You like the look of wood for hard landscaping but you would rather use a more durable material? CED has the answer. It has introduced a natural slate sourced in Europe that it is selling as Slatewood.

With a dark grey ground and shot through with golden-brown hues, Slatewood is grained and craggy, making it an excellent alternative to using old or weathered timber in your landscape scheme.

It can be used as walling or, thanks to its high slip resistance, paving, even in conjunction with water features because it will not rot.

When Slatewood is traditionally riven, it looks remarkably similar to weathered wood, such as old railway sleepers. And being a natural stone, not a man-made product, Slatewood naturally exhibits the random colour variations found in timber thanks to the Mica and Quartz, and smaller amounts of Sericite and Chlorite, that naturally occur in it. It is so much more authentic than common wood replicas manufactured from concrete or ceramics, says CED MD Giles Heap.

It is available as palisades and planks or can be produced to bespoke requirements. It is available from the five CED depots across the UK.