Five Tons of Rock And You've Got Yourself a Patio

The Challenge ~ Create a circular patio area at the bottom of the pea gravel pathway that leads to nowhere. Andrea's design plan had a circular paver patio that mirrored the circles on the patio above. She said we needed something to anchor the lower part of the garden and the circular patio would be a nice place to put a few sun loungers. The problem was that the budget wasn't going to allow for a "love to have but don't have to have" luxury like a sun lounger patio made of pavers.

So....we decided that a circular pea gravel patio would fit the bill just fine and the price was right - $45 a ton for pea gravel and free labor (Dwight, Bruce and myself).

The Process ~ Dwight and I laid out the circular bed and bordered it with garden edging. Then he laid the weed repellant liner and staked it.

Next the real fun began - On the Friday before Labor Day 5 tons of pea gravel were delivered and dumped on the driveway in front of the house. I really wish I had taken a picture of the pile o' pea gravel or more like the mountain o' pea gravel. As Dwight started filling the wheelbarrel with a shovelful of pea gravel and it wasn't making a dent at all I could not imagine that we would ever use all the pea gravel. On top of it, they were coming to put in our new driveway on the Tuesday after Labor Day so we had 3 days to move the 5 tons of pea gravel wheelbarrel by wheel barrel from the driveway all the way across the front of the house and around to the back. It took 13 shovelfuls to fill the wheelbarrel and I am not sure how many trips were made around that path from front to back but it was a lot.

For three days Dwight shoveled, wheeled and dumped the pea gravel while Bruce and I used steel rakes to smooth it out over the circular area so that it was 4 inches deep everywhere and Charlie tested it out for us.



The Result ~
A beautiful pea gravel patio which is just as pretty as we imagined it could be. Karen and Kevin gave us a cute little bistro table and chair set which is just perfect for the spot.




We bordered it with hostas that our neighbor Helen graciously let us have out of her yard. Here is a picture of one of the wheelbarrels of hostas that Helen gave us.



While Charlie supervised, Dwight planted hostas, day lillies and grasses around the border to soften the area and make it appear as if it were tucked into a garden.






For more color I added a few pots with a Hibiscus plant a well as some Rosemary and flowers and a beautiful hanging basket that Dwight's parents gave us. Solar lanterns on hooks around the edges are an added touch that I really like. For more screening I would like to put a Crepe Myrtle or similar tree in a large planter.

This area will have many functions from being a delightul seating area with the bistro table for an impromptu dinner or brunch to a sunning spot with a few sun loungers for the middle of the summer months and in the fall we plan to put the fire pit down there.