The new garden
Recently built housing and grassed–down or cleared gardens are clean slates on which to overlay a basic design.You will need to keep an eye on balance in the garden and the impact a patio might make on the remaining space and any further plans.
But compared with other situations you have carte blanche to design what you like – even to turn the whole garden into a paved area or build more than one patio.
Even small patios can be inviting
© Debenhams
The established garden
More circumspection is needed here. A patio could supply the missing link between house and garden, but equally might obliterate favourite areas and compete with the rest if you are not careful. Rank the various priorities, list pros and cons, and manipulate your general conception to try to achieve the least disruption and loss.Remember that a sensitively planned patio will often enhance the whole garden and can be sited anywhere on the plot – in its farthest corner, for example, instead of the more obvious position adjacent to the house.
The disaster area
With derelict and overgrown gardens you need to decide whether there are any features worth preserving – paths and structures, perhaps, a neglected shrub or tree, or an abandoned pond – or whether clearing the ground and starting again might be the more satisfying and cost–effective option.Before choosing where to build, wait up to a year for an unfamiliar old garden to reveal any hidden or dormant treasures and critical information like the sunniest places or a seasonal frost hollow.
No garden
You might be starting with a concrete courtyard or basement area, a balcony or roof site, or even a houseboat or corner of an adjacent car park. Since a patio may be whatever size or shape you choose, it can be tailored to fit virtually any site or purpose, and provide you with enough room for at least a chair and a few potted plants.You might have to cope with exceptional circumstances like high winds at rooftop level or the sunless damp conditions of a site below ground, but nothing is insuperable.
This is an extract from 'Patios' by Andi Clevely.
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