What one item or feature is the most important in a garden landscape today ?

So a question ?

What one item or feature would you add to your or your clients garden today?

When we started out with our then new company back in 1984, we identified “designer drives”, especially drives with an ‘In & Out’ drives as the most important. Sure enough within 6 months our order book stretched out into the following year.

The first drive we built in the then traditional way, hardcore sub base, with natural frost proof bricks laid on wet mortar and then pointed with a stiff one to three pointing mix – it took ten days!

Then we remembered a new dry-lay product we had used when we worked in the parks department, it had been designed for bus stops. Called ‘monolok’ it was a ‘z’ shaped concrete block.

We called Marshalls the manufacturer who dispatched a sales rep with a new rectangular version, available in grey and off red only … we loved the product but were not over enthusiastic about the colors.

Other firms descended on us for information, our advertising, which showed sporty cars sitting on interlocking concrete block and brick paving, produced lots of interest.

 

It wasn’t long before the manufacturers were calling wanting to take pictures of our drives. Which they used in their advertising material.

 

An example of a brick drive 

Here we used stock brick paving. Although fairly soft, with somewhat irregular shapes, requiring much shorter modules, it keeps its color very well.

Here a much harder engineering quality natural brick is used to good effect. Although to be honest it looks a little ‘hard’

The next was concrete block paving, these were very hard, initially with limited colors. The color does fade quite quickly. They are also quite slippery in the ice.

Some of my favorite materials to use.

As our order book enlarged we started offering more expensive solutions, such as granite setts – something the Romans introduced.

These drives are very hard wearing, color fast, strong, again a little slippery in ice.

 

It wasn’t long before we included ‘Fish scale’ versions, these took quite a long time to set out, but looked absolutely amazing when completed.

Then these circular natural sett patterns became popular. The radial patterns create a strong a sense of movement – just look at them long enough, they seem to ‘move’

What new trend, item or feature do you think will be the favorite for 2020?  

We will interview the top three on our radio show  Growingtrends.org during the year.

Just drop us a line with your suggestions..

 

 

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