Paving A Low Maintenance Garden
A paved area needs practically no maintenance, just an occasional brush and every few years a blast with a high-pressure water jet. As well as being labour-saving it should contribute positively to your garden design, linking and complementing other elements of the garden.
Creating Effects
Builder’s merchants and many garden centres stock a variety of attractive paving materials to suit most tastes and styles, and these can be laid to create all sorts of patterns, formal or informal. As well as different materials, surfaces can vary in texture. Big slabs are suitable for large areas, while bricks and pavers are better for smaller areas. A mixture of different paving materials will introduce variety and interest to a scheme.
Concrete Paving Slabs
Large slabs made from concrete are a popular choice for patios, paths and drives. They come in a range of sizes, textures and colours, and are easy to lay once a solid foundation has been prepared. Slabs, especially circular ones, are suitable for use as stepping-stones set in a lawn or in gravel.
Natural Stone
Although this looks splendid, it is very expensive and difficult to lay. It can be dressed, that is cut into regular shapes with smooth edges, or random, with irregular outline and thickness. The latter is suitable for crazy paving and looks much better than broken concrete fragments.
Bricks and Pavers
Concrete or clay pavers and bricks are very striking when they are laid in small areas. They are especially suitable for visually linking the garden to a brick house. They can be laid in intricate designs. Pavers come in a wide range of sizes, colours and thicknesses and have different finishes.
Laying Paving
Paving needs to be laid on to a firm base. The area will have to be excavated to a depth that allows for hardcore, mortar and paving. Hardcore needs to be only 5-10cm (2-4inches) thick for foot traffic but about 15cm (6inches) if vehicles are to be driven over it. Concrete and brick paving slabs can be bedded on mortar, but clay pavers must be bedded on sharp sand using a plate compactor.
Plants and Paving
A few strategically placed plants will greatly improve the appearance of the paved garden without requiring too much extra work.
Plants in beds alongside the paving can be encouraged to fall onto the paving to soften the hard edges. Containers are useful, too, to break up a large expanse, or to introduce colour where there is no bed for planting in. but if you design the paving with integral planting areas or raised beds, the plants will need less watering than they would in containers.
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