Would it be a big mistake to pave our back garden?

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

We have some money set aside to go the back garden this year.

At the moment, it is part patio'd by the kitchen door, patio doors to living room and garage and the rest is badly weed infested lawn.

It is north facing, and because of the shape of our house (the garden is inside a kind of V shape) it doesn't get much sun except at the very back, for a few months in the summer.

The drainage is poor, we get rain, garden is sodden for a week, and I hate gardening.
It is not particularly big and is a very off shape.

So I had thought let is get the whole thing paved over, on a slight slope so rain water runs to the outside drain. However I am a bit concerned as I've seen comments about this kind of thing not being kid friendly and wondering if if may put people off buying in the future - we are hoping to sell in a couple of years, if market picks up and we reduce out mortgage some more so we can move closer to DH's work.

Any thoughts/ideas? I want something where I can sit outside, we can get a sand pit for the DCs, I already have some other kiddies toys and was thinking of getting those protective mats to put under the play equipment (we have a small swing and slide set and a plastic rocker).

Paved gardens really put me off, though I can see your argument! Could you build in one easy-to-manage border (maybe even raised) so there is at least some established greenery?

I think there's paving and paving. Grim cement tiles done edge to edge would look awful. Large flags laid in a random pattern (york stone perhaps) with gravel, herbs and small plants between the joins and plenty of space left for some shade-loving perennials could look sensational. You need to introduce a lot of texture to compensate for that by using interesting stone and softening it with planting.

Or you could go in the other direction and have beautiful slate squares laid very uniformly and crisply and have architectural plants and water to add interest.

Disclaimer: I think any sort of paving is only suited to quite a small area, if it is a family-sized garden then it would be a mistake.

Lala - the garden isn't very big - deffo not really family sized!

Gentle - I was thinking of putting a raised bed right at the rear (the sunniest spot) and may be some big pots as well.

Am thinking of some nice stone flags, perhaps some kind of random pattern to create some interest. We have a little bistro set which I would like to put near the rear - currently it is on the existing (boring looking!) patio and never sees any sun!

We had a hard landscaped garden in our last house. Was a 30ft courtyard garden on a slope and previous owner had used gravel to build up terraced levels and it had brick raised flower beds. It looked quite Mediterranean. Was also north facing.

We didn't have kids then and so was a really easy garden to do but house was more of a FTB house than a family house. We sold it to another young couple who also liked the fact it was low maintenance but as lalalonglegs says probably not for a family house!

it can look very prison yard....out back yard was half paved/half concrete when we moved in and I loathed it!

However it is also northish facing, and we have dogs and children so I was never going to grass it!

I hacked out all the concrete edging, lifted a fair few of the edge paving stones and made borders, added in compost and planted.

The concrete is covered with wooden decking slabs which you can pick up and hose under and it looks so much nicer.

And it's very easy to clean, a once over every day with the hose and bleachy water, and a pressure washer to deal with the algae, which you will get if your are north facing.

Not ideal esp if you are planning to sell, though I do agree if it was done in say random York stone with greenery to soften it could look great.
I wouldnt put a raised end in the sunniest area, keep that for a seating/dining area for you!
You can grow plenty of things in large pots which like the shade but I'd really suggest keeping the sunny spot for you to enjoy!

This is a lovedly example of a north facing garden
www.janebrockbank.com/square.html

oh great thread Kara!

I have the exact same problem. small garden, thick clay soil which doesn't drain at all. right now if you walk on the grass you sink into it because it's so sodden

I actually think ours will be more child-friendly if it's paved. the kids can ride scooters/bikes around. they'll have the sandpit and water table.
they'll be able to use it all year, instead of just during the summer.

we also have a front garden which is larger than our rear garden, and that has lawn (one side is driveway) which the children can use anyway

so, i say go for it. but definitely looking forward to hearing more opinions

Thisisyesterday - yes this is what I am getting at, it really isn't child friendly and it would really put people off, because it is unusable. DS would be able to ride his trike if we paved it.

