Home Gardening Guide - Garden plants

If you want a soil bed, you may have to remove some earth if it's poor quality and replace it with good topsoil from elsewhere in the garden. Alternatively, you could use John Innes potting compost.

When you've marked out the area with pegs and string and checked that it is the right shape (both visually and from a practical point of view) excavate the area to a depth of 15cm (6in) using a spade. Avoid loosening the soil beneath that depth. If you are laying paving stones up to your house, the ground will need to be excavated to a depth of 15an (6in) plus the depth of two bricks below the damp pouf course of the building.

2 Spread a layer of `scalpings' over the area and firm it with a powered compactor. Aim for a finished depth of 10cm (4in). Hammering wooden pegs into the ground so that they indicate the finished depth of the scalpings will make sure you maintain an even covering. Aim for a slight fall away from the house so that water runs off the finished patio and away from the building. Use a spirit level and a long board to achieve this.

Lay out the slabs in their final positions. This is important if you are using random sizes of paving. Fitting the jigsaw together before you lay the slabs on mortar will avoid mistakes later. Aim for a pleasing pattern, with different-sized slabs next to one another. Start laying against the house wall (or from a fence or wall if the patio is elsewhere in the garden) and work outwards. Leave 1cm (in) gaps between the slabs to allow for grouting.

4 Lift a few slabs to one side, remembering where they were positioned. Mix a barrow- load of bedding mortar at a time. Make it reasonably sloppy so that it can be easily worked with a builder's trowel. You are aiming for a bed between 5 and 8cm (2 and 3M) deep which will be fine for domestic traffic. Use the point of the trowel to texture the surface of the mortar into 'waves'.

5 Lower each paving slab in to place and tap it firmly with the handle of a lump hammer. The waves in the mortar allow for the height and level of the slab to be adjusted. Use a spirit level to make sure that the slight fall away from the house is maintained, and that the slabs are positioned evenly within this fall. Keep off the newly laid paving for at least 24 hours to allow the mortar to harden.

6 Once the slabs are set, fill in the gaps between them with the moist grouting mixture. Firm it into place with your fingers (gloves prevent cement from dessicating your hands!) and then rub it smooth with a grouting 'iron'. The mixture will take up water from the soil and scalpings below by capillary action, and eventually set hard. Sweep away any excess with a hand brush and then over the entire area with a soft broom.

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