The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:13 pm**

The area behing my house measures about 12metres x 12 metres. It is tarmac over concrete with a 2 metre wood fence over concrete panels, around the periphery. It looks like a small car park and I'd like to soften the appearance and create a pleasant, mainly hard-surface "garden". I'd welcome comments on the following plan.
I aim to create (by cutting away the concrete and tarmac)quarter circle (2m radius) planting areas in the two corners furthest from the house. These would be bordered by a low circular stone wall. There would also be planting areas cut through the concrete, along the farthest wall. These would contain climbing plants to grow up trellis fixed onto the wood fence.
More or less central, I aim to have a 3m circle in precut Indian stone (York Green). This would be level, although the present concrete and tarmac slopes about 1 in 50 away from the house.
The plan would then be to complete the surfacing with new tarmacadam. this would accommodate the different slopes around the Indian stone circle.
I think this would look OK but some friends have expressed doubts about putting tarmac and Indian stone together.
Are there any problems relating to the suitability of these materials?

Posted: **Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:26 am**

Would look s****.

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:35 am**

Would still look like a carpark, but with a bit of Indian Sandstone thrown in, fetching.

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2011 7:17 am**

it would look better than it does now, but you wont win any prizes
what about resin bonded gravel on the tarmac if its in good condition?
cheers LLL

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:46 am**

For a garden, tarmac and concrete never works well. i'd rip out all of the tarmac and introduce other materials. These kind of projects come down to personal taste.Do you want a car park, or a garden? In a commercial setting you would probably get away with it but for private use it would look a bit, er' well, commercial i suppose.

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:10 am**

Thanks all for your replies. It looks like the Indian stone circle isn't the bright idea I thought it was.
By the way SeanandRuby, none of the concrete is visible. The concrete is a 6 inch thick layer below the tarmac. The visible surfaces would be 1. soil/plants; where I cut through the concrete. 2. Sandstone paving, if I go ahead with this and 3. New tarmac.
However, from your replies - maybe tarmac shouldn't be the main surface. I could scrape off the tarmac - so a variety of paving surfaces (over the concrete) are possible. I've never heard of resin bonded gravel (thanks LLL) - but I'll look it up.

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:56 pm**

posted in the wrong topic

Posted: **Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:58 pm**

resin bonded does look good when laid correctly, why not just put decking down (sorry boss for using the D word)

Posted: **Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:53 am**

John don't be disheartened mate. At the end of the day we can only picture in our mind what you are trying to say. I think most people are against the use of tarmac in a garden, although i have seen it done. I personally don't think it should be done but it is all down to personal aesthetics. Give us some photo's and we can advise more. Some parts of your plan are workable. Don't be put off asking more questions. Regard ,Sean

Posted: **Sun May 01, 2011 9:16 am**

Could anyone give me advice on posting an image please? I want to post an image stored in "my pictures" but can get no further than "you must enter a URL"

Posted: **Sun May 01, 2011 11:27 am**

You have to upload the photie to somewhere on the interweb. That 'somewhere' will have an address referred to as its url. You include the url in your post, as described in the "How To...." guide, and then the elves inside the Brew Cabin know where to look for it when they need to glue it into position in a posted message.

The photie could be uploaded to, say, Flickr, Faceache or any of the umpteen online photie storage websites.

Posted: **Sun May 01, 2011 12:13 pm**

Photobucket is a popular choice
http://photobucket.com/

The Brew Cabin

Construction patio area using stone and tarmacadam - Landscaping