Old Tarmac Patio Area

Hello everyone,
I have an area of old tarmac in the back garden that provides access to the back garden gate, kitchen door (which is the route in and out of the garden from the house) and living room window which will be turned into a patio door. Please see attached 4 photos showing the current situation. Excuse the dogs bed!
The tarmac surface is old and a lot of loose stone is brought into the house by feet/shoes. I don't like the tarmac. I was looking for inspiration and ideas from people please. I wanted to find a way of replacing, rejuvenating or developing the area so as to look nice, be safe for my dog and for when there's heavy rain and hopefully avoiding too much fuss or cost. I am pretty handy at DIY and my dad is a great gardener so I hope to tackle this project.
I had pondered about covering the tarmac with an epoxy, flexible coating though was worried about surface water and run off. The obvious choice would be to pave the area but there's cost in stone pavers and it's mean excavating and putting in hardcore. I had thought about creating a concrete path towards the existing path that goes down the garden and then turning the rest of the tarmac to lawn but we keep our wheelie bins to one side of this yard and it's always handy to have some non-lawn hard surface for other DIY work. So I don't think a lawn will work.
The garden gets sun all afternoon, the sun being positioned above the fence shown to the right of the photos so putting a raised planter next to the fence in order to cover up tarmac wouldn't be ideal for any plants.
My current idea is to dig up the tarmac, create forms with wood and pour various large concrete pads, perhaps with gravel or small ground cover planting (camomile, thyme etc,) between each of the pads (see attached 2 screenshots).
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you
I have an area of old tarmac in the back garden that provides access to the back garden gate, kitchen door (which is the route in and out of the garden from the house) and living room window which will be turned into a patio door. Please see attached 4 photos showing the current situation. Excuse the dogs bed!
The tarmac surface is old and a lot of loose stone is brought into the house by feet/shoes. I don't like the tarmac. I was looking for inspiration and ideas from people please. I wanted to find a way of replacing, rejuvenating or developing the area so as to look nice, be safe for my dog and for when there's heavy rain and hopefully avoiding too much fuss or cost. I am pretty handy at DIY and my dad is a great gardener so I hope to tackle this project.
I had pondered about covering the tarmac with an epoxy, flexible coating though was worried about surface water and run off. The obvious choice would be to pave the area but there's cost in stone pavers and it's mean excavating and putting in hardcore. I had thought about creating a concrete path towards the existing path that goes down the garden and then turning the rest of the tarmac to lawn but we keep our wheelie bins to one side of this yard and it's always handy to have some non-lawn hard surface for other DIY work. So I don't think a lawn will work.
The garden gets sun all afternoon, the sun being positioned above the fence shown to the right of the photos so putting a raised planter next to the fence in order to cover up tarmac wouldn't be ideal for any plants.
My current idea is to dig up the tarmac, create forms with wood and pour various large concrete pads, perhaps with gravel or small ground cover planting (camomile, thyme etc,) between each of the pads (see attached 2 screenshots).
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you
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'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
I would erect a chest or head high fence or trellis to hide the bins and then either paint it or cover with climbing plants.
Is that a drain cover? You will need to keep the access to that.
I like gravel, and it’s comparatively cheap.
The pavers are an option, though may involve more work in getting individual levels etc right compared to perhaps making wood forms and pouring larger concrete pads.
I like the idea of hiding the bins and had seen someone on instagram build a wooden shed like cover for her bins with a sedum roof..