I can’t believe I didn’t post about this – it’s a garden thing, and I love garden things. Something must have bumped it from the posting line, and then I forgot or something. Anyway, this is what I didn’t post: I expanded the paved area by my firepit.
The pavers are square pieces of bluestone or something like that. I got them from Home Depot originally. Some time at the end of July, I decided I’d put some more down and went looking for them. Sure enough, I found them at Home Depot.
When I first started the project, the existing pavers were covered with debris. Most of it was from stumps I had put there to act as stools. They had turned into sawdust and were almost completely covering the stone:
So messy!
Once I got it cleaned off and branches cut back, I could decide where the next pavers would go. I wanted to add an extra row to two sides.
Looking better, but too small.
Laying the new pavers was tricky. They weren’t exactly square, so I kept getting spaces in between the tiles. I didn’t like that. Spinning them around or turning them upside down helped. It was like a giant puzzle with extremely heavy pieces. The added pavers make the area much larger.
The broom is for scale.
I finished the area with a new bench made of stacked stones. I think I’ll need to glue or cement them though. They’re pretty wobbly. The area sat for several weeks until I cleaned it up again yesterday morning.
I built dirt up to the edges for a finished look.
I was cleaning things up because I was doing some planting around the edges. I had said earlier that I was going to do cuttings to increase my crape myrtle plantings, but I couldn’t wait. I got a small pot of the appropriate variety, then cut the roots in half so I would have two plants. They are in the red circle in the picture below. It will still be a few years before they are fifteen feet tall like my current crape myrtles, but buying these plants gave me a huge head-start. The red arrow in the picture points to a cedar tree that has been in a pot. I decided to plant it in the ground.
All the scraggly-looking plants will be taken out. I’m letting them finish the summer.
Holy cow, you have room for a tent! It’s like your own little wilderness back there! Love it! Truly, that looks fantastic, and I am trying to refrain from using any more exclamation points.
Can’t do it!!
10/10. Would sit and watch fire.
Careful with all that paving, in case the repealed “rain tax” is un-repealed again any time soon – you could be assessed for additional runoff now…but maybe not, as there are still gaps between stones where water might trickle down?
Anywho, how nice! Even in this humidity, that view tempts me to want to sit outdoors in your yard and meditate, ponder, ruminate, reflect…eventually pass out from the heat…whew! [Hubby went crazy with the lopping shears on the holly tree yesterday and gave it quite a cut-back. Guess it needed it; now we can get beneath it to throw down a little mulch, at least. Outdoor cat will be unhappy, though; his shade is gone. 🙁 ]
It’s time to come see you again and sit and enjoy the fire, however I want you to find a nice wicker bench on clearance to add to the comfort, your Mom. (Didn’t want to take the time to change all the posting settings.)
AWESOME!!!! You Are So Talented and Creative……<3 Aunt Bev 🙂
AND HANDY!! 🙂