And a concrete jungle no more…

Following on from last month’s blog, things have definitely improved from those first steps of clearing our client’s garden of 36 tonnes of concrete paving! Back then we were working in almost unbearably hot temperatures, but over the last few weeks it is the wet conditions that have challenged us. However the garden is now complete apart from the soft landscaping, which will involve planting up the raised vegetable beds.

It is the finishing details that so successfully bring this garden together; let’s take a look at a few of them:

New paving

A new tumbled limestone patio has been laid across the back of the house, providing an instant improvement on the original concrete paving. It transforms the garden into a more unified and modern space with designated areas of use, such as the seating area in the left hand corner.

The pebble edged path

It was our client’s idea to use riverbed pebbles to edge the pathway along the side of their house. It provides an attractive feature in an area of limited space. The pebbles are 40ml plus in size and come in subtle blue grey shades. They can be bought from most garden centres.

The raised vegetable beds

Three vegetable beds were constructed using 9” by 2” pressure treated softwood timbers. The challenge here was to ensure the beds remained level as the garden slopes downwards away from the house. This meant at the top end of the vegetable bed there is an 8” raise from the ground compared to an 18” difference at the bottom end of the bed.  These are now ready for our client to start the enjoyable task of choosing what to grow and planting up.

Channel slit drains

To ensure good drainage in the path area, ACO hexdrain brickslot channel drains were laid flush along the join in the patio pavers. At the end of the drain channel there is a corner unit also sourced from ACO which provides access to the larger drain channel underneath so that it can easily be cleaned out if necessary. These drains provide a neat finish to the look of the patio and are less intrusive than the standard channel gratings.