Early spring is the time to get planning any hard landscaping (including raised garden beds) so that you can have it finished before your flowers take over – and have time to add any more planting you may want.

Does your patio or garden have a need for more seating areas? I’ve found in my back garden that the courtyard is in the full glare of the sun the majority of the day, and I’m contemplating creating a seating area towards the bottom of the back garden nearer the shade of my hazel tree.

Maybe you find that your main patio only enjoys direct sun light in the early morning or evening hours, and that you yearn to take your table and chairs to another area of the garden where the sun shines at different times of the day.

Or maybe your back garden is simply too tiny for a main patio and you are just looking for a good-looking hard-standing area to place a small table and chair set on.

Making a small seating area is not difficult and can certainly make a huge difference to how you use your garden – additionally, it can function as another area to show your containers, and can change throughout every season as you make use of it to show off seasonal displays.

A simple way to create a small seating space is by making use of a paving kit that supplies everything you need to construct a shaped garden paving area – circles and squares are most favored and are available in all types of finishes, from olde-worlde styles to more modern designs. Pick one that really stands out to make a feature, or decide on a more delicate design that blends easily into your back garden. The benefit of these kits is that everything is supplied ready cut, and there are easy-to-follow instructions. Simply take your time to make sure you’ve got a level base to work on before starting and you’ll be sitting pretty by summer time.