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Laying pavers is easy<br />
PAVING PART of your garden will<br />
create an extra “room” for your<br />
barbecue, a couple of sun loungers,<br />
or a table and chairs.<br />
Work out where you want the<br />
paving stones. An area with a bit<br />
of slope is good for drainage, but<br />
make sure it does not slope towards<br />
the house.<br />
Measure the area, in square metres,<br />
so you can calculate how many<br />
pavers you will need. Allow five per<br />
cent more for those you will have to<br />
cut to fit odd spots.<br />
Dig the area and level it. Don’t<br />
recess it too much as the paving<br />
stones should be above the ground<br />
to stop water pooling. About 10<br />
or 12cm is the right depth for foot<br />
traffic.<br />
Build a thick base of gravel or<br />
stone chip by putting one thin layer<br />
over another compacting each time<br />
with a large rubber hammer.<br />
Put in edging restraints (buy<br />
concrete edging from hardware<br />
stores) to hold up a free edge of<br />
stones.<br />
Put down about 3cm of sand<br />
on the top of your base layer of<br />
gravel.<br />
Lay the paving stones in the sand<br />
and use the hammer to settle them.<br />
Wear earmuffs and safety glasses.<br />
Sweep sand over the paved area to<br />
fill in gaps.<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
NEAT: Use paving stones to transform your outdoor<br />
living area.<br />
GARDENING 31<br />
Don’t battle the<br />
elements, plant in pots<br />
Wednesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>24</strong> <strong>2021</strong> <strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong><br />
GARDENING IN pots is a<br />
spectacularly rewarding and low<br />
labour hobby.<br />
Instead of battling the elements,<br />
treating tired old soil, weeding<br />
and digging frantically, you<br />
simply tip the prepared perfect<br />
potting mix into the container,<br />
follow it up with the plants, water<br />
and wait.<br />
It’s hard to go wrong. You just<br />
move the pot around until you’ve<br />
found the perfect sunny or shady<br />
spot, without disturbing the root<br />
system, because a container garden<br />
is portable.<br />
You can move it about your<br />
home, patio or garden to fill bare<br />
spots at any time of year.<br />
And best of all, when you move<br />
house, you don’t have to leave<br />
your cherished garden behind –<br />
they all shift with the furniture.<br />
Furthermore, container gardens<br />
look great anywhere – as hanging<br />
baskets on terraces and pergolas,<br />
half round containers spilling<br />
colour down a wall or fence, or<br />
simply sitting on paved areas,<br />
decks and steps.<br />
For best effect, plan your<br />
planter by height as well as colour.<br />
You can mix annuals with a<br />
central perennial until the peren-<br />
MINIATURE: Gardens can<br />
be grown in containers and<br />
pots.<br />
nial gets well established, and in<br />
the meantime, enjoy a miniature<br />
garden rather than a miniature<br />
plant surrounded by bare earth.<br />
You can dispense with the annuals<br />
when the perennial takes<br />
over.<br />
Container gardeners can pretty<br />
much give up weeding altogether.<br />
But you don’t need to do a bit of<br />
soil maintenance from time to<br />
time, because the plants aren’t<br />
in a self renewing environment<br />
– they’re relying on you to give<br />
them nutrition and moisture.<br />
Looking for<br />
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