Spring Bulbs Planting Design

Example of planting design using spring bulbs

It may seem like only two minutes since we bid farewell to this year’s display of spring bulbs but now is the perfect time to be thinking about next year. Whilst many of us have them in our gardens we’ve found that very few people we talk to consider their spring bulbs to be an integral part of their planting scheme; indeed, many people seem to make their bulb choices purely on the basis of a desire to see a splash of colour – any colour – to break the drabness of winter. But, with some design planning and bulbs’ vast variety of shapes and sizes, colours and flowering periods, spring bulbs have the potential to be so much more than just that splash of colour – they could be the show stopping stars of your spring garden design.

Spring bulbs in a designed garden border

Planting Spring Bulbs

As with all planting designs environmental factors such as aspect, light levels and ground conditions will all have a bearing on the success of any scheme. ‘Right plant, right place’ works just as well for spring bulbs as for any other garden plant and planting depth of bulbs can also influence the flowering success of them later. For instance, if you plant bulbs too deep you risk getting more foliage at the expense of flowers and some might flower late or not at all. Plant them too shallow and they might emerge too soon making them vulnerable to frost. If you don’t have a label to check, a good rule of thumb is to plant bulbs 2 to 3 times their size. So, if a bulb is 5cm high, plant it 10-15cm deep and 10-15cm away from the next bulb. Since bulbs themselves are all different sizes, this allows you plant lasagne-style with larger bulbs deeper, mid-size bulbs in a layer above and small bulbs planted on a top layer. This method works particularly well in pots but can be used just as well in borders too allowing for the maximisation of space and impact.

Surrounding Plants

One of the tricks of designing with bulbs, of course, is blending them with existing plants – for most of us, bulbs are an addition to an already existing scheme so the height, texture, colour and form of surrounding plants will play a key role in choosing bulbs for maximum visual effect. Most of us tend to leave our bulbs in the ground once planted but it has to be said too that once a bulb has ‘gone over’ it isn’t the prettiest plant in the garden but leaving its yellowing leaves is a crucial part of the bulb’s life cycle so those surrounding plants can also play an important role in hiding those nourishing, but not too aesthetic leaves. Alternatively, planting bulbs in pots allows us to move them out of sight after flowering so can be a great choice for areas with few ‘hiding potential’ surrounding plants.

Bulb Colours

spring bulbs in a trough container near a doorway

If you’re considering planting bulbs in a small space then it’s a good plan to stick with a single colour – mixing colours tends to make a small area look smaller whereas a hit of a single colour increases impact and makes a space look bigger too. Larger spaces can accommodate more colour, of course, but limiting to 2 or 3 blended colours and planting groups of 2 or 3 varieties of bulbs in single colour clusters can look stunning. White or cream bulbs can help blend other colours together and when used alone are brilliant for brightening dark corners.

Functional Bulbs

Bulbs can be functional too; for instance, we have some quick collections that are perfect for pollinators; bulbs in this scheme not only look good but have a high nectar content that will encourage biodiversity in your garden. We also have them to help naturalise areas or to bring a fresh spring woodland look to a garden or to make a statement with bold swathes of colour. If you don’t feel confident to design yourself and don’t want a bespoke design, collections are a quick and easy way to choose bulbs. We order for our clients in August/September – both collections and bespoke designs – so whether you’re doing it yourself or working with a designer, planning now is key for next year’s spectacular spring bulb display.

Garden Design Principal Principles

Clipped box balls repeated alongside water feature

Garden Design Principal Principles

Garden design – the clue is in the name – we design gardens, and like all disciplines of design, the best examples of our work – and that of other garden designers – can always be traced back to the creative application of a few fundamental principles – or rules – that underpin all we do.

Rather unhelpfully, there isn’t a universally accepted specific, set number of these rules; one camp may cite 5, another 12, yet another 9 or 7 but if you were to read all of them you would see a commonality between them. Just as Shakespeare’s “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” so too for garden design principles – nuances may influence numbers but regardless of what you call them or how you count them – they do all seem to coalesce around a few fundamental ideas; principal principles, if you will.

