Tarmac shares its top tips on using concrete to make a design statement.
Modern and visually appealing, concrete is increasingly being used in exterior garden design, with its durability, resistance and functionality making it a popular material for many UK builders. In this article Ryan Moss, senior commercial manager at Tarmac, looks at how builders can use concrete to make a bold statement in outdoor spaces.
In 2021, Brits spent an astounding £18.6 billion on their garden, making the average money paid by a single adult, £690 (Statista). This is due to the growing trend to use the garden for leisure and outdoor living. Builders have now been presented with the opportunity to be even more creative and add more value to their customers’ outdoor spaces.
Here’s our top four recommendations on how builders can use concrete to make a bold statement in the garden.
Walls bursting with life
An increasingly popular trend, living walls can help bring texture and height into a garden. Gardening has never been so popular, as green-fingered people take the time in their homes to nurture plants, perhaps more aware of the wellbeing benefits too.
In smaller gardens – where there is not enough space to allocate hard landscaped areas for sitting and entertaining alongside spaces for growing – vertical living walls provide a fantastic opportunity to combine the two.
In its simplest form, a vertical wall can be trailing or climbing plants which are planted in wall-mounted containers or pockets, sometimes with a sheet of polythene behind. Lower maintenance solutions, such as tiered wood shelving planters or vertical frames with hanging plant pots can also be used, providing a cost-effective vertical growing option.
For a real visual impact, however, suggest turning a new or existing wall into a vertical garden to provide additional space to grow flowers. By using complex moulding forms and pouring concrete, you can create incredibly stylish cost-effective designs.
Creating zones
Walls can be much more than just a practical boundary solution. A wall can create a standout feature, define a space or frame a view to add real ‘wow’ factor to the garden. Tall walls can also be used to seclude a space, providing privacy and security.
Of course, tradespeople have a choice of materials for walls including timber, bricks and blockwork, but concrete offers a practical, stylish and easy solution with a host of design opportunities too. By simply building forms and pouring a high-strength product such as Tarmac Blue Circle High Strength Concrete (40N), it is easy to create eye catching dividers as part of a garden project.
When using moulds or forms – and adding alternative materials for texture and contrast – the possibilities are endless. For example, if customers are looking to add height to an existing wall, suggest using a no-mix concrete product, such as Tarmac Blue Circle Postcrete, to secure upright posts to the wall. These can provide a frame for horizontal slats of hardwood, such as cedar, which will add texture and interest to the space.
Another simple but effective way to create zones in the garden is through decorative aggregates. From chippings and cobbles, to slate and bark, there are a wide range of materials available through merchants to help create zones and borders.
Suggest coloured aggregates and different textures, for low-maintenance solutions that can complement existing planting or landscaping too.
Hard landscaping
Homeowners are also looking for ideas to improve their kerb appeal and make maintenance an easier task. A practical trend which we expect to see more of in 2023 is hardscaping. This involves large concrete slabs which are a more permanent feature and could even feature geometric patterns or unique shapes.
Concrete castings can be produced in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, enabling homeowners to get creative with designs that are not only functional but also hard-wearing.
Additional jobs
Of course, not all landscaping projects are determined by the bigger jobs. Something as simple as checking for unstable fence posts or empty joints between paving slabs can keep a garden in shape during summer.
For unbalanced fence posts, use a quick setting, no mix concrete product, such as Tarmac Blue Circle Postcrete. Bury the post below the ground, then simply fill the hole one third with clean water and pour in the Postcrete evenly around the post until dry powder is visible on the surface. The Postcrete will set in as little as 10 minutes.
For more information, visit Entrance – Tarmac (tarmac-bluecircle.co.uk).
