Not only are they budget-friendly, but they also won’t harm your soil, which is great news if you’re planting edibles. In my case, I used them to give my hydrangeas a healthy lift, protecting them from the soggy lower section of my yard, which I wrote about under Planting Hydrangeas In Raised Beds. If you’re dealing with poor drainage or sloped ground like me, this might be the solution you need.

Below, I’ll walk you through my project — step by step — and share my tips so you can build your own concrete block raised bed too.

Why Concrete Blocks?

I chose concrete blocks for several reasons:

• Durability: They’ll last for years without breaking down.
  
• No tools needed for cutting or shaping.
  
• Safe for soil and plants.
  
• You can easily customize the shape and size.

Step 1: Choose the Right Location

Start by identifying a level area in your yard. If you’re working with a slope, you can still make it work — but expect a few more steps (you might need to build a small retaining wall).

Since my bed was going to be near the base of a hill, I made sure there was still room with enough level ground for a walking path to be built along the bed.

Step 2: Decide on Your Bed Size

Before buying anything, figure out how large you want your bed to be. I used slim concrete blocks (16″ x 8″ x 4″) to save space. For my hydrangeas, which grow about 3–4 feet wide, I aimed for a bed about 11 ft long and 3 ft wide based on the area I had to work with.

Here’s How I Did the Math:

• Length: 132 inches ÷ 16″ blocks = 8.25 blocks (I used 8 per side)
  
• Width: 36 inches ÷ 16″ blocks = a little over 2 blocks
  
• Height: Two layers of 8″ high blocks = 16″ total height
  

Total blocks needed: 40

Step 3: Gather Materials

Here’s what I used (prices based on what I paid at the time):

Essential Materials

Optional Add-Ons (for aesthetics + support)

Total Project Cost: Around $363.43

Note: This doesn’t include soil. More on that below.

Step 4: Prep the Ground

This is the most important step, and it takes a bit of effort is leveling the ground before adding your base.

What I Did:

1. Dug down about 6–7 inches where the blocks would sit.
   
2. Raked the area smooth to help level it out.
   
3. Laid my first row of blocks, then removed them one by one to:
   
   • Add a layer of pea gravel for drainage.
     
   • Use a torpedo level to make sure each block was even before stacking the next.
     

Tip: Use a flat piece of wood across blocks to help with leveling if your having a hard time gauging how level your bricks are using the torpedo. This should help you feel it out too if the wood starts to wobble.

Step 5: Build the Bed

Once your base is level:

1. Dry stack the second layer to test placement.
   
2. Stagger the blocks for better structure.
   
3. Use rebar in corners and midpoints if you want extra support.
   
4. Once happy with the layout:
   
   • Use the Construction Adhesives on top of each base block, plus the sides.
     

Secure the second layer block-by-block.

Step 6: Customize (Optional)

I added a stained wood trim to the top of the bed for a polished finish.

What I Did:

• Cut wood to size (I used 16-foot boards to reduce waste).
  
• Stained and sealed the wood completely.
  
• Glued it down with construction adhesives and added heavy objects on top to keep it in place while drying.
  

You can also paint the blocks if you’d like. I did this for fun — but honestly, it’s totally optional. Just sweep off any dirt before painting, and don’t stress about perfection.

Step 7: Fill the Bed

Soil can be expensive — and in fact, soil cost can rival the project itself.

Budget-Friendly Tips:

• Layer the bottom of your bed with yard waste: sticks, branches, leaves, grass clippings.
  
• Use the hugelkultur method if you’re building a deep bed.
  
• Check Facebook Marketplace for free dirt or compost.
  
• Buy in bulk from local landscape suppliers if needed.
  

For my hydrangea bed, I had leftover soil from other projects — a lucky break!

Final Thoughts: Would I Do It Again?

Absolutely! Building with concrete blocks was:

• Affordable
• Simple (no power tools required!)
• Long-lasting
• Customizable

It took some patience, especially during leveling and block stacking, but once the foundation was set, the rest came together fast. My hydrangeas are thriving in their new, elevated space.

Alternatively if you want to build this bed for vegetables that would work too, however I chose to build mine out of wood for added features needed to hold back invasive grape vines. You can read how I built that bed under, How to Build Functional Raised Garden Beds.

