Two of my instructors spent some time discussing the intersection of circles and squares, how they need to relate. I thought I got it at the time.

Today I saw why they went into it. I was looking at a new job, and the entrance patio just didn't look right. It has two straight sides- the stoop and a wall, and then it curves on the other sides. The walk comes in at an angle, so the circle serves to accept the walk. It's an awkward part of a circle, almost an oval, but not quite. You look at it and want to make a circle, but it just doesn't work. I think they tried to stick a circle on the corner of the square, but neither form is strong (?) enough.

I can think of four ways to handle it-

-move the walk to meet the patio at a better angle

-The quarter circle- corner of wall to corner of stoop. If they aren't the same length, it requires some fiddling- make one shorter by bringing the foundation bed over, or extend one side past the corner.

-Put a half circle on the side of a square

-Make the circle complete with the paving. This is a mortared irregular flagstone patio with a brick walk leading up to it. You could bring the brick into the patio to outline the circle, or do the circle in brick. One instructor would say the intersection of the two needs to be at a right angle.

Other options? Are mine way off, or too trite? (Well, the quarter circle is trite)