Garden patio slabs

Hi folks,


We are making a modern formal / Italianate garden. We have the box, the geometry, the planting etc.

But the problem I have is about the patio bit. We are making an enclosed 9m x 4m chilling area encased in a green oak skeleton pergola. Should be nice but can't for the life of me work out what base to use. Riven slabs don't look clean enough, love the look of varnished hardwood planks but daunted by maintenance. I guess with yacht varnish it might be ok for carrying chairs?

Also I like the idea of fines - 6mm breedon golden amber compactable gravel but not sure whether it will take chairs without churning up?

Any suggestions as to a good solution for a really clean, affordable!, patio base?

 

The gravel sounds good as long as you have a good base and the gravel isn't too deep...i had gravel paths,drive and patio and it looked great...untill i got chickens....they love playing soccer with it...but up untill then once it was bedded in it was fine...easy to weed too

 

You'll go quite fast on that if it rains.

 

Knock up the gravel with white cement, then when its green hard, spray the surface with water. When its set properly brush it off to expose the aggregate.

 

Clueless you made me laugh out loud! But you are very right. Thanks.

Zigs - I think that's an awesome idea. Hadn't thought of that. Or seen it. I'm not sure if the breedon gravel is the right aggregate. But I've got a load coming for the paths anyway. So I may experiment :-). Tempted to throw in a few handfuls of glow in the dark pebbles for effect! What sub base do you think it would need and how deep the gravel / cement mix? Am guessing type 1 mot sub base, and an inch of gravel fines / white cement?

 

Interesting - but blokey talk. Bet you're glad you asked on GC though Gary...
Jenny

 

All a bit blokey for me too Jenny

Good luck though Gary

 

Actually, since women's lib, women are now equally entitled to slip and land on their behinds on polished wood floors too.

 

I must confess I have taken advantage of this liberalism
once or twice Clue,
Jenny

 

I haven't

 

Short term memory loss then Loli?

 

Try adding Dyspraxia into the mix - lack of spatial awareness means me and my rear are good friends with the ground/patio/grass, etc

 

Gosh. i was listening to bbc news this morning and they were talking about the rampant "casual sexism".

I made a bet with my wife that the first encounter either of us had with this would be against men by women not vice versa. I was right.

I was expecting it to be the usual "men cant multi-task", "men never listen", "women need men like a fish needs a bike" - all that stuff. I wasn't expecting it to be as a result of posting about creating a garden on a gardening forum - something all GC users are passionate about.

If I'd said "interesting - but plant colours are all a bit girly and not really for us blokes but thanks for coming anyway!" I'd be flamed.

GC has been a really interesting forum. I hope I don't have to temper my topics and valid comments to ensure they are interesting to the ladies otherwise ill get criticised for being too blokey.

Not all comments are interesting to all viewers. Sorry if mine are boring but I do object to them being criticised along sexist lines. You can pick me up on them being too long, wrong forum, too technical or something like that. But not for sexist reasons. I wouldn't dare to presume that no women know how construct a patio.

 

Sorry, my fault. I derailed it I think. It was just meant as banter.

Back on topic, we were on about patios.

I built mine a year or two ago. It looks surprisingly good considering I did it on the cheap, using smashed up paving slabs. I'm not sure it would work in a more formal setting though, although I have seen a few formal gardens that use irregular shaped stones for their floors and paths.

 

I took it as the banter it was meant to be clueless and to be fair, us laydees did start it (I blame that Jenny woman, such a troublemaker)