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garden design patios
Jammy1981
Posts: 14
Hello there,
I am new to gardening and would really appreciate some creative suggestions.... We have a small Victorian terrace house garden. The back of the house is surrounded by 1.5/2.5 metres of concrete. We would like to add to this area of concrete to create a patio(its not quite big enough currently). I'm looking for any ideas to blend the concrete into a patio and the garden in general. Currently we have concrete and then lawn...We can't add to the height of the concrete as the damp proofing isn't tall enough and can't afford to remove the concrete at the moment. So how could we make this look nice (or nicer) for a year or two? I saw Monty Don suggested a thyme patio which I like the idea of.
Sorry for length of post. 
Jas xx
0
Posts
When you say you can't add to the height could you get away with a cm or 2? If so you could mix concrete for the additional patio and also add a little on top of the original so the colour is the same. If you could make square wooden frames the same height as the finished patio and lay them on the ground/hardcore before you start and concrete around them, you could plant them with thyme as long as there is plenty of sun. You will need to make sure there is a small gradient so water runs away from the house. There are lots of video's on youtube which will help
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipObeSJIPjI
You can get concrete dye in lots of colours and also impressions to make the concrete look like flags or bricks.
You can get special paint to apply to concrete so potentially you could change the colour of the concrete to blend with the patio you lay.
I wouldn't recommend laying an extra 1 or 2 cm of concrete. It will have very little strength to it and is likely to break up pretty quickly i.e. over a couple of winters.
I agree KT53 that's a simpler and better idea, it is difficult to successfully bond old concrete to new so it will last
I find distraction works better than sticky tape; would it be better to spend your effort and money turning the existing concrete area into a small courtyard area perhaps with a mirror, some climbing plants and some terracotta pots scattered around? Won't you get more enjoyment from a fragrant rose than a pot of paint!?!
Do you have a photo?
Oh thank you so much!! This is so amazing to be able to get advice (I've never done this before) I agree with all of the suggestions...more concrete could work as we could dig out a bit more lawn so it could go deeper than 2cm on the new bit.
One of the reasons for extending the patio in this are of the garden is that lawn only grows on one side of garden (the sunny side we would sit on) the other side is mulch and moss as it gets NO sun at all!
I will find a picture and post it. Thanks again x
Excuse the stupid photo....we are pulling up the path I am standing on to increase the border on that side and increase the lawn space (this is the sunny side) where my friend is standing (next to the house) is sunny in the evening so that's why we thought we could increase the concrete/patio) the side of the garden you can't see (right hand side) is pretty much always in the shade. x
This is an old photo the decking and beds have gone (tried growing veggies but too many local cats thought they were litter trays)!