Paving (patio) for new build

BarneyMc

Myself and my family have been in our new build for a year now and we have to get a patio area sorted for our toddler to run around this summer.

We have a sketch of the planned paving area but the landscaper is suggesting a planting area right up against the exterior walls in places. I like the idea of this - to soften the look of the concrete walls (stone to the front) but can this turn out to be a bit messy in years to come? Is it more practical to just have potted plants?

I've included some pics and the rough plan sketch - it currently doesn't show planting at the walls where the patio is - just at the front. Thanks for any help.

JuliusCaesar

The big disadvantage of potted plants is that they require watering... and if they don't drain properly they can get waterlogged. The planted areas tend to look after themselves pretty much. I also find with pots that they need to be moved, as leaves and debris get caught behind them. A bit of a pain when they are large and heavy. If you don't move them the patio gets quite discoloured. That's my tuppenceworth!

Lumen

Lovely house!

Green stuff is bad for walls (damage) and walls are bad for green stuff (foundation stab preventing drainage). The engineers/builders I know have nothing growing within arms reach of their house walls.

If there's a slab foundation, how far out does it go?

Generally when you are immediately outside the house you're not looking in. You look at the house from a further distance, which can be separated by planting.

You could use freestanding shrubs in raised beds with the soil level a little lower than the rear edge, so that rain is less likely to splatter the wall. But then you've got raised beds built up against the wall, which is possibly bad.

Or a gravel pathway around the house, and then beds outside that.

I have a mixture of gravel, beds, trellis against walls, beds, and freestanding pots. There's stuff growing up a trellis which has destroyed the paintwork on the render, and a bed outside the garden which has probably made the wall dirty although I can't see it. I don't mind the close planting but the trellis was a terrible idea.

I generally don't water the pots (through abject laziness) and there's a survival of the fittest going on whereby only the hardiest stuff survives.

BarneyMc

Thanks guys for your responses - some really useful advice. Except for the one corner that has a lot of pipework, I'm going to ditch the idea of having beds directly against the exterior walls. This will also save a lot of money as there's a lot of work putting down kerbing, filling, etc. and have the obvious benefits of no upkeep, etc. The area with the pipes to hide is relatively small so I think we can manage that ok. Might regret it but there you go!