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Alexander Rose

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Kadai

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Outdoor Cooking

You don&#39;t have to stick with one type of paving for your patios and paths: in our garden centre we have lots&nbsp;of different types of material so you can mix and match.

Break up an expanse of sandstone by edging slabs with contrasting red brick, or put rows of sets between&nbsp;paving slabs to enjoy the natural, textured look of stone while keeping a smooth surface to walk on.

Cobbles or broken ceramic tiles are a great way of making your patio altogether more artistic by using&nbsp;mosaics and patterns. Draw your design out first and lay it &#39;dry&#39; before putting down a mortar screed to do it&nbsp;for real. Double-check everything sits flush with the surrounding slabs so you don&#39;t get an awkward change&nbsp;in level.

You can also soften your patio paving with plants. Some low-growing herbs love to be walked on: look for&nbsp;creeping Thymus serpyllum, pennyroyal mint or the lawn chamomile &#39;Treneague&#39; in our garden centre.&nbsp;Replace pointing mortar with compost and plant in ribbons between paving, or remove single slabs here and&nbsp;there for fragrant herbs at your feet.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about how to combine different&nbsp;paving textures in your garden.

Combination paving

Handsome, organic and hardwearing, stone is the connoisseur&#39;s choice for hard landscaping. Use a single&nbsp;stone right through your garden, for paths, patios and hard standings, and the whole design comes together&nbsp;in pleasing continuity.

There&#39;s a huge choice available in our garden centre, so here are some options to help you decide:

Local stone: mellow Yorkstone is the best known of UK stones and has a fabulous naturally non-slip finish.&nbsp;Granite, basalt and limestone are other locally-sourced options and very beautiful, but can be slippery when&nbsp;wet so apply a textured surface before laying.

The economic choice: a cost-effective and popular choice is sandstone, available in various colours&nbsp;including cream, grey and coloured. Surface textures include riven (with a gentle, natural ripple) to artificially&nbsp;textured and smooth sawn. It&#39;s non-slip when wet and weathers beautifully.

Artificial stone: manufactured from cast concrete reconstituted stone, artificial paving is a truly flexible&nbsp;and economical alternative giving you a vast choice of finishes and effects. Choose from contemporary&nbsp;finishes, &#39;terracotta&#39; tiles, imitation wood or traditional style paving that looks just like the original but for a&nbsp;fraction of the cost.&nbsp;

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about choosing stone for your&nbsp;garden.

Stunningly good stone

Tiles are an unusual but very beautiful choice for paths, terraces and seating areas in a garden, especially&nbsp;in small city courtyard gardens. A good trick is to take the same tiles you use inside the house out into the&nbsp;garden, making your outside space an extension of your home.

In our garden centre you&#39;ll find a range of tiles to choose from: try warm terracotta quarry tiles for a hint of the&nbsp;Mediterranean, or blue-and-white ceramic to recreate the cool peace of an Islamic garden.

Select non-porous tiles designed to be used outdoors, and work out in advance how many you&#39;ll need for&nbsp;the space, remembering to factor in a 1cm grouting gap. It may help to &#39;dry lay&#39; your tiles before you begin,&nbsp;especially if you&#39;re planning to lay coloured patterns.

If you&#39;re competent at DIY it&#39;s straightforward to lay tiles yourself on a 2cm deep screed (mixed 1 part&nbsp;cement to three parts sand). Seal the tiles afterwards to protect them from weather and staining: you may&nbsp;need to re-apply the sealant every few years to keep your terrace looking good.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about how to use tiling to enhance&nbsp;your garden.

Tiling talent

Hard landscaping is the backbone of your garden - the architecture which sets off the rest of your design.&nbsp;Using one or at most two styles of paving throughout your design pulls it together and makes the garden&nbsp;work as a whole, so choose carefully from the selection in our garden centre in %locations%.

Paving slabs: you&#39;ll find both pre-cast concrete or natural stone in our garden centre. Match slabs with the&nbsp;sandstone, limestone or granite of your local area so your garden blends into the wider landscape.

Cobbles and setts give a timeless, fabulously textural surface. Use them to break up expanses of smoother&nbsp;paving or create a cobble mosaic in different colours for a spectacular centrepiece.

Brick is a great choice for city gardens, echoing the buildings around it and linking your garden to the house.&nbsp;Lay across a path to make your garden look wider, or along it for the illusion of length.

Gravel is easy to lay and very versatile. It&#39;s also permeable, allowing excess rainwater to run through - use&nbsp;in ribbons between other paving materials to drain surface water away.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about using paving in the garden.

Paving

Once you&#39;ve installed your garden lighting, make life easier for yourself by connecting it to an automatic&nbsp;system which turns it on and off for you, so you never forget to turn your lights on &ndash; or off at the end of&nbsp;the evening. Automating your system also helps save energy by dimming the lights when full power is not&nbsp;needed, or turning lights off when nobody is in the garden in %locations%.

All the garden lighting you&#39;ll find in our garden centre can be automated so it&#39;s controlled from a hand-held&nbsp;remote, key fob, or programmable remote console, switching lights on at a time you choose and switching off&nbsp;again, too. You can even control your lighting choices from a smartphone via an app.

Alternatively, PIR (passive infrared, or movement detecting) sensors turn lights on only when someone&nbsp;walks by &ndash; perfect for garden path lights. You can also programme the sensors to come on at dusk and go&nbsp;off at dawn. An outdoor PIR unit is wireless, with a range of about 25 metres, and many have variable light&nbsp;settings.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about automating your garden&nbsp;lighting.