Cohesion – other names might be unity, harmony, repetition, colour, style – but this is all about creating something that works as a cohesive whole. Themes work well for cohesion, for instance a contemporary garden or a cottage garden – putting a name to that theme or style brings with it a set of rules to apply to it. You can even ‘room’ a garden within a theme, giving it a different feel in different areas but the theme itself helps maintain harmony and unity throughout supported by repetition of form or texture or colour. Repetition and colour too can play the leading role in achieving cohesion when style or theme may not be so prominent.
Balance – other names might be order, scale, proportion, symmetry, mass & voids – but this is all about where you ‘put’ different elements within the garden and how they work with all the other elements that are there so that everything feels balanced. Perhaps the easiest way of achieving this is through symmetry, where one side of a garden ‘mirrors’ the other side – everything on one side is balanced out by exactly the same things on the other side – but plants also play a part in balance and the same species and variety of plant can grow at different rates in different parts of the garden. If that is the case for this example, then the balance of the symmetrical design could be ruined by over or under-performing plants. Not every garden works symmetrically, of course, so finding balance and proportionality between elements can be challenging; balancing an existing shed for instance wouldn’t be about siting another shed somewhere else but using something that carries similar visual ‘weight’ or impact in order to achieve balance. This might be a large shrub or a mature tree for instance.
Movement – other names might be transition, rhythm, flow, line, focal points, destination, perspective, depth, journey – and this is mainly about how you move through the garden, whether physically or by eye, (i.e., when viewing the garden) but also about how the garden itself can be a source of movement. Pathways, arches, benches, water features, sculptures, specimen plants and more all give the eye or the body something to follow or move to, while rustling leaves, grasses swaying in the breeze, trickling water, bird and other wildlife all bring extra layers of movement too adding dynamism to a space.

The challenge for any garden designer is to utilise and combine these ‘rules’ in order to create something that is fit for purpose and looks fantastic too but if you’re getting bogged down with too many garden design principles and don’t know which or how to apply them, the principal principles approach might just help.

Creating an Indoor Outdoor Cohesive Space

Creating an Indoor Outdoor Cohesive Space

One of the jobs of a garden designer is to try to make the garden feel part of a cohesive whole with a client’s house so that they feel they belong together. It’s rarely an explicit request but when we’re designing a garden, a good starting point when trying to decide where things should go is to do it with the sight lines from the house very firmly in mind. Regardless of the size of garden if you can create something beautiful and interesting to look out at then it brings the garden ‘closer’ to the viewer because they feel more engaged with it. We’ve talked before about creating views of the garden so that from inside the house, the frames of windows and doorways when looking out are ‘framing’ the view beyond. In putting that ‘view’ together it’s a good tip to try to think as a painter or photographer would, in terms of thinking about fore-, middle and backgrounds; about balance, subjects and ways of leading the eye through the view.

The décor, along with the use and choice of materials indoors, can give huge cues for outdoor decisions in terms of linking a garden and home – and more on that in a future article – but one obvious way to link indoor and outdoor spaces is through the use of greenery, i.e. plant choices and planting design. Indoor gardening is more popular than ever and as we’re becoming more and more aware, just as looking out at a view of nature is good for us, surrounding ourselves with house plants is too.

Studies show that there are both psychological and physical health benefits of indoor plants; psychologically they improve our mood, reduce our stress levels and help make us more productive. Physically they reduce our blood pressure, headaches and fatigue. Indoor plants – just as outdoor plants do – also bring with them a massive and versatile potential for aesthetic styling, and just as we work with such things like form, habit, colour and texture externally, so too can we do so indoors.

There’s a huge potential then for creating cohesion of indoor and outdoor spaces through planting. For instance, if you can bring your outdoor planting right up to your house – perhaps through window boxes or raised beds leading up to your patio doors/bifolds, etc - and your indoor planting right up to the outdoor threshold so only the glass of a window or doors separates them; it can be a very effective way of blending the boundary between indoor and outdoor.

Similarly repeating the forms, textures or leaf shapes of indoor plants with outdoor planting reinforces the links between the separate areas. Picking repeating/similar flower or leaf colours across thresholds has the same effect as does choosing similar styles of pots that continue across the divide.

