Low maintence garden

JJJJNR

I want my garden to look like this:



but it actually looks like this, its completely wasted at the moment and is a complete mud fest.



I want to do the work myself, but I don't know anything about laying patios, I might do the manual labour and get the patio laid professionally.

The current botch job of a patio is set in concrete, is this good or bad, can I use the concrete as my base and just add the new pavers.

I don't want any laying water, would I be better to put in a french drain, how deep should I go , I don't have access to a mains drain without breaking up a concrete pathway, which would involve the expense of hiring someone to do it.

looksee

Without seeing the patio it is impossible to say, but on balance I would say, dig it up. The picture you are aiming for looks very nice, but I would be very doubtful about the pebbles. In general I like them, but. If you have children they get scattered by running on them, playing with them, and chucking them around. They are good for an area that is not going to be walked on a lot, but in that situation shown you would be constantly raking them to make them look good.

JJJJNR

thanks, good point on pebbles, I actually want rid of them now that you mention it, they will be handy for a hardcore base, so you reckon the concrete needs to come out, its probably the best idea to start from scratch.

So if I wanted to patio the whole thing up to the end of the dog run, how deep would I need to go, would 4 inches be enough.

Here's another pic of the patio in its current state, water logged.

macraignil

JJJJNR wrote: »

thanks, good point on pebbles, I actually want rid of them now that you mention it, they will be handy for a hardcore base, so you reckon the concrete needs to come out, its probably the best idea to start from scratch.

So if I wanted to patio the whole thing up to the end of the dog run, how deep would I need to go, would 4 inches be enough.

Here's another pic of the patio in its current state, water logged.

The depth you would need to dig depends on the level of the ground. As a general rule your patio should be sloping away from the house slightly. Its important to get the levels right on your patio so water does not go where it is not wanted.