CREATE AN ECO GARDEN USING RECYCLED MATERIALS; YOUR GARDEN.

Landscaping made easy with this weekend project FOR a garden requiring minimum maintenance, and making good use of recycled products alongside the more traditional, the ideal answer is an eco garden from Hanson, the garden landscape products specialist.

Designed as a weekend project, the eco garden combines recycled whole bricks and crushed brick to create a hot, dry landscape of spiky planting, evoking a balmy Mediterranean feel.

Crushed brick is a new recycled product, available in Hanson's new Recreate range of maxi-packs, themselves made with recycled material.

In attractive warm red and buff colours, it's recreated from 100 per cent recycled brick.

Choose the right mix of Hanson packed products, and you too can create an eco garden measuring two metres by two metres. You need the following: STONES Crushed brick buff (approx three maxi-packs) Crushed brick red (approx three maxi-packs) Cotswold boulders (15/20) River cobbles (10/12).

Red multi bricks (70/80)..

PLANTS Chamaerops humilis (dwarf fan palm) Phormium 'Yellow Wave' Acorus calamus 'Variegatus' Penstemon rupicola Carex flagellifera Selected sedums - sprinkled around the boulders and the edge of the bricks Polystichum polyblepharumn.

BUILD PROCESS Take care when lifting materials/plants, take your time.

PREPARATION 1. Literally step back to ensure your garden is balanced - not overcrowded and pleasing to the eye.

2. Alter design as you progress to suit your taste.

3. Mark out your plot.

4. Scrape off soil's top layer (50mm-100mm deep) - creates space for any mortar used to set in place hard landscaping/bricks..

5. Ensure ground is level.

6. Cover plot with weedpreventing membrane.

BRICKS 7. Lay bricks (eg bright red Chapel-Gate multi-bricks) on to wet, mortar bed, over weed-preventing membrane. This can be done fairly roughly for a feel of positioning/stability.

8. If ground is firstly prepared/ levelled, bricks can be laid on to sand only (without mortar) - but mortar option is recommended.

9. Don't put mortar between bricks - fill spaces with suitable sand.

PLANTING 10. With bricks in position, put plants in situ.

11. Cut holes through membrane, dig out enough soil for roots, water-in well.

12. Visualise potential future plant growth/spread..