A garden is a fantastic outdoor space to give you the ability to enjoy the outdoors with some peace and quiet. A garden is a special place as it’s your piece of land, with the freedom to decorate and design it how you’d like.
Contents
- Types of Patio
- Ways to Incorporate a Patio Into Your Garden
- Do You Have Space For a Patio?
- Will You Use a Patio?
- Alternatives to a Patio
- Conclusion
To enjoy a garden and sit back to enjoy your space, you’ll need a place to sit down and relax whilst enjoying your surroundings.
When it comes to getting a patio for your garden, choosing the right patio is important. There are lots of different styles of patio out there which makes it crucial that you’ll need to find the right patio for your garden. See below for what we’re going to cover in this article!
Types of Patio
With many different types of patios out there, it can seem quite daunting trying to find the right one for you. We’ve included a list of the common ones that you can get from your garden centre or other locations that sell patios. See below!
Gravel
A gravel patio installation is a beautiful way to merge your patio from your grass without a sharp divider. Gravel comes in a wide range of colours to allow you to easily find a patio that is easy to maintain, as well as suiting your garden perfectly.
Gravel is a great patio because of its versatility. You’ll be able to easily add any style of colour you’d like to your patio, as well as being able to move furniture and decorations around with ease. As it’s just a layer of stones, it makes it very easy for you to look after the patio and keep it in good condition. You’ll mainly need to make sure no weeds are growing through, but other than that it’s very easy to keep looking neat and tidy!
Gravel is also a fantastic patio for all-weather options. Due to the natural drainage of gravel, you’ll not need to worry about water collating on the patio after its rained, ensuring that the patio remains a slip-free zone.
Concrete
Another popular form of a patio is a concrete patio. This is an interesting option as there are many different options when it comes to a concrete patio, allowing you to choose the one that suits your needs directly.
Concrete is often similarly priced to gravel and is arguably easier to maintain than gravel is. A concrete patio is a solid slab of concrete in the allocate space to give your patio a perfectly flat and level surface for any seating or decorative desires. Because the patio is a single piece of concrete, there’s no risk of weeds growing through any gaps as there are none, making it even easier to maintain and look after.
Paving Slabs
Paving slabs are a fantastic and very popular choice of patio for many. It uses cut concrete slabs into smaller shapes, often designed in a particular pattern or style, to give some texture and design to the patio as opposed to using a single poured piece of concrete.
Paving slabs are extremely versatile, allowing for many different colours and styles. This is a great option if you’re looking to design a garden that is both appealing, as well as functional, this may be the patio for you.
Paving slabs also offer the ability to extend out of the patio and create walkways in your garden, allowing for a continuous style from the patio around the garden. If you’re a fan of continuity in the garden, this is a great way to keep the paving slab theme growing and continuing across the garden.
When it comes to maintaining paving slabs, you’ll need to be mindful that nothing grows out of the gaps in between the paving slabs as this can damage the aesthetic appeal. Weeds are common to grow through the paving slabs, as are ant nests. These are fortunately a very easy fix for you and something that shouldn’t take long to resolve, but it’s worth highlighting that this is common for paving slabs.
Cut Stone
For a unique looking but still very functional patio, cut stone is a great way of making this happen. Cut stone incorporates lots of large-sized flat stone pieces, with concrete in between them to enforce the patio. There are lots of sizes of cut stone, from large to small pieces, and you can typically expect to get lots of larger pieces with some smaller ones to fit the gap.
Cut stone, also referred to as stone tiles, is a unique style. Every piece of stone is a different shape and can come in a range of different colours, so you can be sure that you’ll get a unique look for your patio. With many colours available you’ll be able to choose a colour that suits you nicely, ensuring that you’ll have the right theme in your garden continuing on.
Flagstone
Flagstone is a popular choice, but a more difficult one to work with. Flagstone is a naturally heavy patio, so the slabs are going to weigh a lot and be difficult to move by one person. However, the investment can definitely be worth it as flagstone is a truly beautiful looking stone.
Flagstone looks very premium when it comes to a patio, which makes it a perfect choice for a patio for someone who wants a place to sit and enjoy their garden. With many different styles of flagstone, from cut stone style to rectangular and square slab style, and with many colours, you can be sure there’s going to be a style out there for you.
