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Surfacing incorporates a substantial range of applications such as paths, driveways, steps, terraces, patios and work areas. Each of them has their different demands and expectations. And, although appearance is very important, it is the texture of a material that will govern your choice.
It may be easier to illustrate this by giving few examples. A children's play court should also be soft enough to cushion a fall. On one hand, a formal seating region needs to be level to accommodate furniture, be easy to clean and should link the garden to the house. So, while wood play-bark chippings would be just right for a children's garden, they would be texturally challenging for a formal seating space, where stone paving slabs may be more suitable.
The main areas within a garden that need to be given a hard surface can be broken down into three categories, each with their own demands in terms of appropriateness of material.
Areas for relaxation, utility areas to house dustbins, to pot plants and to work in general, and access areas that will link all these other areas together, usually recognised as pathways
These can be broken down further into three considerations that influence the choice of surfacing material; practicality, aesthetics and cost.
Although a good, practical surface needs to be hardwearing, a lot of the trust you put into a material of this nature relies on the construction and application of the material itself.
The selection of a material is influenced by the use of an area. Driveways have very heavy loads to bear, and therefore necessitate much stronger foundations than a patio or a walkway. When planning a path or a patio, texture is more important for these more regularly used spaces. Textured materials are needed for slopes, ramped or slippery areas to provide non-slip finish and they can also slow down or speed up traffic over a surface. An evenly laid area with concrete will allow the user to move quickly over it, but a cobbled surface will be not easy to walk over and therefore will slow traffic down.
As with most hard landscape choices, the style of the house and its surrounding environment is the obvious starting point when you are considering your options.
With a wide range of surfacing materials available to us now through the greater ease of transportation, a garden can easily become a mishmash of ideas and materials. If a garden is large, there may be a temptation to include as many different materials as possible. While innovation is encouraged, having some restraint on the number of materials used in any one space should be exercised and well selected.
Many people feel that surfacing materials should not impinge on the garden but should be a quiet, supporting accompaniment. However, in more ornamental areas I feel that even though a surface should not take the centre stage, there is no reason why it cannot have more status in the overall style of your garden, setting the tone for the rest of the space if this is appropriate.
