How best to extend patio surface?

[24HoursFromTulseHill]

We've just removed the rotten decking from our garden because it wasn't safe for 2 year old DS to walk on. Underneath it is a concrete paving slab patio which the previous owners had covered up. Whilst they're not the nicest looking paving slabs , they're solid and safe to walk on so we'll keep them for the moment whilst we rebuild the borders and do other improvements to the garden.
However, the decking had been extended beyond the patio, so now there's a strip of earth between the patio and the grass approx 70cm deep and 5.5 metres wide.
I'm looking for cheap, easy & quick solutions to extend the current patio surface, so that we could put furniture on it or walk on it.

One option I'm thinking of is buying some similar looking concrete slabs and filling the the strip with gravel and having the slabs as stepping stone 'islands' with creeping thyme planted in it to soften the look.

Any thoughts on this or suggestions of what else we could do with this strip to extend the hard surface? Don't want to spend lots of money because we'll probabaly be redoing the whole patio in the next few years after the rest of the garden has been sorted.

I'd probably do much as you suggest, and probably put pots on it too. It'll need weeding but pulling weeds out of gravel isn't too bad if you keep on top of it IME.

We have just extended the patio with plastic driveway grids on weed barrier and filled with gravel. It provides a firm bast for walking and stopss the gravel wandering.

How about laying a membrane and shingle? Quick and easy.

You’ll never match it an it will look shit
you can get black paving slabs
so it will look like a boarder

Membrane plus bark will be cheap and easy.

Thanks for the input so far. I've already ordered a weed supressing membrane to put down whilst we finalise our plans.
@rwalker yeah, I know it won't look the same as the other slabs, which is why I'm looking for a solution which will be 'sympathetic' to the rest of the patio but still look different.
The strip is wider than the other slabs (45cm) so too wide to be a solid border and I don't want to lay that many slabs and then lift them all in a few years time when we re-do the paving.

I'd just plant into it, looks perfect for a border.

@Chasingsquirrels I need a surface I can put furniture on and walk on because the current patio is too narrow to comfortably get a table and 3 chairs on.
Plus, my washing line goes across it so I'm currently having to jump over the muddy strip to hang up laundry.