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Firepit Design

11 years ago
Last year we converted a 30 foot cliff into a multilevel access to the lake behind our home. Part of the new design includes a firepit area. The floor and walls of the firepit are built with giant boulders. My original idea was to grow ground cover (creeping jenny) between the rocks to add some texture and softness, but there's no irrigation system down there and the ground cover died out from baking for hours of sun on rock. Next we tried filling in the areas between the boulders with river rock, but every time we have high winds and giant waves (about once a month) it all gets washed out.

Does anyone have any ideas besides pouring concrete between the boulders? And if not, our landscaper suggested coloring the concrete; ideas as to the color? Orange-y to match the veins in some of the boulders, gray to match the boulders themselves, or dark brown to mimic earth/mulch between the rocks? Any ideas very welcome, thanks!!

Photo1: firepit seen from above, with dying ground cover between the floor boulders.
Photo 2: rock stairs leading down to the firepit area
Photo 3: boulders like these line the walls of the firepit and the surrounding areas

Comments (12)

  • 11 years ago
    Would concrete pots of flowers work? Or pots with rocks in the bottom? Gardener's supply as self watering pots which have a reservoir in the bottom and can go for weeks at a time without watering. It is hard to tell from the photo where you are wanting to put plants, if it is in between the rocks, but with the conditions you describe, I think it will be hard to get anything to grow except native plants that are use to conditions of the lake. Is the lake fresh or salt water?
  • 11 years ago
    And what is your growing zone. I have some ideas on plants to try. Some succulents will grow between rocks and thrive in those conditions, but again it depends on whether the lake spray is salt or fresh water.
  • 11 years ago
    Hi bellburgmaggie, thanks for your comments :) The area I'm trying to fill is between the large rocks on the "floor" of the firepit, where the yellow-leafed ground cover plants are in the picture. Succulents do grow in this area (we have them planted among the upright boulders in other areas) but unfortunately they don't stand up well to foot traffic. We actually did have 2 planters weighed with rocks in the corners of the area, but they got washed away lol. The lake is fresh-water (Lake Erie) zone 5 for summer but zone 3 for winter.
  • PRO
    11 years ago

    Try thyme I have it as ground cover and the bonus is you can use it but seems to be tough in our environment where we have cold winters and really hot dry summers.

  • 11 years ago
    Spectacular setting.
  • 11 years ago
    Beautiful! Could you use a river rock embedded in concrete (to keep it locked in) or exposed aggregate concrete?
  • 11 years ago
    I knew you were going to tell me that - it reminded me of a place on Lake Michigan where my family stayed (I'm in Illinois). Let me do some looking because you will need something with a good root system. One thing, you can get heavy stone pots and bolt them into the rock. The $64 question is what grows naturally as ground cover between rocks lakeside?
  • 11 years ago
    There is a good article in Fine Gardening on the "toughest ground covers" and you might get some ideas. My go to source.

    http://www.finegardening.com/tough-ground-covers
  • 11 years ago
    Thanks for all the advice everyone! I think hubby is pretty much against more planting; he worked really hard to get the creeping jenny in, which died, then worked even harder to get that out and put down landscape fabric and river rock - which washed out. He's definitely into concreting at this point. I really like the concept of working the river rock, or larger rocks, into the concrete "grouting." Anyone have any thoughts as to the color of the concrete?
  • 11 years ago

    This is SO gorgeous. I'm super envious! :)

    I like the idea of large self watering planters with stones at the bottom.

  • 11 years ago
    Thanks edwmom :) The planters would get washed away for sure, the power of the lake's 10-12 foot waves is always amazing!

    Hmm, mosaic....that's along the lines of the suggestions above, but more elaborate. When we have done any indoor or outdoor decorating since we moved here 10 years ago it has been with the thought of not taking away from the spectacular view - my working theory has been that anyone walking into the house or the back yard should not have their eye caught by anything before they see the lake. So I'm thinking simpler is better.