Creating a more cohesive gardens design

When starting to design your garden it is important to think about the pallete of materials you will be using. Too many contrasting materials will create a disjointed confused design that will not make the most out of the investment you have made both in time and money. Try to limit the range of colours and textures within your material choices. The hard landscaping materials should be considered as back drop to the main features within your garden such as decorative planting, trees and water features. Indian Sandstone setts, also known as cobbles, are a very popular choice for the edging of garden paths, driveways or used create a decorative boarder around your paving or terrace. We supply a range of the most popular coloured sandstone setts to match our range of Indian sandstone slabs, these include Raj Blend, Mint Fossil and Storm Grey. The use of matching Sandstone setts and Indian sandstone paving slabs helps to reduce the amount of materials in your garden. This creates a more cohesive and flowing design by linking the different areas of your garden together. The setts/cobbles used to create the famous cobbled streets have traditionally been manufactured in the UK but these have become very expensive, therefore there has been a move in the market place to more costs effective alternatives such as Indian sandstone setts. They offer the same hard wearing, frost resistant properties but at a fraction of the price. Whatever product you select from your hard landscaping needs, always remember to plan ahead so that you have a good idea of the final design before you commence construction. Good planning will save a lot of time and money and create a much more successful finished product.

Sawn Indian Sandstone

As an increasingly popular choice for paving, Sawn Indian Sandstone is becoming fairly widely known within the industry. Its contemporary looks and smooth even surface provide something which has been difficult to find at a cost effective price.

We started stocking sawn sandstone around two years ago, and it was quite a slow starter, with few people knowing too much about it. Now it is as popular as the more traditional riven sandstone, given its similar hard-wearing and fade resistant strengths. Used frequently around swimming pools as it has a unique sand-paper like texture that provides excellent surface grip, it is also increasingly popular for pathways and larger scale patios, where something a little more modern is sought. It's strong, clean lines are sleek and purposeful, and although from the same roots as riven sandstone, offer a finish quite different to the norm.

As a material, sandstone is usually very hard, and through all the process of sawing it smooth it can sometimes take some of that hardness away, so some consideration is required during installation to protect the crisp square edges. Once laid and pointed in, you will have something as tough and durable as you would expect from a natural stone, and an inherently modern twist that defines sawn sandstone as something to give a real thought to when choosing a patio.

Scottish cobbles - The environmentally friendly option

Our range of Scottish cobbles comes from Elgin in North East Scotland on the coastal plain of Morayshire. This quarry is managed, with the help from environmental experts, in such a way that all used ground is turned into natural wetlands after extraction has finished. These  natural habitats are managed to encouarge a wide range of flora and fauna back to the area helping reverse the decline in local populations.

Our range of Scottish cobbles offer the customer a vast range of design options from large water gardens to small decorative borders. Available from 10mm to 150mm in size, scottish cobbles are as popular today as ever due to there beautiful range of colours and shapes making these a truly unique product.

During the extraction process large boulders are ocassionally discovered which can be used crate a stunning focal point to a large garden or commercial project, the shape size and colour of these boulders varies and if this is something you would require please contact us for future deatials.

Our sleepers are no turkeys!

Here at Natural Stone and Timber we care about the quality of the railway sleepers we sell to our customers. Our aim is to exceed your expectations. With this in mind we select our new oak sleepers from Canada where they are made from Northern Red Oak (Quercus Rubra). The northern red oak is one of the most important oaks for timber production in North America due to its high quality and suitability for a large range of applications. These include flooring, veneer, interior trim, and furniture. It is also used for railway sleepers and fence posts throughout North America and Europe.

A lot of sleeper suppliers in the UK are selling Turkey Oak (Quercus Cerris) instead of higher quality oak such as the Northern Red Oak mentioned above. Turkey oak is planted throughout Europe and the British Isles partly due to its rapid growth and ornamental properties. Due to the faster growth of Turkey Oak it produces a much poorer quality product that has a tendency to split, twist and rot out very quickly. We would strongly recommend using Northern Red Oak Sleepers for you landscaping project as they will keep their attractive appearance for longer and you won’t be replacing them after ten years.