For many of us space can be an issue both inside and out, so as usual, when floor space is limited, we’d recommend thinking vertically. While hedges aren’t quite an option indoors, indoor wall space can be just as effective as garden fences and walls outside when it comes to accommodating plants. You don’t need a full-size living wall either (as beautiful as they are!). Climbers can be used indoors or as in our image/s small ‘living pictures’ can be used to harmonise the indoor/outdoor areas just as effectively as floor or shelf standing planters. (We were so delighted with these living pictures in terms of looks, versatility and practicality - they have their own reservoir so watering is pretty much taken care of – we are now accredited suppliers of them so do get in touch if you are as equally delighted with them!)

Of course, choosing plants for indoors needs the same consideration as choosing for outdoors so light levels, room temperature and fluctuations, plant care needs and toxicity are some of the things to be considered along with their looks, size, form, colour, texture, etc. If you have the right plant, in the right place doing the right job for you both indoors and out then the chances are good that you’ll also have a cohesive indoor/outdoor space.

Garden Design Quick Tip - Trees for structure in small gardens

One of the elements of garden design that designers use is that of structure. While perennials and annuals come and go within a garden accenting it, it is the more permanent aspects of a garden - manmade like arbours or pergolas, or plants like shrubs and trees - that gives it structure, adding strength and often character to a space.

Trees are brilliant structural plants. When our horizontal opportunities are limiting trees allow us to capitalize upon the vertical possibilities often making the space feel bigger. They also add definition to a space too; for instance a single tree planted in the centre of an island bed defines a space in one way but a line of trees along a pathway adds a different dimension cmpletely. The age of a tree can also add a sense of history or context to a garden while the tree itself brings layers of biodiversity to a garden through the different species it supports. All in all a tree's reassuring presence throughout the seasons makes it a first port of call for any garden designer looking to add structure to a garden.

Our top 3 trees for adding structure to a small garden are:

Amelanchier - A beautiful group of trees with a great shape. As the wind blows through it you often get a silvery sheen to it which gives it an ever changing look. Its spring blossom is fabulous (our image doesn't do it justice!) and its autumnal colour spectacular.

Sorbus - all varieties are lovely delivering beautiful spring blossom , striking autumn berries and leaf colours in differing combinations. For instance Sorbus aucuparia 'Joseph Rock' has white flowers in spring with creamy yellow berries in autumn along with orange, purple and red leaves. Sorbus aucuparia 'Chinese Lace' has single white flowers in spring followed by clusters of dark red berries. Its leaves turn purple-red in autumn.

Prunus - (our main image). Prunus serrula 'Tibetica' - with its distinctive peeling bark that looks good all year round, especially in the cold, frosty winter light. It has pink spring blossom and great autumn leaf colour.

Winter, you’ve never smelled so good

Winter, you’ve never smelled so good

According to a recent garden trends survey 49% of us use our gardens to feed/watch or to encourage wildlife. We spend around £250 million a year on feeding birds alone but whilst many of us step up our bird feeding habits through the winter it can be a tough time of year for our beleaguered winter-active pollinators, with natural food sources being generally, and literally, very thin on the ground. But that doesn’t have to be the case in our gardens. There are some fantastic winter flowering plants that can not only be a life saving food source for our pollinators, but can also add beauty, interest and often masses of scent to our winter gardens too.

In no particular order here are some of our scented winter favourites that are perfect for pollinators too:

