The rise and rise of decking has been nothing short of phenomenal. Ten years ago, only the most cutting-edge garden would have had a wooden deck; today, they are so common that they have almost become a horticultural cliché.
Home owners who would have had York paving or concrete slabs in their garden now insist on a deck, in the same way that they want terracotta tiles in the kitchen and a power shower in the bathroom. Decking has become a lifestyle statement.
As with so many other trends, this one was imported from America. A wooden deck has been an essential part of relaxed, outdoor living in the US for decades, but it only caught on here when urban trendies realised that decking made the perfect surface for roof terraces and lawns.
When TV gardeners like Charlie Dimmock, Alan Titchmarsh and Dan Pearson were shown using decking in their designs, the market took off. Increasingly, gardens are seen as an ‘outdoor room’, somewhere that is a natural extension of the house, and if you have a wood floor indoors, why not have it outdoors as well? And since decking can be stained or painted, you can colour co-ordinate it to match your walls or the interior of your house.
Level ground
One of the beauties of decking is that it’s an ideal way to level out an uneven garden. Decking can be laid over a tired looking lawn, or dingy concrete paving, and it will totally transform the look of your garden. A friend of mine who has a small, rather shady garden got fed up with her children churning up the grass each time they ran in and out of the house, and had a deck laid over the lawn. Now the children can ride their bikes over the deck and it’s also a civilised place for adults to sit with a glass of wine.
As the popularity of decking has grown, gardeners have become more adventurous and started hankering after more elaborate designs, with different tiers, swooping curves or dashing geometric patterns. You can incorporate all sorts of features into decking – built-in seats, tables, barbecues, and even hot tubs.
My own deck, in west London, is an altogether more modest affair. My 17x8ft roof terrace had tacky white tiles which couldn’t be improved by any amount of scrubbing or bleaching, so a deck seemed the obvious solution. Three years on, I’m still delighted with it. The surface feels warm underfoot and it’s easy to look after – all it needs is the occasional sweep and, every spring, I give it a thorough scrubbing with diluted bleach.
Like most decks in Britain, mine is constructed from pine, but for those with a few more pennies, hardwoods like oak, cedar, balau and iroko are also popular. The American southern yellow pine which was fitted on my roof terrace by the Outdoor Deck Company costs £11/ft². The company, which uses mainly pressure treated pine from Scandinavia or the US, says that the average deck costs £3,000 and takes four days to build.
The disadvantage of decking, from a gardener’s point of view, is that it severely cuts down on the space in which to grow plants. If you leave room for flower borders at the edge of the deck, the level of the soil will have to be raised to compensate for the height of the deck, so many gardeners with a deck take the easy option and grow all their plants in pots instead. In truth, really keen gardeners will probably not want a decked garden – it’s much more suited to weekend gardeners who want something low maintenance, with a few pretty pots to add colour.
So is decking here to stay, or is it simply a passing phase? Ali Ward, the model-turned-garden designer who presents the BBC2 show Gardening Neighbours, laughed when I suggested to her that decking is now so popular that it may be in danger of overkill. ‘I know what you mean, but I’ll continue to use decking because it’s so versatile and it’s great for evening out a sloping garden. The danger with decking is that if it’s designed badly it looks ghastly,’ she says.
Elaborate designs
‘It has to be used in a restrained manner – some people go crazy and want to construct huge, elaborate decks which are an eyesore. I use a lot of oak for my clients. The price difference between softwoods and oak is narrowing so it’s becoming more affordable.’
Ali points out, though, that new garden materials are being introduced all the time which may make decking look old-fashioned. ‘I’m really excited by things like crushed CDs, which make a lovely silver gravel, and perspex and metal paving. There are all sorts of wonderful materials available now, not just wood or stone.’
For the foreseeable future, though, decking will remain the surface of choice for fashion-conscious gardeners. After all, who needs the hassle of raking out moss and sweeping up leaves from a soggy lawn, when with a deck you can simply get out your vacuum cleaner instead?