Softwood Sleepers

Our softwood railway sleepers are grown, sawn and manufactured in Poland and FSC certified to ensure not only a quality product, but one that isn’t damaging to the environment.

Softwood sleepers are generally Pine or Spruce and the plantations in Poland are expertly managed and maintained to ensure a healthy, dense tree that will not twist, split or warp excessively when cut. Our timber products are sourced from manufacturers in Northern Poland and delivered via road direct to our yard in Portsmouth. They are Tanalised during the production process, this is a high pressure treatment process giving the timber a greatly improved lifespan, and we would expect – even with our British weather – of around 10-15 years, sometimes even longer than this if they are treated after installation, and maintained on a regular basis.

Softwood generally means timber that is cut from a certain range of trees, typically conifers like pine and spruce. The opposite is of course hardwood, which again means timber cut from a certain range of trees, typically Oak, Mahogany and Cherry. There are actually a few timbers that contradict what you would expect and certain softwoods that are harder than hardwoods, but these are few and far between, and quite unusual.

Sleepers are an excellent choice for garden structures as they are strong and simple to work with, they can be easily cut, screwed together and concreted in giving you a huge variety of uses, from retaining walls to garden sheds, the versatility of railway sleepers is one of their most valuable attributes.

Granite Setts

Granite has been used as paving since Roman times and examples of its use can be found throughout the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Granite setts, which are sometimes referred to as cobbles, are a versatile product suitable for a large range of applications including pathways, patios or driveways. Granite setts provide a beautiful and durable finish to any project. As a testament to this, some streets in Britain have been laid with cobbles for over two hundred years and are still in use today.

Here at Landscaping Supplies we are expanding the range of sizes in which we supply the granite setts in order to make them suitable for a wider range of projects. For example we now stock the cobbles in 100mm cubes which are better suited to heavy duty driveways or more commercial projects. This size is also perfect for establishing an edge to a path or driveway due to their depth which helps create a strong edge to contain the decorative aggregate used for the surface.

The design possibilities are endless with granite setts, however the most common and simple patterns used are stretcher bond, running bond or stack bond. In more prestigious projects, throughout Europe, much more impressive patterns can be found, these include the Bogens pattern which comprises of many interlocking arcs or the fan pattern which is usually sold in preassembled, fan shaped, mesh backed segments which can be much quicker to lay. Granite setts also lend themselves to being laid in circular patterns. This is particularly useful in public areas that contain trees or planted areas that need to be excluded from the paved area.

Calibrated Sandstone

The use of Sandstone paving has grown from strength to strength over recent times, and the variations of surface finish and texture have seen dramatic changes. There really is a huge choice available now so people are starting to look at new ideas, and new ways of using Sandstone Paving.

The huge influx of Indian Sandstone Paving Slabs has flooded the market, from cheap and cheerful to high-end and very expensive. The difficulty in a market so thriving is to find something that has all the appeal of being top-end but without the price tag to match. At Landscaping Supplies Ltd. we are always looking at new paving solutions and trying to keep on top of such an ever changing range of products, and at the same time keeping within range of the customer.

After many years being one of the largest importers of Natural Indian Sandstone Paving, we have made great progress with quality issues that had always been a problem for many suppliers selling to the trade and the public. We made sure all of our products were of the highest standards and that we always had a large inventory of stock, to meet all of our customers needs.

Over recent months, there has been call for a step forward in Sandstone Paving and a move towards Calibrated Sandstone Paving is taking place. With its accurately graded depth/thickness it is not only easier to work with and quicker to install, but has advantages in being generally smoother on its top surface as well, giving an excellent finish which is worth the modest increase in cost. To date feedback is very promising and many of the Landscapers we supply are already noticing the advantages that Calibrated Sandstone has to offer, they are certainly finding installation is much faster with Paving Slabs that are all the same thickness.
We are sure that you will see the benefit that going with Calibrated Paving has to offer, and you can rest assured that it will be another product that will be as strong as our others for years to come.