Clematis ‘Jingle Bells’ flowers between January and March. An evergreen climber its citrus-scented flowers are creamy white and bell shaped. There are plenty of other winter-flowering, scented clematis too such as balearica or ‘Lansdowne Gem’.
Mahonia – an evergreen shrub with spiney green leaves and clusters of often heavily scented, usually yellow flowers in autumn through to spring – try ‘Sweet Winter’ or ‘Charity’
Daphnes are super-fragrant. Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’, for instance, is a much-used evergreen shrub with variegated green and yellow leaves. Its clusters of richly smelling purple buds to pink flowers appear January to March.
Sarcococca – also known as Christmas Box or Sweet Box because of its sweetly scented pure white flowers which appear from December through to March. An evergreen shrub perfect for shade.
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ – often looking like a very small tree this deciduous shrub produces dense clusters of richly fragrant dark pink flowers on its bare stems from November to March.
Chimonanthus praecox – its common name, wintersweet gives the game away. It produces small, sweetly scented yellow flowers with purple centres, on bare branches from December to February.
Hamamelis x intermedia also produces its flowers on bare branches in December through to February. Different varieties produce different flower colours from Pallida’s sulphur yellow to Diane’s coppery-red.
Winter honeysuckle such as Lonicera fragrantissima is a deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub that produces scented, creamy-white flowers in December through to March.
For scented perennials that pollinators adore, try Hellebores. Not all of them are scented but varieties such as ‘Miss Jekyll’s Scented’ or odorus are, and can produce flowers from December through to May. These nodding, often semi-evergreen perennials are a star of the winter border.
A variety of spring bulbs including aconite, crocus, daffodil, muscari, tulip and snowdrops all have scented varieties too and are all fabulous for pollinators. A mix of varieties can provide flowers and scent from February through to May and by adding scented cyclamen varieties too, this season can be extended all the way back to October.

Winter flowers tend to be less showy than their other-season counterparts but they do often pack a punch scent-wise since that is one of their main communication tools for attracting pollinators. So, including as many plants like these in your winter garden will pretty much guarantee a busy, pollinator-viewing winter experience. Though in terms of designing with scent try to choose plants whose scents complement each other rather than compete. Too many different scents can be overpowering but if all you’re likely to do is look at your winter garden through the windows of your home then competing scents aren’t going to be problematic. If you’re likely to be immersed in your winter garden then choosing plants whose scents complement each other or placing plants carefully when scents are likely to compete with each other, then becomes key.

Generally speaking, placing scented plants under windows, or next to doorways and gates and along pathways or the edges of patios, works wonderfully well for us because they allow us to engage more easily with their scent. But wherever they are placed, scented, winter-flowering plants can be life-savers for our winter-active pollinators.

Dealing with unwanted sound in your garden

Sound isn’t always welcome

We often write about the extra dimensions and pleasure that sounds can bring to a garden but let’s face it, not every sound is a welcome one. Whether it’s traffic noise from a busy road or neighbours’ shrieking children or boisterous barbecues sometimes it’s respite you need from the constant clamouring not receptors!

Noise itself and how we interact with it can be complicated; the level of noise, the frequency of it, the proximity to it, the tone, the range, the social and cultural aspects of it all play a role in how we react to noise. The constant hum of traffic for instance can almost be acclimatised to whereas the noise from neighbours is erratic and unpredictable making for a potentially more jarring irritation. Our response to those aspects of noise is also highly subjective – what is annoying in the extreme for one person can be acceptable to others.

Many of us ‘block’ a noise from view thinking that it somehow makes it less intrusive if we can’t see where it’s coming from but surprisingly research suggests that being able to see the source of a noise can reduce its annoyance factor because our senses are ‘prepared’ for the accompanying noisiness of the activity being viewed. ‘Hiding’ a noise from view then doesn’t lessen the irritation aspect of it, it can actually heighten it.

Most of us opt for a plant ‘barrier’ between ourselves and external noises, but again, perhaps surprisingly plant barriers are fairly ineffectual ways of blocking noise. To be effective as a blocking mechanism a plant barrier would have to be high (think trees), dense (think full canopied to the ground and evergreen) and about 9 metres deep. Not many of us have that amount of space to play with! As a distraction however, plants do have their merits: rustling and swishing leaves can help to disguise some low level noises. Running water on the other hand can be a much more effective disguise/distraction technique, most efficient when placed between ‘you’ and the source of the noise.

Plant barriers are fairly ineffectual ways of blocking noise

The most effective way to block sound though is to reflect it back by the erection of a man-made solid barrier such as a wall or solid fencing, which can reduce noise by about 50%. The placement, height and the solidity of the barrier are key elements in its effectiveness.

