What patio slabs work with slate shingles ? - Cant visualise how it will look.

[kiddo]

Hi folks.

I'm looking to create a japanese-style garden and wanted to have lots of bamboo and granite lanterns, slate monolith water features etc. I also want a nice flat sitting area for entertaining/outdoor eating in the middle of all this.

The garden is 7m wide, so I was intending to spread slate shingle around the 1m perimeter (on to which I could have a pebble stream, large slate rocks and bamboo etc) and then I would lay a 4-5m wide patio in the center of this for sitting.

I cant visualise what colour/style of patio slabs would work with this though. Obviously slate slabs would fit right in, but I wondered if having that much dark slate would make the garden a bit gloomy, so wondered if a light cream colour would make an acceptable contrast ?

I've searched the web for any pictures, but cant find anything simular to what I want to achieve.

Anyone got any advice?

Thanks.
Kiddo.

[Tony McC]

The best Japanese style gardens/courtyards I've seen over recent years have nearly all used a light, creamy limestone (NOT Traver-bloody-tine) or a flame-textured dark granite.

If the slate waste you're using is the purple-ish Penrhyn flavour, a truly dark paving will accentuate the colour.

Somewhere in this mire of a study I have a book all about paving styles in actual Japanese gardens as used in Japan, but as I;ve still not managed to finish sorting my library, it could take me a day or two to find it. If I come across it, I'll scan a couple of pages....assuming I can then find the bloody scanner!

[Pablo]

Awright Kiddo Japanese style gardens are very hard to get right but all the ones I have built have been based around dressed natural stone crazy paving (not the broken up 2x2 concrete stuff). These then lend themselves well for blending into paths and steppings stones and bridges etc. What will tie it all together is your planting so be sure to allow enough of your budget to do it well. Try not to fit to many things into the one area as there's nothing worse than an area crowded with features and lacking continuity. Less is more and buy some BIG plants. If the area is shady then best stay away from any light coloured paving or gravel. Good luck.

[kiddo]

Hi Tony + Pablo, thanks for the advice.

I did like the look of the cream limestones, but as Pablo touched upon, some of the area is heavily shady, so maybe I should steer clear of the lighter stuff?

I saw this Patio featured on another website, and quite liked the look it gives. What do you think of the mixed grey colours?

PICTURE HERE

If I was to head down this direction, any recommendations for products?

regards
Kiddo

[Tony McC]

The mixed greys are easiest achieved using granites. If you go for the slightly cheaper Indian sandstone/limestone, you'd have to use Kotah Yellow for the lightest creamy colour, Kandala Grey for the mid grey, and then the Kadapha black or the relatively expensive black sandstone.

[Tony McC]

I think I might be asking for trouble if I scan and post from the book, but as luck would have it, you can see someone else's scans on EBay, where they are selling the book. There are some really lovely pictures...

[url=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Traditional-Japan ... ZViewItemQ
QptZUK_Books_NonFictionBooks_NonFictionBooks_SM?hash=item350123076407&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318]Ebay Item with Images[/url]

....this is a relatively expensive book, and, if I hadn't been given a copy by someone, I'd find it hard to justify the price, especially as ALL the descriptive text is in Japanese.

Konichiwa