I think I'm ready

I think I'm ready now to visit the Home and Garden show in Harrisburg. We're thinking of going Monday since it is senior day and at least Husband will get in for half price. Good deal, huh?

Anyway, I put a little packet together of our patio and want to take that up for ideas as well as possible prices for it to be done for us. You know, the older you get the less you want to do the hard physical labor, even though it is a labor of love.

This is the area we had dug out last summer. The excavator put in 6" of stone as a base for a patio. The area here is 15'x21' and it will finish out to a 14'x20' patio. It took me all this time to decide on a style of patio that I think will look nice with the house and keep in tune with the somewhat French Country/Country theme of the house and garden. I tried to work with the garden areas already existing. After months of looking through magazines and building books, I think I came up with a plan that will work.

Since I already had an existing fountain, a lovely water bearer in one of the rose beds, I opted for a fire pit in the very center of the patio that will sit on four 24"x24" pavers with the 12"x12" pavers surrounding them, four on each side, leaving a full 24"x24" pointing into the corners in a geometric design. The West side of the patio will be the high side and curved. There will be an angled one pole arbor across the south curve that will highlight a curved stone bench and draw your eye to the beautiful purple leaf Kunzan cherry tree that will sit about 30' behind it. I will have Veilachenblu roses climbing up this arbor on both sides. The East side of the patio will be squared off with a pileaster on one side with a light. This area will then empty onto a path and around the house to the garage and driveway.

It would be nice to get a little help with building the patio now. Those 24"x24" paver are large and will cover the area nicely but they have a tendency to get rather heavy. We also have to level the stone and add more if necessary and about another 3" of sand before we can even think about laying pavers. We're also going to need a footer around the entire patio as it butts up to a run off area and the footer will be needed to angle the water away from the patio. So there's a lot to be done and most of it is more heavy work than not.

The firepit I've picked out is copper on cast iron legs with a lovely screen on top. It is a 45" round and has a stone table around it with a diamond pattern and is about coffee table size. All of our bird feeders, hummingbird feeders and lights are in copper so it only makes sense to have the firepit copper as well.

The more I look at this layout the more I like it. It has just the right atmosphere and I think will blend nicely with the house and gardens. What do you think?

Maybe I should send this plan off to HGTV and one of their garden design programs but then it might be to simple for them.