Another weekend spent outside!

Wow. What a weekend and a lot of work! The patio addition is in full swing. We're got 450 bricks piled up in back, the retaining wall built and a layer of gravel waiting to be tamped. Thankgoodness we have a TRUCK (recent purchase) and Paul's a strong man. Otherwise, this project would be nearly impossible.

We've wanted to add onto our existing patio since we moved in (it's about 10x12). So, after a long time looking and thinking about it, we finally decided (or Paul decided) that we were going to do it. Here's the pattern we'll be going for

Brick pattern - "basketweave" or if we're really brave, "herringbone on an angle":


Paul designed the retaining wall, made out of lumber. Wow! Another HUGE undertaking. Since we like detail, Paul used a router to route out all the corners on ALL the pieces. It looks great and adds a nice detail - but it took a while. I was in charge of applying the water sealer to all those beams... thankfully we had a fan in the garage, that stuff was a little strong! ;)

Here's a quick progression of the project:

The stars of the project - the bricks! (a great deal from Wal-Mart!)


Prepping the area and moving grass


The wall takes shape - 6 "courses"


Detail of the corner


The plants are moved and the gravel is spread


Detail - the patio will be 10x10


Hopefully, Paul will be home in the future to finish up the project. We still need more gravel, nearly a ton of sand and lots of elbow greese to put in all those bricks. In the meantime, we hope for some rain to compact the gravel.

While Paul was digging away, I planted my summer flowers:


All the other flowers, herbs and veggies growing around the patio


Plant relocation along the fence line - we hope they will thrive here!


That's all for now - oh! Except some quick shots of the garden!

Blueberries - YUM!



Summer squash -


Roma tomatoes


Beefsteak tomatoes


Yellow heirlooms (so cute & pear-shaped!)


And finally - the patio tomatoes!


That's all for now!