Before making a list of the most important features you want in the new garden, the options available need some consideration.

The Paved Sitting Area

Almost certainly you will want this, and it will probably be the garden’s most-used area. Most people, including the enthusiastic gardener, sometimes want to sit outside -rather than staying in or working non-stop on a fine day. So making a level paved area not far from the house is of prime importance. It may act as the transition between house and garden.

In our experience people tend to underestimate the area of paving that they require, whether from financial caution or from being unsure about how it will look. Certainly paving and walling is expensive, but the aftercare costs are minimal. The paved area should be of a reasonable size – it will look better and serve you better. As a general guide, a small paved area for entertaining one’s family and a few friends might be 36-48 sq yd, a medium area for entertaining say up to 30 people say 72-96 sq yd.

Even a moderate-sized area of paving should include adequate spaces for planting, to avoid looking too harsh. To have plants spilling over walls and spreading over the paved area can also be a delightful way of displaying different types of foliage in particular. Some of the more delicate foliage plants are so easily lost in a mixed planting and are enhanced by a plain background.

There are numerous materials that can be used for the paved surface. Natural stone or secondhand weathered materials such as flagstone or traditional brick pavers are ideal, but may be prohibitively expensive, so that artificial equivalents have to be found. Although there are many good products now available on the market, if old materials can be afforded they do blend better with garden planting. For example, the grey-brown color with hints of purple of field stone, looks particularly well with purple/red creeping thyme. Where artificial stone has to be used, its effect can be softened by combining it with others, such as brick or pebbles. This will tone down the brightness of the new material, and even artificial stone does weather eventually. We have had many suggestions for the weathering of new materials, but perhaps the best and most bizarre is to wet the stones with water from boiled rice! Apparently this assists rapid growth of algae and lichen; well worth a try, but perhaps not practical for a large-area.