Ways to Incorporate a Patio Into Your Garden
When you’ve got an idea for your patio, making sure it’s settled into your garden is extremely important to make sure it doesn’t stand out from the general look and feel of your garden. No matter what style of garden you have, we’ve included some great tips below to help it fit seamlessly into your garden.
Use Plants To Surround the Patio
Plants are a fantastic way of giving your patio some life and character. A patio is a place for you to sit down and enjoy the space, making the most of your garden, which is why surrounding the patio with plants is a great idea.
If your patio is pressed against the fence, you can use this space to put larger plants to give more greenery and provide more leaves to your back as you sit and face the garden, breaking up the look and feel of a fence/wall surrounding you. Using smaller plants around the front of the patio with a gap for a walkway helps to provide you with a surrounded look and feel to your patio, whilst providing you with plenty of garden viewing.
You can make it extremely easy and use potted plants too, allowing you to position plants as you wish without the worry of where they’re going to sit. Potted plants offer the same look and feel and are extremely easy to look after, making them a popular choice for many patio owners.
Create a Lowered/Raised Location For Your Patio
A patio doesn’t have to be at the same level as the rest of your garden, and a couple of inches up or down could transform the look and feel of your garden.
A raised patio can be surrounded by decking or plants, giving the illusion of an island to sit on. This can transform the look and feel of your garden as the raised platform is higher from the rest of the garden, giving you a slightly increased visibility.
A lowered patio is also a great option if you like to be surrounded by nature. Using the above idea to surround the patio with plants, a lowered patio helps you to be more visible with the plants and helps you to nestle away to enjoy the patio and the seating space, without the disturbance of the winds from the rest of the garden.
Create a Dedicated Walkway
When you know where your patio is going to live in the garden, you can then start to plan a walkway across the garden to give yourself a path from your home to the patio. This will allow you to incorporate the patio in with the rest of the garden and guide your guests to the patio naturally, protecting your garden some more.
Add Decorative Features
A patio on its own will stand out in a garden, as it’s a section of the garden that isn’t green. A great way to incorporate decorative features is to allow yourself to express yourself in the garden, and buy things that are going to add additional character. Perhaps you like gnomes, or something similar. Add them in! After all, it’s your garden and it needs to suit you.
Add Unique Features Around the Patio
When you’re sat at the patio, what would you like around you? These are things that you can include in your garden to branch out from the patio to the grass divide. A couple of ideas are:
Water Feature – You can easily add a water feature into your garden, perhaps just a small rectangle or bed or water next to the patio, to break up the greenery. You can even get it plumbed in properly so that its safe for fish to live in, making it even more appealing for you to sit and enjoy!
Pergola – A pergola is a fantastic way to add a little bit of shade around you, as well as allowing nature to grow upwards around your patio. A pergola is a wooden frame that sits around you and doesn’t cover you directly from the sun, allowing you to still enjoy the warmth, but it does provide you with some shade when the sun is positioned correctly.
Pizza Oven/Brick Barbeque – Your patio could incorporate a brickwork structure that allows for outdoor cooking to occur. These are often very easy to build yourself, and there are many kits out there that you can purchase that will allow you to get them yourself and give you a great DIY project to crack on with! This is something unique that adds some flair to your patio and provides something aesthetically pleasing as well as something functional.
Add a Water Feature
A patio is a great place in your garden, so it’s important to include things that suit you. A water feature is something that can be incorporated as part of your patio, allowing a small section of the patio to be dedicated to something a little different.
The water feature could be a small bed of water, which could contain some fish if plumbed in correctly, or even a small trickling waterfall to give the sound of water rushing like a river. For any, this is a relaxing sound and a welcomed one, giving them something a little different for their patio.
Is Your Garden Ready For a Patio?
Getting a new patio is an exciting time for many, as it gives you a place to sit and enjoy your garden without the worry of damaging the grass in any way. However, getting a patio isn’t always the best course of action.
Here we’ll explore a few scenarios to help you understand if you’re ready for a patio, or whether there’s something else you could do instead first to help revamp your garden.
Do You Know Where Your Patio Will Go?
