When a garden is left like a blank canvas it can be very exciting to design a new one with winding paths, lovely stone paving, maybe a garden pond, some decking and some mood lightng for warm summer evenings. However, the reality is, in most cases, that to get to a blank canvass we have to tear up and remove whatever is there in the first place. In these pages we show you how to break up concrete and how to clean bricks for reuse. We show you how to dig out for paths and driveways and how to make sure they are well drained when you have built them. Once all the groundwork is done we show you how to design a garden and how to set it out making sure the paths and paving slabs you lay will stay there for some considerable time!
Adding a chiminea to your patio can really set it off
We show you how to use demolition equipment such as wrecking bars and how to use the construction tools you will need to build your patios and paths. We give you information on how much sand and cement to order as well as how to work out how many paving slabs you need. There are sections on block and brick paving for very special driveway finishes and if you use this section with our section on brickwork and blockwork you can learn how to build garden walls, retaining walls and screen block walling to finish your garden off.
Building a base for a driveway is covered here as well as how to place and fix the edging stones to stop the drive spreading when driven on. We cover all sorts of surfaces for driveways and garden paths and other sections show you how to put lovel fences up the side of your paths.
There are videos to show you how to lay paving slabs diagonally to be a little different and we show you how to prevent weeds from growing up between your patio slabs. Finally when the garden is done, we show you the best way to clean the paths and patios and how to repoint the slabs when any of the sand has settled in the joints.