In terms of fencing typical larch lap fencing isn’t the thing to go for here since they tend to bow and let air, and noise, through so purpose built acoustic fencing solutions are what you would look for if you prefer timber to a brick/masonry look.

In terms of height as a general rule of thumb, the higher the barrier between you and the noise source the larger the sound blocked ‘shadow’ will be behind it. 2m high and above can start to be effective (preferably 3m) but be aware that planning permission will usually be required for anything higher than 2m.

The best place for a sound barrier is as near to the noise source as possible but the next best place is around the area you most want ‘protected’ and whilst for small gardens that’s likely to be around the boundary for large gardens it’s better to create small pockets of quiet within the garden.

There’s lots to consider but it’s nice to know that in our increasingly crowded world there are some options available to you to help reduce intrusive noise.

Garden Trends – 20 for the 20s

It’s that time of year…

Chances are you’re starting to think about your garden. If you’re not sure where to take it we thought that with the start of a new decade it would be fun to have a go at predicting some of the garden trends and practices we’d expect to be seeing over the next decade. It might help inform some of the decisions you make in your own garden. So, in no particular order here are our 20 for the 20’s…

Purposeful. Gardens will be more than something to look at and enjoy; we think they will be increasingly designed and built to achieve things too. So, for instance, they might be helping to manage rain water within your property, or boosting wildlife habitat, etc.
Wildlife. We’d expect to see a more relaxed style to our gardens as supporting wildlife becomes ever more important. Increasing development plans brings with it decreasing wildlife habitat and we expect to see more and more people want to do more for our beleaguered wildlife.
GYO. As plant based diets, increasing food costs and the need to know where our food comes from continue to surge we’d expect to see more people growing their own.
Indoor. Houseplants sales have been a growing trend over the last few years and we’d expect that trend to continue, driven mainly by increasing urbanisation, pollution and lack of access to nature.
Containers. With increasing numbers of renters and gardens getting smaller and smaller container gardening is likely to make a big step forward as a portable, viable option for many dealing with little or no-soil spaces.
Vertical. We’d expect to see many more living walls appear driven mainly by lack of space and a changing climate.
Green roofs. Currently concentrated around London, Birmingham and Manchester we’d expect to see green roofs more widely spread around the UK. The benefits of them far outweigh any negatives.
Low maintenance. While we see the drivers behind people’s decisions about their gardens changing, time-poor people generally want to enjoy their gardens rather than ’maintain’ them.
Technology. Where there’s a will there’s usually an app for it! We expect the use of tech in the garden to grow over the next decade.
Sustainable choices. As awareness of the climate crisis grows we expect growing consumer demand for more sustainable options to elicit significant changes in garden related markets.
Soil. We expect to see soil care taking centre stage in gardens with no-dig outweighing dig methods, home composts and green manures being increasingly used.
Composting. We expect to see increasing numbers of people home composting driven by soil and waste awareness, and economics.
Organic. The organic market has seen consistent steady growth over the last six years and we expect to see that trend continuing through the next decade.
Plastic. Worth a mention of its own, the plastics battle is likely to rage throughout the 20s and beyond. In the design and gardening fields we expect to see a major shift in demand to natural and plastic-free materials.
RRR. We expect to see a buoyant reclamation sector emerge around the landscaping industry as people’s desire to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle materials grows. On more individual levels we expect to see a growing trend for personal upcycling/repurposing garden projects.
Water management. Future predictions for the UK weather points to hotter, drier summers and much wetter, warmer winters so water management is likely to play an increasingly important part of our garden planning.
Adaptive planting. Increasingly our plants need to cope with significant weather events so we expect to see more adaptive planting styles coming to the fore. Plants are likely to be chosen more for their adaptability than their looks.
Trees, shrubs & hedges. With their superior ability to help mitigate flooding, reduce temperature and support wildlife we expect to see a resurgence of tree, shrub and hedge planting across UK gardens.
Plant biosecurity. Increasing awareness of the potential import of foreign pests and diseases into our fragile eco-system will see the demand for reputable plant suppliers rise. However, with new customs practices and probable rise in plant costs we also wouldn’t be surprised to see a rise in black market plant sales potentially bypassing the plant passport system.
British grown. Linked to the above we expect to see a big rise in the use of British grown plants.

