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Perfect Patios - Part 1

© Jane Hollis

Patios, courtyards, terraces - call them what you will - all are essentially outdoor rooms with a hard floor surface where people can sit, eat, drink, read or entertain. They might form part of a larger garden, or they might be a garden in their own right.

Now if you are lucky enough to be creating a patio from scratch, and you have a large budget, then you can easily create a beautiful area. You might choose natural stone, perhaps with mosaic insets, for paving, large specimen plants in hand-thrown pots to decorate the area, a specially commissioned sculpture, an elaborate water feature and designer garden furniture. Hey presto, a beautiful outdoor room!

But for most of us, things are not quite that simple. Time and/or money may be limited and we may have inherited an existing patio with many problems, such as cracked and crumbling concrete, dingy walls and poor soil.

First, have a good think about what you want to use your patio for. Do you plan to entertain lots of friends, or will the area be just for you? Does it have to accommodate children or pets? Is your main aim to grow as many plants as you can? Are you a sun worshipper, or do you prefer to sit in the shade? What do you want in your patio area - lots of container plants, raised beds, barbecue, built-in seating, storage area, spa bath, water feature, sand pit? Do you need space for tool storage, washing line, bins, cold frame or greenhouse? What type of plants do you want to grow - exotics, shade-lovers, vegetables, herbs, alpines, roses?

What style would you like in your patio area - Mediterranean, tropical, English country, minimalist, kitsch? To some extent, you will be guided by your surroundings - grand Versailles style will look pretentious outside a simple, two up, two down, for example. The most important thing is to avoid a mish-mash of styles - don't mix, for example, rustic willow screens, ornate stone urns, modern plastic furniture and garden gnomes!

You also need to think about the areas of sun and shade on the patio - most alpine plants and herbs, for example, prefer full sun. You might want to utilise your darkest corner for utilities such as bins and storage, leaving the sunny areas available for sunloving plants. If your patio forms part of a larger garden, you might find that extending the paved area further away from the house allows more sunlight to reach it.