How to link raised patio and lawn?

I'm terrible at making decisions about the simplest things, so welcome any ideas. In my 70s I neglected the garden somewhat as I still play(ed) golf and got too stiff after heavy gardening to make it round the golf course the next day. Lockdown changed all that, and since March I've done virtually everything to get both garden itself and drive and patio to where I want them. Final area is my patio, which I built some 20 years ago, and had to re-position 12 years ago when we got an extension. The jointing was my weakest effort, and with annual power-washing which I won't repeat, about half the mortar cracked over time. i've re-jointed everything; a slightly drier mix seems to have helped do the trick and it looks quite nice. I'll seal it with a couple of tins of Resiblock I have left over from the drive, as both are concrete, and I know it works quite well.

I've been searching around for ideas, but more particularly dos and donts, around how to link patio and lawn. The patio stands between 1 and 2 bricks above its wall, and there's currently a channel of varying widths - 12cm to 20cm, and 2 depths of 15cm in one part, and 30 in the other. I had white chippings above gravel and a bit of rubble in the deeper part; minus rubble in the other. Problem was I used up a bit of fabric weed-suppressant stuff under everything, not imagining at the time that I'd be power-washing dirt off the patio every year or so! Over time I was left with a dirty mess of chippings which I've dug out. The patio will look better than it ever has, so if there's something to give it a bit of "wow", other than chippings, or more basic still pea shingle as I've got in the section you can see outside the conservatory, I'd give it a go. If I went with chippings, with hindsight I'd widen it a little - say 17-20cm, and as I've got lots of old bricks and paving stones, should I simply put that in, topped with a thinnish layer of pea shingle, topped with chippings? Would that be OK just on top of the clay undersoil? I have the patio sloped very slightly down to the lawn which again slopes a bit more markedly 30 yards to the bottom of the garden. It's not the worst clay, but after prolonged and really heavy rain the bottom does sit under water for a time.

I'm considering some sort of paving if I could see something really lovely to blend with the Burford paving of the patio, whose beige darkens a bit with sealing I've found. What sort of bed would I ideally put paving or paving setts into? This wouldn't be nearly the difficult thing I'm making it if we were happy to trail around the garden centres and builders' merchants like we used to, but we've not been out since early March and just made our first intrepid trip to a nursery to collect some preordered Agapanthus the other day.

Never thought about my daughter's simpler option she kindly shared with me today - have you thought of just taking it back to grass Dad?? In that unlikely event, could I still use the rubble base idea, put say 15cm of topsoil over it, then turf?

Hopefully these pictures will come through as preview.

Thanks all.

 

Judging by your photos, I'd say you have done the right thing. You ghave left a suitable gap between the grass and the raised edge. This allows the mowers framework to overlap the grass edge and allowing the cutting blade/s to cut to the edge of the grass.

Congratulations on such a delightful garden.

 

Thanks for the comments Mike. Yes, mowing's been fine while I've had chippings. That's an incentive to do the same again as there's no way I want to get the strimmer out again which I guess I'd have to do with it grassed right up to the patio wall. Also where you can see the area of shingle it's bordered with blocks left over from paving, and I find it a nuisance mowing right up to them.

Anyway, really nice to hear from you. Any other ideas very welcome.

 

Not sure if you prefer sharp edges or not, but there was a clip on gardeners world last night where a gardener didn't like to edge his lawn because it made his back ache doing so, so he planted cranesbill just past the edge of the lawn covering the edges , I imagine other plants could do that as well as covering the patio wall, just depends on if you prefer neat and tidy or a little bit rough going into neat and tidy.

 

Thanks mazambo,

So right about backache; everyone's back pain is individual to them, and mine had become life-changing in that my lower back went into excrutiating spasm with no warning and when doing simple normal things. I couldn't get out of the chair without that spasm occurring, when my GP prescribed codeine and paracetemol, taken together, which masked the pain and enabled me to get back to something like normal. Still, one of the worst things for my back is as your gardener said - lawn edging. With a decent-sized lawn, in the few minutes it takes, my back kills me by the end. Fortunately it's only once a week at most, as I do prefer neat and tidy!