When it comes to placing a patio in your garden, you need to be certain to exactly where your patio will go. If you’re unsure, or you have a rough idea, it’s worth spending some time to truly understand your garden and how you’d like it to look and feel. By doing this you’ll be sure to reinforce the plan and make sure you’re putting a patio in the right place, rather than putting one in without being certain.
Do You Have Space For a Patio?
With many newly-built properties, the gardens are often smaller and don’t offer much room for you to add things into the garden and small garden ideas should be considered. Will a patio take up too much room in your garden?
There are some clever ways to get around this, but its important to make sure you understand the patio and your garden and what sizes you’re looking at. If you add a patio, will it remove too much of the grass in the garden, and is it worth considering removing the grass altogether? It sounds counter-intuitive, but many people have done this due to the reduced maintenance of the garden and the additional seating space they get from covering the garden.
Will You Use a Patio?
A lot of people install a patio into their garden, without the need for one. Especially in a small garden, conserving space and keeping the garden looking nice is important to give you the freedom to enjoy the garden when you please. If putting a patio in will only take that away, and not be used very often, it might be worth considering an alternative or exploring the options for a smaller patio.
Alternatives to a Patio
A patio is a fantastic bit of space for your garden, giving you the flexibility to sit comfortably and enjoy the warmer months with the privacy of your own home. For some gardens, a patio isn’t suitable and isn’t something feasible, so other options are better. We’ve included some here to help give you some ideas in case a patio isn’t quite the right choice for you!
Decking
Decking is a very popular and common alternative to a patio and finding decking contractors is easy. It offers the same space for you to sit in the garden, except its slightly different in that it’s a raised wooden platform. Because it’s a raised platform, you can expect greater drainage from water to leave the decking less prone to being slippery, making it slightly safer than a patio.
However, decking does require maintenance. As it’s made of wood, you’ll need to stain it frequently and the wood is prone to damage and warping, therefore it’s important to keep safe on decking. With this said, decking comes in many different materials, from the traditional wooden decking to the plastic alternative. This removes the need for staining but can be more costly.
Decking is a personal preference, and both decking and a patio provide ample seating space in your garden, so it’s down to your personal preference.
Flowerbeds
If you have a small garden, a flowerbed or two might be a suitable approach to get the best out of your garden. If you’re not too worried about causing any damage to your grass by sitting on it, a flowerbed gives some character and some colour to the garden to make it more appealing to be in.
Flowerbeds are fantastic, as not only are they easy to look after, but the possibilities are endless. You can choose almost any style of flowers and make the garden your own, giving you plenty of flexibility to let your inner colours shine.
Pergola
A pergola is a wooden frame that sits above the garden, providing some shade and something a little different to look at. Although most pergolas sit above a patio, if you’re worried about losing out on grass space you can easily put a pergola up over the garden to provide a divide between the open garden and your seating area, without compromising on the greenery.
A pergola can even be connected to a brick structure, adding a small extension from the side of your home. This is another fantastic way of adding some character to your garden whilst keeping the greenery.
Conclusion
In this article we’ve talked about lots of ideas and ways to incorporate a patio into your garden, giving you plenty to consider when it comes to a patio in your garden.
We’ve talked about the different types of patios out there to give you a good idea of what you can expect from each different one. There are many to choose from, so making sure you choose one that works for you is crucial!
Once you’ve decided as to the style of patio you’d like, the next challenge is incorporating it into the garden. If you have a good idea of what you’d like the garden to look like, this can often be quite easy, but it’s crucial to give it some time to think and properly plan how your garden is going to look. If you don’t, you risk having a patio space that doesn’t quite look finished or mismatched. Your patio is a place for you to sit and enjoy, so it’s crucial that it’s done in the right way and that you enjoy the space.
As great as a patio is, we’ve also included some things to consider before persevering on and getting one laid in your garden. A patio is a great addition to the right garden, but it’s worth considering is it right for you. After all, your garden needs to be right for you!
Last but not least, we’ve included a few ideas around how you can incorporate some character into your garden without the need to include a patio. If you have a small garden, a patio risks taking up too much of the garden, which is why we’ve included a few alternatives to a patio to give you some further ideas. We truly want you to get the best out of your garden, and whether that’s a patio or not, we want to make sure you make the right choice for you.
We hope this article comes in useful to you with your patio planning, and we hope you enjoy your new patio once you make it happen!