No way are we concreting it, it would look awful!
That square garden looks nice, but with much less greenery - I am not a gardener so would want something low maintenance.

The reason we would put the raised bed in the sunniest spot is it is a very oblique corner, very narrow, so could not comfortably fit the bistro set.

It's probably not going to be very family friendly either way, so you might as well go for what you like. Don't confuse 'green' with 'hard to maintain', though. The easiest thing to look after will be to put in some long-lived evergreen shrubs that will gradually reach about 1.5 metres. You'll need to water them thoroughly in any dry periods in the first year, and prepare the soil well when you plant them, but after that, you should be okay. You'll get plenty of green when they're older, but you won't have to do any work.

<a class="break-all" href="//This|www.marshall-landscapes.co.uk/files/images/courtyard2.JPG" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">This|www.marshall-landscapes.co.uk/files/images/courtyard2.JPG looks quite nice, but there are only 8 plants in it, and 5 or 6 of them are evergreen.

Breaking the slabs up with bricks or cobbles, as they've done here, makes it look better designed and more expensive.

I'm sure those of us on this thread can easily do you a planting list for a garden that will need very little work.

I think shrubs (ideally in raised beds) would be better than pots, because you need to water pots, and I don't think you'd want to do that.

p.s. how much money have you got? Were you planning to do the work yourselves?

Very bad for flooding. The more paving there is the more towns flood. It also makes every thing so hot when people pave gardens.

Grendel - will be getting somebody in to do as DH and I are crap at things like this
We have up to to £2000 to spend on this. Good point about the pots!

this company do great things

some good ideas here in the gallery

If you could have something like this I dont think it would put people off
#www.londonstonepaving.co.uk/paving/product.asp?product_id=26

I do agree with Grendel about pots, you shoudl leave some room for plantign shrubs.
And surely if you pave most of the garden you can arrange the sunny spot for a seating dining area.
IMO most people are keen to have somewhere sunny to sit out and ideally eat, so try and include that if you can.

If you leave some of the slabs without mortar then you can let things like moss or Mind your own busin ess grow in the gaps. Having some gaps and green is also good for wildlife and flooding.

www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/868.shtml

not necessarily Abr1de

dp and I like to think we're fairly eco-friendly and we did consider this aspect when we did our driveway. We spent extra money ensuring it was water permeable, and it actually takes up far more water than our grass does as we dug down and took out a lot of the clay

so. while I agree that traditionally that was the case,. it certainly doesn't have to be. more so i think with tarmac/concrete driveways that are totally impermeable

we'd be looking to do something similar in the back. allowing water to drain through but giving us a garden we could use all year round

Fair enough, thisisyesterday.

Those London Stone square setts are gorgeous - I'm falling over with lust at the pic that Pannacotta picked out of the gallery. Are they muchly money?

Ooh those are lovely Noddy - like the one in the first link!

Yes the bistro set will be in the sunny spot as well, they'll be room for and a plant area - amd thinking of doing a border along the fence that runs down towards the house as well.

Haven't read all the posts but our garden sounds very much like yours,we had small patio areas at each patio door (one in kitchen,one in dining room)

We had a terrible problem with flooding/ clay soil and the grass would be sodding wet for approx 50 weeks of the year, It doesn't help that we live on a hill and the house's at the back are higher than ours.

Thier drainage pipes for the soil exited onto our grass!!

We had no choice but to pave it, as the kids couldn't use the garden anyway as it was.

It worked out fine and haven't missed the grass.
We managed to put a paddling pool on there, had a trampoline until 2 years ago and currently has a wooden playhouse. DD was 3 when we did it and is nearly 8, it has never been an issue.

I'm not worried about selling, (if we ever do) as the rest of the garden is landscaped and looks better imo with the paving, than grass. (i think the state of the grass would have put off potential buyers anyway)

Thanks Jenny. It does look awful at the moment!