Please see the full listing section below for comprehensive specifications, benefits and uses for blue slate — as well as links to inspirational garden ideas and do-it-yourself guides.
Blue Slate Chippings
Price range: £120.00 through £177.00 inc. VAT
Blue slate chippings bring a clean, contemporary touch to any garden with their beautiful natural shades of blue-grey that intensify dramatically when wet.
Available in 20mm and 40mm sizes, these flat, angular chippings create a comfortable walking surface in the smaller grade and a bolder, more dramatic effect in the larger.
Perfect for:
- sleek modern pathways
- smart garden borders
- decorative mulch around plants
- water feature surrounds
- contemporary driveway edges
The interlocking shape helps suppress weeds effectively while still allowing excellent drainage. Low-maintenance and long-lasting, blue slate chippings offer a stylish, natural alternative to traditional bark or mulch — ideal for transforming your outdoor space into something effortlessly striking.
Gravel Calculator
You need ≈ 640 kgs
(0.4 m³)
Note: No compaction/settlement included.
Add 10-20% extra for compaction & wastage if required.
Add 10-20% extra for compaction & wastage if required.
| Weight | N/A |
|---|---|
| Chippings size | 20mm, 40mm |
| Weight | 20 x 20kg Mini Bags, 40 x 20kg Mini Bags, 850kg Bulk Bag |
1 review for Blue Slate Chippings
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Specifications, Inspirational Ideas & DIY Guides
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Specifications, Why Professionals and Homeowners Choose, Applications, Inspirational Ideas, DIY Guides, Maintenance, Purchasing Tips, FAQs, Related Products
What are Blue Slate Chippings?
I've been sourcing and installing blue slate chippings for over 15 years, from compact London backyards to large commercial sites in the South West. Sourced directly from Welsh quarries, this premium aggregate delivers a distinctive blue-grey colour that intensifies to a striking metallic sheen when wet - giving your garden an instant, vibrant lift after rain. Available in key sizes: 20mm blue slate chippings (ideal for paths, mulch, and borders) and 40mm (suited to borders and rockeries). It adds natural, low-maintenance elegance to any space. Stick around as I break down the specs, real applications and tips from my installs to help you decide if it's right for your project, before you buy!
Specifications
Why Professionals & Homeowners Choose Blue Slate Chippings
This aggregate turns ordinary spaces into textured, low-effort highlights - the blue-grey tones contrast beautifully with plants, suppress weeds effectively, boost drainage to protect roots, and serve as a durable mulch alternative. Here's a quick bullet list of key advantages from past installs:
- Exceptional colour: The Welsh blue slate deepens dramatically when wet, creating a premium look along driveways and on paths without paving costs.
- Weed suppression: They block light and lock in moisture as mulch, reducing weeding greatly.
- Superior drainage: Slate chippings let water flow through freely - no puddles.
- Low-maintenance longevity: Unlike organic mulches, slate gravel won't rot or draw pests; I've revisited 10+ year-old installs where the slate still looks good with just minimal raking and weeding.
- Fish-friendly: Won’t significantly alter the pH of garden soil or water, so they are suited to ornamental water features and fishponds.
To give you a real feel for the transformation, here are some past examples from past installations:
Applications
Blue slate chippings excel thanks to their durable, angular shape and colour that pairs perfectly with heathers, ferns, ornamental grasses, lavender, or sedums.
- Paths: 20mm compacts tightly for stable, shift-free walking with a calm coastal feel.
- Mulch & Border Plantings: Suppresses weeds and retains soil moisture around trees/borders - ideal low-upkeep choice.
- Water Features: Fish-friendly once rinsed; the blue tones enhance pond or fountain edges for a seamless watery look.
- Rockeries & Slopes: 40mm chippings and 60mm paddlestones stack naturally, stabilise banks, and add bold texture.
Inspirational Ideas
The right size, the proper base, and the one thing about wet slate the supplier guides skip.
Ben Parrot
Slate works beautifully in UK gardens, and these are my favourite rockery ideas for the stone.
Ben Parrot
Slate garden ideas that are low maintenance and easy to install from across the UK.
Ben Parrot
DIY Guides
Get the depths, base and drainage right, and a gravel drive will outlast the car parked on it.
Ben Parrot
Thin gravel on a firm base over deep gravel always. How I build one that looks new after ten years.
Ben Parrot
Choose the right size, prep the ground once, and your slate will behave itself for years.
Ben Parrot
Maintenance
How you handle weeds depends on the setup: on a decorative bed, lay it straight onto the soil before after removing all weeds and roots and then rake lightly every few months to redistribute. On a paving area or driveway, a heavy duty membrane goes over the compacted sub-base instead. For deep cleaning, particularly where algae discolours the chippings, check our guide on how to clean chippings for step-by-step tips.
Purchasing Tips
Quarry batches can vary slightly in the different shades, so it’s best to be prepared for some natural variation. Try to get what you need in the one load. Measure your area in square metres and the use our gravel calculator to get an accurate order.
FAQs
What are the common uses of Welsh blue slate in landscaping?
Welsh blue slate suits paths, driveways, borders and water feature edging, with the size doing most of the work in deciding which. 20mm is the grade for anywhere walked or driven on, and 40mm is for borders and ground cover only, where the larger plates aren't underfoot.
What's the difference between 20mm blue slate chippings and 40mm blue slate chippings?
20mm blue slate chippings pack down into a firm, even surface and are the grade for paths and driveways, laid at roughly 4 to 5cm deep. 40mm blue slate chippings are a border and ground-cover material only: at that size the flat plates tip and slide rather than bedding in, so they aren't suited to anywhere that gets walked or driven on.
Are blue grey slate chippings suitable for driveways?
Blue grey slate chippings at 20mm suit a driveway, laid over a compacted sub-base with a membrane between the two to stop the layers mixing. Slate's smooth cleavage faces get slick when wet, so a sloping drive is better served by a crushed angular gravel, which grips better in the rain.
How do blue slate chippings perform in wet weather?
Blue slate chippings deepen to a rich, saturated blue when wet, one of the more striking colour changes in any decorative stone. The same wet surface is slick underfoot, which matters on a slope or a permanently shaded run that never fully dries.
Can blue slate be used around ponds or water features?
Blue slate suits pond and water feature edging once rinsed to clear quarry dust, giving a clean, natural-looking border. Whether it's safe in direct contact with pond water where fish are kept needs confirming against a supplier spec before that claim goes on the page.
How much 60mm blue slate paddlestones do I need?
Measure your area in square metres, decide on a depth of around 10 to 15cm for paddlestones this size, and run the figures through our gravel calculator. Add extra for an uneven surface or a rockery build, where the irregular shapes leave more gaps than a flat area.
Do blue slate chippings fade over time?
Blue slate holds its colour far better than a dyed aggregate, since the blue-grey comes from the stone itself rather than a coating. It weathers naturally with age and exposure, the way any quarried stone does, rather than fading the way a surface-treated product can.
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Andrew Johnson –
Great stuff. Did the job. Lovely calculator told us we might have been a bit short but didn’t just round it up. First class delivery.