image

FOR years, I’ve wanted a brick patio between our house and detached garage. This year, our sheepdogs have forced the project. Somehow they managed to destroy all of the grass in our backyard last year. So we are putting in a patio as a DIY project.

Above, you can see the mud. But you can also see our twined and staked areas that show where we and the teenage boys (and maybe the girl) will be digging. We are planning a 9 x 12 patio with 2 small walkways leading to it from the current concrete by the back door and from the sidewalk at the left. To the right of the patio we are building a raised container garden that will run 8 of the 9 feet. This will help direct the dogs to the far right of the yard where we plan to have a gravel area just for them.

Before the rain today, we managed to buy the wood for the garden. We plan on an 8 x 2 x 3 ft high container, which we will first fill about 25 inches with dirt as we dig it from the patio area.

More to come….