This is not a reason to pull out your paving, or not all of it. (I have paving around the house too – it’s also a great way to see the snakes before they see us.) Instead, try cooling your paving down so you gain all the great advantages of paving, minus the heat.
Plant out your paving
This is not as crazy as it sounds. If you take out SOME of your pavers (about one in four) you can plant ground covers in the spaces which are flat and love heat and dryness. There are even some ground covers that tolerate being walked on.
My favourites are Erigeron, one of the hardiest natives around and practically unkillable. It’s tough enough to tread on, and flowers just about all year round, with small star like blooms. One warning though – don’t grow it near the bush! Like most ‘unkillable’ plants it may become a weed in places where it does not grow naturally.
Other wonderful paver fillers include ‘lawn’ thymes or any of the types of thyme that grow in a creeping carpet, rather than a bushy mound. They smell divine if you tread on them, and make the most glorious carpet of spring and summer blooms in a range of pinks, whites and purples. You can use them in cooking too, though the flavour of each one will be slightly different. Or you could try cat thyme – irresistible to moggies, prostrate junipers, grevilleas or rosemary, though these form low mounds instead of being truly flat. One of my favourite looks is a froth of white or white and purple alyssum, a wonderfully cool look for summer.
Have a hunt for ground covers at your local garden centre and ask for suggestions for tough, flat ground covers that do well in your area. There are hundreds to choose from.
2. Put up a trellis
I have a passion for trellises. Some of the most glorious flowers grow on vines and what better place to twine your vines than up a trellis? Think rambling or climbing roses (roses like pink or white Iceberg will bloom nine months of the year, or more), ornamental grapes for a stunning blaze of autumn leaves, the pervasive fragrance of mandevillea or Chinese jasmine and long drooping wisteria blooms. Vines don’t need weeding and you will have a cool and relaxing ceiling of blossom and greenery to look up at as you sit in your garden. Some of my favourite fruits grow on trellises too including sun warmed passionfruit (eat them with a spoon), grapes (but beware of bees and wasps in the over ripe fruit) and winter fruiting kiwi fruit (you need a male and a female vine). In areas with cold winters make sure you choose a deciduous climber- one that will lose leaves in autumn and grow them again in spring, allowing paving to do its true warming up winter duty.
Yes, it does take a year or even three or four to cover a trellis. In the meantime, drape the trellis with shade cloth, or buy a shade sail (when your greenery grows you can use the sail or shade cloth elsewhere in the garden.)
Paving is wonderful, labour saving stuff. It can make a small garden look bigger, and is a great water saver in droughts. But make sure you are the boss in your garden. Keep that paving under control – and your house and garden cool.
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