Hello all

We're planning a corner of the garden as an area for our summer meals
outdoors.
It's against the north side of a barn, partly but not all in shade,
so that we (and visitors) can choose when to keep in / out of the sun.
It's about 5x3 square meters, with probably some sort of arching to grow
over with vine or creeper.
I plan to flank the area on two or three sides with some sort of scented
rockery,
i.e. chamaemelum nobile , mentha pulegium repens, etc.

I am against concreting and would prefer to leave the ground underfoot as
natural as possible.
My wife would like to put down about 15 square meters of wood
(is it called "decking" ?) - planks of wood with gaps; but
I reckon weeds and grass seed will get into the gaps between the planks and
run riot.

Any suggestions for the ground underfoot ?
Ideally we would like to leave table and chairs there without them rotting
away from the feet up.

Thanks in advance, from Ray