In article ,
Raymond RUSSELL wrote:

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.

And the wood will rot.

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

Some sort of paving. The cheapest is 90 cm x 60 cm concrete slabs,
but you can also use bricks, fancy paviors and whatever. See
Cormaic's pages. Doing it properly for a mere patio needs only
the soil compacting and 2" of sharp sand (less if you are stingy
and prepared to take extra time). It isn't hard.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.