Hard Lanscaping my Garden

[WiZeR]

Thought i'd post this here to get your opinions. Currently we have a tiny garden that slopes steeply away from the house. Last year I built a prety substantial deck which means we can now use the garden instead of it being a dog toilet. This year I would like to finish the job by re-laying the lawn and making a couple of platforms at the top and bottom for planters. Here is how it looks currently.



I want the platforms to be substantial, so am thinking of using concrete to achieve this look:



When laying the concrete slabs, is it as easy as digging a trench and filling it with concrete? I was thinking of using bags of postcrete.

Any views apprecieated.

[sewer rat]

Hi WiZeR
If you are going to lay concrete in a trench, dig out the trench but I suggest you then line the edges with thick polythene. Also, if you are fussy and want really straight edges, make a rectangle out of gravel boards (cheap from local builders merchant) drop into the trench, pour concrete and remove boards after it goes off. Use topsoil or compost to fill in gaps where the boards were.
Also, remember to float off the top of the concrete.
Do not use Postcrete - it will not work in this situation. You can buy bags of ready mixed sand and gravel from builders merchants - 25kg bags or 1 tonne bags are most common. Mix this with your cement in a ratio of 5 parts sand and gravel mix to 1 part cement.
Any questions get back to me
Good Luck

[nick the grief]

I agree with Rat. it might be more work but mixing the concrete will be a lot cheaper & better than using Post fix. If theres a long run or a lot to do you can hire a mixer fairly cheaply and as you say you want them substantial I take this to mean about 6" or so think. I would guess that you'd need 3 or 4 bags of post fix per foot length to do "path" 3' wide and 6" thick