Soft touch
Paving your garden may be practical but it’s not pretty. Add some interest with clever planting that will work for both you and your home
Plants are a great way to breathe some life back into outdoor living and they’ll easily soften hard landscaping in the garden.
Pretty up your patio with pots or opt for ornamentation on the driveway to add flair – and a little care – to your outside space. Strike a balance
Paving your garden can be really functional, especially if you’re using it every day.
It reduces the amount of mud and debris being dragged into the house and provides a year-round space for relaxing and for kids to play outside.
But it’s best to strike a balance between hard landscaping and the green growth you’ve got in place.
Plants offer a multitude of benefits. For one, planting them in the ground leaves a porous surface for rainwater to filter through, but they also give homes shelter and insulation.
They even do a great job of keeping our air clean by storing carbon and releasing oxygen.
So, clever planting in and around patios is the key to getting the best of both worlds – functionality and form.
Climbing plants will help insulate your home all year round
Colour that climbs
If you’ve got a paved driveway, chances are that it’s stone or brick and covers most of your home frontage.
This can be really practical but it doesn’t offer all the great benefits of a front garden softened by greenery.
It’s easy to incorporate a little bit of plant life back into the equation, though.
If space is tight, grow vertically. Use fences, walls and the front of your home to support climbers. Clematis, jasmine and honeysuckle can all be added at the base of a wall or trellis
Plants such as ivies will cling to surfaces independently, but honeysuckle or clematis will need a framework, like a trellis.
Once established on external walls, climbing plants will insulate your home all year round and also offer great nesting for garden birds. Easy peasy pots
Position pots on paved areas. This will give uplifting pops of colour but tall plants like conifers, lollipop bay trees, patio roses and lavender will look amazing.
Spring-flowering primulas or violas can also be added to low-lying pots or hanging baskets of any size, so they’re a really easy win.
Keep your pots going all year round by visiting your local garden centre and seeing what in-season plants
take your fancy. Not only will these give you an uplifting welcome home every day, but plants naturally filter pollutants from the air. This means a few strategicallyplaced window boxes can help keep our homes healthy indoors, too.
Blanket brick
If you want to include a carpet of interest to break up dull brickwork, look no further than low-growing forget-me-nots, which often self-sow in paving cracks and are very hardy. The bright blue flowers have yellow centres and give an ornamental spread throughout spring and summer.
For something with a little extra touch, go for mat-forming growth that gives a kick of scent.
Creeping thyme is perfect for this. It is quite happy to spread out over stone and roots and will withstand footfall.
Chamomile nobile ‘Treneague’ is also often used to create a chamomile lawn as it’s aromatic when crushed.
Not only are these sure to bring sensory satisfaction but plants like this are a low-maintenance way to help the wider eco-system – even providing nectar for bees when they flower.
Paving picks
One perfect solution for front gardens is a hard surfacing product that’s crosshatched, or has been designed to allow for natural growth to poke through. Cobblestone or mosaic-style brickwork allows for natural selfseeding of plants, which often looks really beautiful.
For back garden stoops, patios and courtyards that may suffer from waterlogging or drought, clever design can work in sync with your garden’s fauna and flora. For instance, natural stone products are a great way to keep things ticking along nicely.
Limestone aggregate is not only strong and long-lasting, but it also drains really well, as does gravel.
Or maybe you want the paving to direct water onto lawns or borders? This can work really well if these areas are planted up with thirsty plants, like hostas.
Design can play a big part in getting your hard landscaping to work for you. For instance, perhaps you don’t want to pave straight across the lawn and would benefit from a stepping-stone effect for access without losing out on the lawn surface area.
With a little tweak here and there, you’ll find a perfect fit between sleek urban designs and family functionality, giving marvellous Mother Nature a modern-day twist.