The path to a nicer garden

There are so many times you look at your garden and wonder where to start.

Often you think the only solution would be to totally re-landscape, but a bit of sprucing-up can have a dramatic effect.

Follow these five steps to repointing a shabby old path and you’ll be amazed at the difference it can make...

1. Prepare your path To start, to clear the area. This means getting a sharp spade or shovel, finding the edges of your path and cutting away all the vegetation that’s grown over the top of it.

Even doing this will make the task ahead look a lot more manageable.

Use a stiff broom to sweep the path and lift any loose moss sticking to the stones.

2. Rake out There are a few things you’ll need – a hand brush (that you don’t mind ruining), pointing trowel, hammer and a tool called a cold chisel.

Start at the beginning of your path and prise-up your mortar with a pointing trowel if it’s loose, or a hammer and cold chisel if it’s hard.

As you clear the mortar, use your hand brush to get all the dust out. Be sure to pull out any roots, weeds or bits of green you find, and dig out to the depth of the paving stones.

3. Mix your mortar Wherever you mix it, cement will stain, so you need a large wooden board as a surface.

Calculating how much cement and sand you need can be difficult but, as a rough guide, for a path around 0.7m by 10m, I would use about 2 x 25kg bags of cement and 8 x 25kg bags of plastering sand.

Lay a heavy duty plastic sheet on the ground, put your wooden board on top and tip two bags of sand into the middle of your board.

Add half a bag of cement on top and use a shovel to mix this together.

Once mixed together, pile it in the centre of your board and make a deep well in the middle. Pour about five litres of water into it and mix in with your shovel.

You should be able to pick the mortar up with your hands without it dripping through your fingers, but not so dry it crumbles as you hold it.

4. Re-point until you run out of mortar Cut out about 30cm square of plastic sheeting and dollop about a honeydew melon-sized amount of mortar onto this.

Flatten the mortar down slightly with the back of your trowel to spread it out on the sheet.

Pick up some mortar on your trowel, flop this into the joint between paving slabs and, using the edge of your trowel, chop into the gap.

Keep doing this until you’re flush with the top surface of your paving stones.

To flatten the mortar to the level of your paving stones, smooth the trowel towards you with the flat of your trowel.

Chop the next bit of mortar in and always smooth this into the mortar you’ve already done.

Keep going until you’ve run out of mortar then mix up some more.

5. Mark up any repaired slabs As you work, there may be some paving slabs that pop up.

This can be because roots have got underneath them, but it could also be an ants nest undermining them, for example.

Lift your slab, scrape or cut away what has made it pop up, and put down a layer of mortar to lay the slab on.

This can’t be a smooth layer or your paving stone will have nothing to bed-in to, so chop the mortar in and put a chalk cross on this slab, so you know not to tread on it.

Mortar doesn’t take too long to dry, but make sure you don’t walk on your path until at least the following day.