The next project

My trip to California and the family project we did in Suzanne's garden has inspired me to tackle a few things in my own yard.

I have a deck in the back yard that, while nice to have, is built in a funky shape that makes mowing tedious. It has these little nooks and crannies that don't make the deck any more useful and annoy me to no end as I try to maneuver the mower around when it's hot and humid. I dug a planting bed that helped a little bit, but it didn't really solve the problem and I haven't done the best job of keeping it in good shape for the past couple of summers. After we built the brick patio at Suzanne's though, it occurred to me that I could try something similar at the foot of the steps with the concrete pavers I dug out of the yard.

This is a before (please pretend you don't see the detritus on the deck):

I finished re-digging the planting area, so if we get a break from this week's promised rain, I'll be able to plant some herbs in the next few days, even if I don't finish the rest of the project right away.

Here is a rough mock-up of where I'm planning to build the patio (the big gray stripe-looking thing):

The paved area needs to be about 4 feet x 12 feet, and I added labels so you don't think I'm going to plant the weeds that my illustration suggests. I think digging will be the hardest part, but the paving should go pretty quickly. It might look better if I had bricks, but at least the larger pavers will go a bit faster.

Comments

[Heide]

I think that would work very well. If I remember correctly, your pavers are 8x16, so six wide and nine across would cover that area. 54 pavers, that's it! Be sure and use sand or pea gravel under it all. (I used more than 200 pavers in the side yard almost twenty years ago.)

[Mary]

Looks like a great plan!