Outdoor Project: Corner Patio and Garden Area

Corner Patio and Garden Area

I love being outdoors. I enjoy everything from hiking and biking to gardening and landscaping. There's just something about fresh air and sunshine to lift spirits and bring peace and calm. Not to mention happiness. I even love working outdoors. When I'm making things that involve saws and drills and sanders I look forward to setting up shop in my driveway or backyard so I can be outside. It's like a double hit of joy. I love making stuff and I love being outside - win win. So after I finished redesigning and helping to build our new deck and pergola, I set my sights on our patio area towards the corner of our yard. I had already built a large raised garden bed close to the patio, and I wanted to do something more with the area in between. But it was a downward-sloped grassy area that bordered a mulch bed I had created years ago. We also have a fenced-in backyard for our dogs who take great joy in barking at every single dog they see walking by. So my master plan started to take shape when I realized I wanted to enclose part of our yard so the crazy dogs couldn't bark through the fence slats as they watched dogs go strolling by. And I wanted a little more privacy for us also. Another win win! 

This is the area I wanted to transform:

I wanted to create a cozy, private yet inviting area where my family and friends would want to spend time. I had an idea in my head of how I could enclose this corner of our yard, but it involved lots of different projects and tasks. So I started by building a large planter box along part of our fence with an idea for a taller privacy wall to go behind it. I ended up making that privacy wall out of pallet wood, and then hired a landscape company to put in a stone patio. Once that was done I continued the tall privacy fence along the rest of our corner area, and then built a garden potting table and put up some outdoor hanging lights. Later I built a strawberry planter in the far corner. Lastly, I used leftover granite scraps and old pieces of lumber from previous projects and laid down a paved walkway in front of the potting bench. My cozy, welcoming yet private patio area was complete!

The privacy pallet fence was quite the project! See my Pallet Wall post for details.

After building a little side table and potting table, it was time for the flagstone patio.

After the stone patio was set I laid out old granite scraps, old paver stones, and old lumber repurposed from previous projects to make this walkway. Then I added some string lights above it all for cozy night lighting. 

Voilà! Done!