How to get ahead of the game!

I AM often asked what I would do if I had only a small garden, especially one in a town or city where the soil is impossible, except for the toughest plants. One possible solution is to pave the garden with modern coloured slabs and design it to incorporate a ‘chessboard’ of white and black or grey squares.

The size of these squares would be governed by the size of the piece of ground you intend to cover. Many city front gardens would only allow for 1ft (30cm)- square slabs, while others would be big enough to enable the more usual 2ft (60cm)-square slabs to be used. If using small