Respect your elders… and oaks… and maples… and pines… and…

Trees bring benefits to the garden

It was a sad day. A newly moved-in homeowner rang the death knell for two enormous, mature spruce trees that had occupied the same space since before a house and garden was ever even a thought in the original landowner’s mind, back at the turn of the 20th century. Of course the new homeowner has every right to make that decision about those trees but this story is indicative of a trend that seems to be currently sweeping the UK. Decades, if not sometimes hundreds of years’ growth, are being decimated in a single day by (often) new homeowners who only see potential problems with trees and not their many benefits. Add a ‘potential problem’ to a ‘disposable world frame of mind’ and the result is not going to be a favourable one for many an existing tree.

But we would urge anyone to reconsider that decision to fell a mature tree. Even ignoring the proven wider environmental benefits of trees on our urban environment (an article for another time) – and privately owned trees often constitute more than half of the tree cover in UK cities – from a purely ‘garden design’ perspective the mature trees inherited with a newly acquired garden usually bring fantastic opportunities and benefits with them.

Being able and open to considering what they can offer is half the battle. Assuming they’re healthy and sound, we’d recommend living with inherited trees for at least a year before making any decisions about them. Watch them throughout the seasons and consider what they bring to the garden at different times of the year, in different conditions. So for instance, notice things like colour, fragrance, flowers, height, shade, structure, fruit, wildlife, movement, sound, view… all of these things add to the ‘feel’ of a garden (and in many circumstances were actually part of the reason why you loved the house and garden in the first place!).

Inheriting mature trees is like starting a new relationship – it’s worth getting to know them before ditching them! Oftentimes, the things that you weren’t sure of to begin with become the very things that you grow to love about them, or even if you don’t love some things the other things that you love about them overshadow and far outweigh the things that you don’t; and like all good relationships, compromises can be reached that keep both parties happy.

There may be no alternative to felling when it comes to damaged or diseased trees but for the most part, from a garden design perspective mature trees are virtually impossible features to replace in a garden and finding something even vaguely as versatile and impressive as a mature tree is very costly – if you have inherited one or more in your garden we’d recommend you hang on to them, they are like gold-dust!

Don’t be fooled by gardens in winter

Winter isn’t ‘dead’

It may be the ‘dead’ of winter, but don’t be fooled… contrary to popular belief winter gardens have an awful lot going for them. Not only can a well designed garden look gorgeous in winter, in terms of both gardening and design there is also lots to do in, and about, the garden at this time of year.

...winter can be one of our busiest seasons because for those clients who want to enjoy their garden in the spring and early summertime, it is in winter where all the work is required

As garden designers we’re often asked if we get the winter ‘off’ but honestly, winter can be one of our busiest seasons because for those clients who want to enjoy their garden in the spring and early summertime, it is in winter where all the work is required. The garden design, build and planting process can take anything from 5 to 24 weeks from date of sign up, and even longer in some circumstances – the weather, resource availability and other factors can often get in the way – so counting backwards, if you want to be enjoying those early rays of April sunshine in your newly designed garden you need to be confirmed in our work schedule in December, January or mid-February at the very latest.

But even if a professional garden designer and landscaper isn’t for you; it is in winter that the best laid plans for your garden need to be hatched. It is winter time that allows you to see the underlying structure of your garden and judge whether or not it’s working; it is winter time that is best for physically addressing those structural problems while plants are dormant and space is clear for movement; it is winter time that is the best time for moving plants that you want to keep because of that dormancy and it is the wintertime that precedes the time you most want to enjoy your garden, enabling you to be ready and prepared for the spring ‘rush’ to be outdoors.

If you’re not redesigning but looking after your garden the winter offers the best opportunity to prune trees and shrubs such as wisteria, fruit trees (though not stone fruit trees like plum or cherry), climbing roses, acers and vines. It is a great time for propagating many perennials from root cuttings and shrubs and trees from hard wood cuttings. It is also the best time for the maintenance of structures and tools and there are still many garden maintenance tasks that, if done regularly, will benefit your garden greatly when it does begin to come out of hibernation.

