A patio for 40 dollars

I think I mentioned recently about my plan to put in a patio outside the porch ...one that looks better than just grass that constantly needs to be mowed, and heavy chairs always needing to be moved so I could mow. And it never looking neat because it also needed weedwacking in between mowings and I just  never got around to doing it.

I would have liked an old brick patio and even went so far as contacting the mason who built me the masonry heater that heats my house, also finished in brick.  But before he showed up to look at the job, I had another, cheaper idea.

With this pile of woodchips I have from trees removed this spring, I decided I would go buy some landscape fabric, cover the patio area with the fabric, and then cover the fabric with wood chips.  Then I'd trim it with the stone from the beginnings of a field stone patio, but reality told me that it wasn't going to work out as something I could do myself.  And it looked terrible.  So I decided to use some of the wood chips.  This photo was taken after I had done the patio so you can see I still have a few left over :). 

Before the patio

The 40 dollar patio

The pond is in front of the chairs. From the top step or from the porch, you can see over the chairs and still see the pond.

Here's another angle..  I've already move somethings around and added more plants but this is basically what I see today.  I'm very satisfied with the solution and it feels like a good way to recycle materials back into the land.

I made this little stone area, cleaning out a few plants, so that the kids and I can get right up close to the pond without me saying "don't  step on the plants" 40 zillion times. I think it will work out...again, for now. A garden seems to always be a work in progress.

One note about my $40 patio.  I only took into account the two rolls of landscape fabric I bought. Having the trees cut by professionals obviously cost me some money.  But I kept the wood for burning and the wood chips for use around the yard so I was able to recoup some of the money I spent having them taken down.