Yard/garden advice

kuepper

My yard/garden is mainly covered in concrete which i'm sick of looking at. I assume it'd be costly to rip up concrete so am thinking of covering the concrete area with gravel and putting some stone flags on top as a path between gate and back door, i'd then just need some sort of border between the gravel and the partially planted areas at the sides. My existing pots would just stand on the gravel instead of the concrete. I'm not v practical and wondered if there are any pitfalls involved in my proposals - eg drainage, do the flags need to bedded other than in the gravel - and whether I could likely do it myself or have to pay a gardener. Thanks

DaftyDuck

I'd rip up the concrete myself. It looks pretty old and crumbly, and a pick-axe should be enough. You've a lovely collection of pots, and making a pretty front garden with more soil would be my priority personally. I'd struggle to lay flags over concrete evenly, I think they would have poor drainage, and they might bridge yhe damp course at the house end.

I'd break the concrete into lumps myself, rather than get someone in, and chuck it in a skip. Cost? Pick-axe twenty quid, sledge hammer 15, skip 150. Time, 3 days, allowing for doing it very slowly and taking lots of breaks. That'd include tidying up the soil, possibly having to add a load of topsoil, and then planting out some more plants.