Strip it back, see what you are really standing on.
Worn steps, levels running the wrong way and a yard that had stopped being used. Everything came out first, down to the earth, so the old brick and flint walls could tell us what they needed before anything new went in.
Drainage first. Always.
Channel drainage set around the steps and along the wall lines before a single slab was laid. Rain goes where we send it, not where it fancies. This is the part nobody photographs for Instagram, and the part that decides whether the garden still works in ten years.
Bedded, clipped, checked twice.
Limestone-toned porcelain bedded slab by slab on levelling clips, with the falls designed in from the start. The patio sheds water without you ever noticing a slope, which is exactly how it should be.
Brick, flint and oak, made good.
The brick and flint retaining walls were made good and new courses laid where the garden needed them. Oak sleeper planters went in against the old brick. String lines everywhere, nothing left to guesswork.
Planting brings the brick back to life.
New beds planted to soften the walls, the original wrought iron rail kept and rehung, and stone treads on the rebuilt steps. Old and new sitting comfortably together, which is the whole point of working in brick and flint.
Back in use, rain or shine.
Room to cook, eat and sit. The second photo was taken in the rain on purpose: watch the water sit bright on the surface and slip away exactly where it was designed to go. A garden that had stopped being used, back in use.
