22 Sep Large patio and planting in Shenfield – Part 1

This is a blog about a large patio and planting area we are building in Hutton Mount near Shenfield, Essex. To follow the progress of this project please enter your email address in the subscribe box to the right of this post. Please note, these updates do not represent the time taken to build the garden.

The planting around the existing patio was overgrown which restricted light into the house and made the area seem claustrophobic. The existing patio was made of crazy paving, lots of the paving had come loose over the last few years.

[one_half] [image size=”medium” lightbox=”true”]https://www.hollandscapes.co.uk//wp-content/uploads/2012/09/garden-design-brentwood.jpg[/image] [/one_half] [one_half_last] [image size=”medium” lightbox=”true”]https://www.hollandscapes.co.uk//wp-content/uploads/2012/09/garden-design-shenfield.jpg[/image] [/one_half_last]
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We started by clearing the shrubs and planting, this gave us a much clearer site to start working on. Next we levelled the raised planter that surrounded the paving and removed all the paving. This left us with an area that could be easily marked out. The next step was to mark out the footings and set the levels. This is extremely important to get right. The top of the footing needs to work to whole bricks to the finished paving height, too low and there will be a large bed or mortar between the paving and the top brick, too high and the fall of the patio will be reduced resulting in water not running off and causing puddles. Once the levels were set and the footings were marked out we poured concrete into all the footings. After the footings had set we excavated the whole area of works. The garden slopes from the right to the left of the house so the left hand side will need more sub-base to build up levels.

[one_half] [image size=”medium” lightbox=”true”]https://www.hollandscapes.co.uk//wp-content/uploads/2012/09/landscape-gardeners-shenfield.jpg[/image] [/one_half] [one_half_last] [image size=”medium” lightbox=”true”]https://www.hollandscapes.co.uk//wp-content/uploads/2012/09/paving-shenfield.jpg[/image] [/one_half_last]
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As this project progresses I will continue to post more blogs. Subscribe to our blog for automatic updates, just enter your email in the box on the right hand side of this blog.