots or troughs, watering them when the compost is dry and mixing liquid feed into the water every few feeds.
Herbs like sunshine and some (such as mint and oregano) are much more vigorous than others so should be kept in pots by themselves so that they don't swamp others. Most herbs don't need feeding.
If you want an instant result it's easiest to buy bedding plants from a supermarket or garden centre, once any chance of frost has passed.

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/for-places/gravel-gardens

If you look up "growing plants in gravel" on Google there are loads of other articles about it.

For ideas about what to grow in pots:
www.rhs.org.uk/container-gardening/how-to-plant-up-a-container

Is the gravelled area definitely included in your lease? Do others have rights of way over it?

Yes. My neighbour in the flat upstairs shares the garden. However. He is autistic and isn’t a bit interested. He’s a lovely young man but can’t even remember to put his bin out. I doubt he’d notice if I put a swimming pool in the garden.
His mum has the hedges cut twice a year. I pay for the garden waste collection bins. It works very well.

Thank you for this information.

Thank you for some great ideas! I’m on to it!

My advice is to spend a bit more for your pots, make sure they are frost proof, and get bigger sizes than you think you will need - because you will need them, little pots are a pain because they keep drying out when there is more than one day without rain.

Do you intend to grow into the gravel too? How deep is it and what’s underneath? If there is some soil there you might want to take some inspiration from the Dry Garden at RHS Hyde Hall.

The garden was constructed from boulders and subsoil mounded over rubble. Topsoil was mixed with a high volume of sand and grit to provide the plants with a free-draining environment. So not the same thing as gravel but after planting, which was some years ago now, the garden was left to fend for itself. Topsoil washes away over time so plants have to get their feet down into what’s underneath for water and nutrients.

A scattering of orange and yellowCalifornia poppies (Eschscholzia californica) and Verbena bonariensis, which seeds freely would be easy and give you a good show.

More inforrmation here and a plant list.

www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/hyde-hall/garden-highlights/dry-garden

I've got pots on a gravel garden; some flowering shrubs and perennials in large pots , then other pots which I plant up with annuals every summer.
Azaleas, callistemon (of course), fuchsias, agapanthus, pieris, flowering perennials then summer bedding every year.

Some herbs do well in pots but beware of oregano as it will seed everywhere and is difficult to eradicate.

Goodness, Callistemmon, that sounds like hard work but must give you year-round pleasure. Have you tried kalmia? I’ve just ordered one for a large pot I was given for Christmas and feel a bit twitchy about it.

Just going to look it up winterwhite 🙂

Mostly they look after themselves, the pots need a weed now and then and need watering in dry weather, of course.
Sometimes pelargoniums will over-winter but not always.

It looks very pretty but notice it's poisonous to dogs so I might not buy one.
The biggest hurdle is going to be repotting the callistemon as it's outgrown its large pot.

I do have garden tokens waiting to be spent 🙂

Don’t buy verbena bonariensis! While it loves gravel it is a nightmare reseeder!

Do put saucers under your pots or raise them from the ground with pot feet or bricks, especially if you have shrubs in them. Otherwise the plant will put roots straight out of the pot and into the ground below.

Container gardening is fun because you can move things around. 'Spent' pots can take a back seat while those looking their best take centre stage.
Herbs thrive on poor soil, neglect and sunshine!

lixy

Do put saucers under your pots or raise them from the ground with pot feet or bricks, especially if you have shrubs in them. Otherwise the plant will put roots straight out of the pot and into the ground below.

Container gardening is fun because you can move things around. 'Spent' pots can take a back seat while those looking their best take centre stage.
Herbs thrive on poor soil, neglect and sunshine!

Yes, I really agree with your point about saucers, it's good to use them in the summer. However in the winter you might be better without them to avoid waterlogging. If the pots are on gravel they can drain anyway, and roots are growing less vigourously in winter.
Also I agree about moving things around, particularly if you have a relatively small space. Obviously the posts need to be a decent size so I'd probably not recommend using pots made of heavy materials (even if they would look lovely) unless you have somebody to help you move them, they can be very weighty once full.
We have big (50cm) pots made of black plastic, with handles. They're not pretty but we have troughs in front of them, full of bushy and trailing flowering plants, so that the black pots don't show much.
One thing you might like to consider is growing a fruit tree, at the back of your space provided it gets a decent amount of sun? We have a fairly large trough with a small espalier pear tree, we do get fruit and it looks lovely from flowering in spring to fruiting in early autumn. It does need to be self-polinating though.

I agree with getting nice big pots - they won’t dry out as quickly as smaller ones, and although terracotta do look nice, they’re very liable to crack in cold weather - glazed are much better, especially if you don’t have anywhere to store them over winter.

I have many pots in my garden as I thought I was moving and wanted to take my plants with me .
Plants in pots take more care than those planted out and I'm trying to cut down on mine .

I think that North Yorkshire is quite cool and has a heavy rainfall .
Is your garden in shade perhaps from another house ?
Make sure that you put feet under your pots to ensure drainage .

I'd certainly look at the RHS sites for recommendations .

I've grown many plants in pots with gravel :

The onion family -Alliums .
Rosemary - they like the sun .
Lavender - likes to be in the sunshine .
Thyme
Most herbs
Knibhofia - very successfully and not just orange .
Achillea - easy and prolific .
Santolina -so pretty
Cistus - a favourite
Festuca - more attractive than Stipa if you like grasses .
Dianthus - does very well , better than planted out .
Agapanthus - the common blue one which actually burst the pot eventually!
The white one is less prolific .
Stachys
Anthemis
Monardia - beautiful
Nepeta
Euphorbia
Eryngium
I think that these are on the RHS list .
I also grow bearded iris in pots , but they need to be moved into a bigger pots quickly as they will produce huge roots .
If you do plant them remember that the rhizomes must be exposed to the air or you'll only have leaves .
The possibilities are endless .
Enjoy your garden .

I’m another one with loads of planters and pots. Apart from the low growing bedding style plants, I try anything in very large pots for height. Bamboo grows well in very large pots and gives height, also lovely to listen to in the breeze. Fatsia Japonica gives a jungle feel and is very easy to grow. Camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons also easy to grow, but require ericaceous soil. Peiris are lovely evergreens and grow well in large pots, as do different varieties of eucalyptus. All these give a lovely green background to spring bulbs and summer bedding.
Have fun experimenting, some things work, some don’t, but that’s gardening.

Postscript :
When I first bought huge containers for plants about a decade ago - moving them was no problem .
Now it certainly is and I've had to ask my neighbour and friends to move them if needs be .

Esmay

Postscript :
When I first bought huge containers for plants about a decade ago - moving them was no problem .
Now it certainly is and I've had to ask my neighbour and friends to move them if needs be .

I’ve got all my biggest pots on the plant movers permanently Esmay. They have drainage holes, and make moving the pots a lot easier. My mother in law bought me a beautiful azalea almost 40 years ago, in a very heavy concrete planter, and I started with that one because it’s beautiful in flower, but quite nonedescript for the rest of the year, and it weighed a ton. I emptied my other big pots and did the same with them a few years ago, it makes life a lot easier.

Great idea Casdon.

Thank you , Casdon .
There isn't much room for manoeuvring , as there are over 200 pots in a relatively tight space - it's why I'm trying to downsize them - but I'll investigate plant movers .