Automatic garden lighting

Lighting your garden after dark transforms your outdoor space into an evening living room under the stars.&nbsp;Even when the weather isn&#39;t perfect, looking out at your spotlit garden from indoors means you can enjoy&nbsp;your garden long after nightfall. Here are just a few ways to use lighting in your garden:

Spotlights highlighting special features like trees or statues turns them into theatrical statements. In our&nbsp;garden centre you&#39;ll find angled spotlights to place anywhere within the cable&#39;s length for varied lighting&nbsp;effects. Spiked versions go discreetly in the soil, but models with clips or brackets are fixed up high.

Lanterns and flares offer a soft, romantic backdrop to dining out: some incorporate insect repellents.&nbsp;Japanese lanterns in stone transform with a flickering candle at night, while simpler lanterns can be strung&nbsp;together to hang above your table: both are available in our garden centre.

Recessed lighting make steps and paths safer, as well as softly lighting patios and eating areas. Post lights&nbsp;or lighting set into walls are neat and inconspicuous: brick-shaped lamps can also be built into walls and&nbsp;steps, with translucent plastic or hardened glass covers.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about choosing garden lighting.

Garden lighting

Different types of lighting in a garden produce entirely different results, from a soft, gentle glow to the clear,&nbsp;bright light of safety spots or security lights. The choice is yours: but to help you decide, here&#39;s a lowdown of&nbsp;the main varieties of lighting you&#39;ll find in our garden centre in %locations%.

Fluorescent: a low energy alternative to halogen lamps, producing a warm white light with less glare and&nbsp;using two-thirds less electricity. They last twice as long as halogen, too.

Halogen: really clear low-voltage light ideal for driveways, decking, patios, pathways, sheds and house walls&nbsp;&ndash; anywhere where you need to see your way.

LED: the most long-lasting lights you can buy, with up to 50,000 hours of bulb life, and incredibly versatile as&nbsp;you can get LED garden lighting for almost any situation.

Solar: an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional garden lighting with a soft, glowing light, requiring&nbsp;no wiring and charging themselves even on overcast days.

Rechargeable: combining low energy LED light sources and high capacity batteries in polycarbonate cases,&nbsp;you can get multiple colour-changes and even float them in your pool!

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about which type of garden lighting&nbsp;to choose.

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Lighting knowhow

The very latest thing in garden lighting is the use of solar power, harnessing the sun&#39;s energy and releasing it&nbsp;as a gentle, warm glow after dark to light pathways, water features, special plants and more.

Solar lighting isn&#39;t just environmentally friendly: it&#39;s easy to use, too. There&#39;s no wiring, and you don&#39;t need&nbsp;timers as they switch on automatically when the sun goes down.

You&#39;ll find a good range of solar lighting in our garden centre in %locations%, from spotlights to colour-changing LEDs, path&nbsp;lights and lanterns. Here&#39;s how to get the most from your display.

&bull;&nbsp;Place the solar panel in a sunny spot so it can charge fully during the daytime. It&#39;ll operate in 
&nbsp; overcast conditions, but you may find in winter there&#39;s rarely enough sunlight for a full charge.

&bull;&nbsp;Keep your solar panel clean by wiping it gently with a damp cloth. If you let your solar panel get dirty, 
&nbsp; it won&#39;t be able to charge fully.

&bull;&nbsp;A full charge lasts for around six hours, and a single rechargeable battery lasts for around 600 
&nbsp; charges &ndash; that&#39;s about two years &ndash; before it needs replacing.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about using solar garden lighting.

Solar garden lights

You can create a real fairy-tale night landscape in your garden with clever use of lighting, placing spots in the&nbsp;ground and on brackets in trees so that the lights work with the plants around them to create a strong sense&nbsp;of atmosphere. Here are some of the effects possible using garden lighting available from our garden centre in %locations%:

Uplighting emphasises contrasts: light up white silver birch and coppery Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula) for&nbsp;a striking effect.

Use silhouettes by lighting a house wall from behind a sculptural acer or craggy pine to cast its shadow&nbsp;onto the surface.

Light trees in groups in different ways to avoid a uniform look: light some from the front, some from&nbsp;beneath and others from the side to create interesting effects.

Moonlighting is when lights are fixed in a tree pointing down, to cast a dappled shadow on the ground&nbsp;below: anyone sitting on a tree seat underneath is bathed in subtle light.

Hanging lights can be used in smaller trees to provide pools of light or glimmering, sparkling dots of light for&nbsp;a magical, almost fairy-like effect.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about how to use lighting to create&nbsp;special effects in the garden.

Lighting special effects

Lighting up your garden after dark transforms it into an outdoor living room, so you don&#39;t have to go in just&nbsp;because the sun has. Once night falls, use clever garden lighting to turn your outdoor space into a theatrical&nbsp;stage set full of drama and intrigue.

In our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;you&#39;ll find a wide range of different lights to make your night-time garden whatever you&nbsp;want it to be. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

Spotlight trees: you&#39;ll find many lovely architectural trees in our garden centre, beautiful enough to take&nbsp;centre stage: pick them out with an upward-pointing spotlight after dark and they&#39;ll leap from the shadows.

Pick out statues: works of art such as sculptures and statues come to life at night with lighting throwing&nbsp;them into sharp relief.

Light a little romance: torches and flares or lanterns hung over a table throw a gentle, flickering light which&nbsp;sets the perfect tone for an evening &agrave; deux.

Floating lights: turn swimming pools and ponds into oases of light with floating orbs and bowls full of&nbsp;candles from the range in our garden centre.

Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about lighting your garden.

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