How to clean your patio and paving in time for summer 

Kya deLongchamps shows how to put the shine back on your patio, paving and steps

To clean your patio of cloying moss and algae, use muscle and natural solutions, chemistry, machinery for a truly satisfying afternoon’s graft.

Nature is a wonder. Every tiny crevice, divot and roughened plane is open for biological colonisation by algae, moss, lichens, and liverwort. Ah — good old gothic liverwort, with its frilly silken underskirts. What about Nostoc, that weird, jelly-like bacteria that trips along paths in winter, inviting you to a companionable faceplant? A wincing glance at the emerald flags and greasy stone walling in March — not a pretty picture. 

Together with the siren call of the mower, the wild invaders, fogging up the patio are spring spoilers, but they can be dealt with in just one afternoon. Unless you hit the garden with very heavy chemistry designed to linger on the materials and kill every living thing, we want to control rather than eradicate growth. It's perennial, meditative work before slamming down the sunloungers, and deeply, deeply satisfying.