In terms of designing for a beautiful winter garden for next year, structure is the key here.

In terms of designing for a beautiful winter garden for next year, structure is the key here. Structure can be provided by a number of means: well placed evergreen plants, for instance, with different forms, texture and heights really come into their own in a winter garden. Hedge lines and simple topiary shapes like balls and pyramids can look fantastic as do ‘gone over’ seed heads and the stark imposing shapes of deciduous trees. Sheds, obelisks, pergolas, art, water features and trellis all offer structural opportunities for the winter garden along with hard landscaping features like pathways, steps and walls. And don’t forget colour too, just because it’s winter your garden doesn’t have to be dull – think of the neon winter bark of cornus and willow, the bright red berries of holly and the acid yellow/orange flowers of hamamelis, to name a few; not to mention the extensive array of paint hues and shades available to us for a man-made intervention.

Tempted to get out of your cosy armchair yet?? Go on! You know you want to and spring will be here before you know it!

The Slab Effect

The Slab Effect

Love them or loathe them, chances are you have some slabs – paviours to us garden designers – somewhere in your garden. Incredibly versatile and varied paving slabs offer all sorts of opportunities through colour, function and form for garden owners and designers, but not all paviours are created equally. So, how do you decide what’s the ‘best’ paviour for your garden project? Here are some performance related things to consider as a starting point….

Most people tend to go for the look of a paving effect first but it’s worth knowing what you’re going to do with your newly paved area before you invest, so that the paviours themselves are fit for the purpose you intend. So, for instance, are you going to walk over them, drive over them, sit on them, park on them, etc? Will the area be high or low ‘traffic’? What are the prevailing weather conditions that it will be in, will it be in sunshine or shade, hot or cold, etc?

All of these things require varying performance capabilities from a paviour. In our UK climate for instance we need paviours that won’t crack in repeated freezing temperatures or go green with algae and lichen growth when sited in a shady spot, so in this regard when considering a paviour look for water absorption figures/guarantees from suppliers. Reputable suppliers will provide them but unfortunately that’s not the case with many stones available. The lower the water absorption figure, the better the chance of an algae-free shady spot or a cracking paviour in freezing conditions. The suppliers we use typically offer paviours with water absorption level of 1.7%.

Driving over paviours demands strength and flexibility, something that is usually best accommodated with smaller, albeit thicker, paviours. That’s why so many driveways use block paving or setts, the smaller shapes allow for ‘flex’ as the car wheels drive over them, but larger paviours can be used with some careful thought and a suitable base. Never opt for anything less than a 32mm thickness for driveway paviours and preferably choose 40mm, 50mm or more. Flexural strength is sometimes mentioned by suppliers and this refers to the strength of a material in response to flexing stress and force applications – generally the stronger a stone is the less chance there is of it failing or being attacked by frost once it’s laid.

If you’re going to use paviours on pathways and patios choose slip resistant finishes; this used to mean that it’s usually best to avoid highly polished paviours and lean instead to a more textured or rivened finish but many stone suppliers today promise slip resistance on the vast majority of their paving if it is maintained properly, so it is possible to get that smooth, contemporary look with a functional slip free surface with a little more effort. Sandstone or Yorkstone are popular natural stone choices here but we’re seeing many clients opting for vitrified paving now.

Vitrified Paving

The word vitrified technically refers to a conversion/glazing process that turns things into a glass like substance – so ceramic and porcelain are words sometimes used to mean very similar, if not the same, thing – but vitrified paving can look far more natural than you’d usually associate with ceramic or porcelain paviours. The benefits of vitrified paving include exceptional strength, high anti-slip properties and little, to no, water absorption which in turn means high performance and less maintenance requirements.

Of course I’ve only managed to touch upon a few things about paviours within this article – it’s a massive area but other things like colour, shapes, ethical sourcing, bases and the main deal breaker for most of us, price, will have to wait for another day…