If you’re looking for a DIY raised bed option that’s accessible and sturdy, I highly recommend giving concrete blocks a try.

Have Questions?

Feel free to leave a comment or share your own raised bed tips below! I’d love to hear how your project goes.

Happy gardening! 🌿

My raised beds were originally planned up to prevent some invasive vines against my neighbor’s fence, which you can read about on my post Building Raised Garden Beds to Fix a Problem with Invasive Grape Vines.  However I have always wanted to grow a vegetable garden, and this was one of our best (possibly only) options in our yard to add a garden. 

Planning Ahead

If you are coming across my post too late in the growing season, try to make this garden bed a goal of yours to plant your vegetables in, next spring. Reason I say this is because building beds can take time and when the clock is ticking you don’t want to miss out on getting plants in the dirt, especially since our growing season is so short here in Minnesota. No need to lose out by waiting to gather your supplies and build your beds. 

Temporary Garden Ideas

You can make a temporary bed, like I did, and have just as much fun this year while you begin your real planning for next spring.  

One day I decided to grab a couple 2×4’s in our garage and cut them enough to build a frame with the length I had available.  These were nothing special, and were simply built because I had the itch to grow some vegetables, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get my true raised beds built for a while yet. 

Honestly, garden beds really don’t need to be anything special, since plants just need some good soil and sun anyway.  I just ended up tossing in a couple bags of quality dirt over my existing soil, and added starter plants that I picked up from a local garden center. 

Temporary Beds Provide A Great Trial Period

This worked great, and truthfully, planting in this temporary bed allowed me to gauge the amount of sun I would receive, where I planned to build my actual raised beds later that year.  

When it came time to build our beds in this very spot I had been growing my temporary garden, I had to dig out all my plants and move them elsewhere. I wasn’t sure where this could be, but I noticed we had this broken wheelbarrow that we haven’t thrown out yet, so figured I could just move my plants to this for a bit.  

This held all of my pepper plants very well, and because I had full expectations that it wouldn’t be long before I’d transplant them back to my newly built beds, I wasn’t worried about their growing conditions in this small space.  

Well plans change, as they often do, so my peppers did remain in this broken wheelbarrow for the remainder of the growing season.  

Sharing this with you, because I’ve learned that this too is another option if you have something similar that can hold dirt.  My plants did very well in this shallow filled broken wheelbarrow in a semi sunny location.  

It’s odd to me sometimes how things just seem to work out.  I was picking banana peppers, jalapenos, and a couple bell peppers at the end of the season from this little garden I created.  Not a crazy amount of peppers, but I was so excited every time I’d go outside to check how they were doing, I knew then and there that gardening was for me. 

My Process Before Building Raised Beds

It started out with me measuring the area I had available so I could determine the size of beds I’d like to build.  Because these beds would be next to my neighbor’s fence, I wanted to make sure I allowed enough space between the back of my beds and the fence for yearly maintenance.  After all, I need to get back there to trim all the growth that occurred that year. 

Measure Before You Build

Please make this a priority of yours before you begin any project, because it will truly help you figure out how much material you need to buy, and how much room you can work with. 

When you really begin to measure the area you will start to think several steps ahead and may be able to catch possible flaws or other things you want to change in your design before you start to buy your materials and build your beds. 

During my process, I will begin to mark the area for each bed in my lawn. I even changed it a handful of times before I ended with what I have today.  I knew I didn’t want to build a bed right up next to our backyard fence, so I left a good amount of space before the first bed.  I thought this could be a good area to store pots, or for a bit of time, our yard bin.  Either way, I left this available for whatever I might find useful for this space. 

I also knew I didn’t want my beds to go much beyond our neighbors fence, so I thought lining it up with that would look much nicer overall.  Especially since their vines would fill in the fence and they wouldn’t have the back of my beds to look at. 

Now that I had the location for my outside beds figured out, I was able to see where the remaining two beds would go, and how much room in between each bed I would have. 

Consider Bed Access When Choosing Your Dimensions

As mentioned above I plan to build my beds with enough space between the back of the bed and the fence, so this removes some of the room available to me between the side of my house  and front of the raised bed.  I needed room to allow a comfortable walking space in between, so I chose not to build my beds too wide from front to back.  

