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born2luv

Frugal Landscaping

14 years ago
Here is my design dilemna!

We have a 100' by 150' lot that we want to redo - we have an arbour in the middle with white fencing on either side. I included some pictures I took in all directions from under the arbour.

We just bought a new gazebo and put it in the back, behind the arbour. We currently have 6 gardens - either side of the arbour as shown, one beside the garage, one along the front of the house, one in front of the arbour and on on the north side of the front yard, in front of a tree stump from a 150 year old tree - that had to be cut down after a storm.

We have no money for materials. So we did a search on Freecycle.org last weekend and collected all of the following for free!

We got 60 full-size 14" x 14" grey patio stones and 38 half-size patio stones in red and grey, plus a few cut stones that we got from one person. We had to borrow my son and his truck to move all this.

Then four more trips - two trips to pick up the 200 4" x 6" red bricks in my Chevy Tracker - I was worried about the weight, and we did end up with a flat the next day!

Five buckets and bins of pebbles from another person's walkway, 20 one ft x two ft patio stones from another. Gray concrete edging stone for the garden from yet another person - about 35 ft. worth.

As we were coming back from picking up the edging stone, we spied even more concrete edging stone on the side of the road, this one in red. My hsuband has already used the red edging in the gardens on either side of the arbour.

So now I have most of the materials we need and have to come up with a design to use it all???

I don't have enough of any one kind of patio stones to make a full-size patio under the gazebo, but I think if I combine the red bricks and grey patio slabs I can make it look nice. And I would like some sort of walkway from the back door.

Any ideas you can think of?

Comments (10)

  • PRO
    14 years ago
    Hi born2 -- seems some of the best designs come from a less than full budget. So you weren't able right now to go order a sea of gray patio stones; you will have the patio no one else has, or would even fathom. As you plan your layout, try not to go too random or too blocky -- in other words, mix your materials in groupings, and evenly distribute the reds and grays. Take careful measurements and play with it all on paper before you strain your backs. Please post pix of what you end up with.
  • 14 years ago
    last modified: 14 years ago
    There are many patterns you could use (including squares within squares or circles within circles, depending on the shape of your patio), but you might check first to see if you have the right distribution of gray and red to do all the gray in the center with a red edge (both for the patio and the walkway). We used this pattern (edged our concrete driveway, sandstone block pathways in front and back yards, and all our garden beds in old salvaged brick) and the contrast of grays and reds looks great, and using the brick throughout ties together the different spaces and materials they are edging. But if there isn't enough for this uniform a pattern, then chart out some other ones using regular groupings, with the numbers depending on the quantities of the different colors you have. I suspect you'll be able to come up with something quite beautiful.
    P.S. We too used entirely salvaged materials (both bricks and sandstone blocks), and we spent a LOT of time drawing plans for the paths and garden beds before laying down any of the materials.
  • 14 years ago
    Thanks for the ideas! We laid out some stones in a pattern last night, just to see how it would look - and I think it is going to work out great!

    Any other ideas are welcome!
  • 14 years ago
    I always remember, when we did our first house, our landscape designer said to curve the path in areas that you will want to linger to let the views open up and surprise. See if there are views you want at different areas of the yard and find a jolly path to get there, instead of merely a straight line. Obviously, don't go crazy -- there's nothing more annoying than taking a ridiculously long way around the yard to get somewhere, but you get my meaning. You can do it! (You're so lucky to have such a large yard -- in California, our homes are 12 feet from each other and it's probably 15 feet to the back wall.) I think the reason people hire landscape designers is because regular people think in blocks and lines, where designers think in curves and bubbles. (That's so deep; I think I'm going to go tweet myself!) {{{{{pats self on back}}}}}
  • 14 years ago
    Our house is a 160 year old farmhouse in the middle of the city. We are very fortunate to have so much land, no one around us has more than 30' wide and not so deep.

    We will definitely be making a curvy walkway!

    Right in front of the back door area is a concrete block (like a platform - we debate what that was for!) - so around the side of that.

    Then there is what we call the pond garden in front of the arbour. It was a 6' deep cement trench (horse trough?) that we filled in and put in a garden. We are going to surround that with a walkway to make it look like we meant to do that.

    So the result with be a nice S-shape walkway out to the arbour, with a garden in the middle.
  • 14 years ago
    Well we have begun, and my little dog Dexter is helping. We have been laying out a walkway to see how it would work, and Dexter runs over and stands on each stepping stone, waiting for the next one, so he can jump to that one.

    He got sidetracked by the time I thought to take a picture, but he walked all the way from the house on the stones here, as we laid them down.

    We plan to put limestone chips between each stepping stone, to make it a proper path with a solid border - we are getting the limestone for free as well! So imagine the grass between each step gone and white chips instead and an edge a few inches out on each side.

    I am trying to figure out how to incorporate the "pond" garden in the middle of the yard. We think it might have been a horse trough, as our house is an 1850's farmhouse. We filled in the 6 ft deep trough, and put in a garden, but it is in an awkward place, in front of the arbour.

    So I was laying smaller stepping stones around it to see how it would look. Dexter tried to keep up with me, but then decided it would be better to lay down and watch out for intruders!

    I am still not happy with how the pond garden looks yet - so any ideas are welcome!
  • 14 years ago
    I recently put in a walkway as well and did it on a budget. I took the same type of grey pavers it looks like are around your circular area and stained them with Rustoleum concrete stain in earth brown. I then took a dark grey and sponged it on in spots, recoated with the brown and put a gloss sealer on them. Everyone thinks they are stone. I liked the color so much, I then put it on a natural flagstone patio that was grey and it is now a beautiful color of brown (mortar and all) Since you have so many different materials, you might think about bringing them together with stain. I like the winding path too. Just make sure it is a comfortable walking distance between the stones before you start digging. Good luck.
  • 13 years ago
    Here's an idea. Use pavers for patio or pathway to expand garden out into yard. Have fun and good idea using Freecycle!
  • 13 years ago
    You could acid stain the concrete pavers ( if they are in fact concrete) to a warmer tone.This would tie them in a bit to the other materials.I would group the materials up a bit .Your property will be about the plantings when you are done , so don'y worry about the hard-scape too much..it is the backdrop for the real show.