Width: 

Think about how little you want to strain your back when having to reach into your bed to access your plants.  Most often you will read others providing a recommended width of around 2 feet around your bed.  This should provide you with a good reach without having to bend over into your garden too much, which the comfort aspect is one of the reasons to grow in raised beds anyway. 

Depth: 

Another measurement to consider is how deep you want your beds, or another way of looking at this is how tall you want your bed to be.  Beds can either be ground up, or you could build it with legs, which would certainly keep you from having to fill so much of it with dirt or other yard materials if you chose to layer the bottom first before adding in the soil.  

The lovely thing about building your own raised beds is being able to scale it to you specifically.  I based my bed design on what I would personally find comfortable for me, but I also took into consideration the wood dimensions when I was deciding how much lumber I’d need to buy. I try to consider my budget when I come up with projects like this, and felt an added layer to make my beds taller wasn’t necessary. 

Length: 

Now if it were up to me, the more room to grow vegetables the better!  However… of course I needed to give myself an easy way to get in between my beds for the aforementioned yearly maintenance that had to be done still.

Because I had around 30 feet to play with and I wanted a comfortable enough distance between each of the beds, I decided to space them 2-3 feet apart, which by doing so would allow me to build four beds that were 5 feet in length. 

Plan Out Your Shopping List

Before I bought all of my materials for this project, I planned out what I would all need by searching online and adding everything I believed I needed into my cart.  

Print It Out

This not only allowed me to see how much this project could end up costing me, but It was super helpful once I got to the store, as I brought a print out that I marked with the isles on so I knew where I needed to go once I got there. 

I don’t know if you’re like me, but for projects like this that I’m not familiar with, I get overwhelmed and will forget something, or it will take me forever and a day to find it.  It also included the pictures of each item I needed, so I could pick it out much more quickly too.  

Take Notes

Another thing I chose to do and mentioned previously, is to find the lumber lengths that would allow me to get most use from.  I knew the width and length of my beds, so I simply tried to see how many cuts from a single board I could get.  

Once I figured out the best length to give me the most use, I chose to add that length board to my shopping cart, and determined how many boards I would need. I suggest taking very good notes (or sketch this out) while you are figuring out how many boards you will need, as it can get very confusing once you go back to reference all the lengths from each board.  

Concerns Around Pressure Treated Wood

You will notice that I chose to go with pressure-treated wood to build my beds as I believed this would provide me the longest life during our winter seasons, however I know there are a lot of gardeners growing organically today where this would raise concern.  

If you are concerned about chemicals leaching into your soil I have seen people choose to char their wood for similar protection so they can purchase non-treated wood (alternatively you can choose the more costly cedar or redwood).  Another option is adding a fabric barrier between the wood and soil like I had done.  This isn’t perfect, but I mainly chose to add this to keep from any dirt seeping through the wood if it happened to shrink. 

Although the wood I chose is pressure-treated, it was treated with the chemical ‘MCA’ according to Home Depot’s website.  This chemical is known as Micronized Copper Azole, which is considered safe for vegetable gardens. Even though it may still leach some copper into the soil, it should not be significant enough to be absorbed by your plants. 

My Shopping List:

Take Advantage Of The Free Services

I’m not sure about all home improvement stores, but one reason I love going to Home Depot for these types of projects is that they will cut your wood to your specified lengths.  At least they have during the times I’ve been there. It can be hit or miss however, and sometimes it depends on who is available to help.  I suggest going earlier in the day, and flag someone down to ask if there is anyone that can help. 

Be Prepared

I do suggest coming prepared however, so that when you find someone that can help you, you can easily relay to them what you need.  Thankfully I thought about this before heading to the store, so I had my cutting lengths all written down and was able to share this with them while they were grabbing the boards from my cart. 

This too makes it easier for transporting back home.  These boards can be incredibly long, and even with a truck it would not have been possible without them being cut before leaving the store.  

Reminder During Checkout

Just remember to face the barcodes all near each other because the individual that has to check you out will be very confused by how much lumber needs to be charged since it appears like you have more than you actually have.  This again is where it is helpful to have a print out to easily share with them the number of cut boards you have, and also to ensure you are charged appropriately. 

How To Build These Raised Beds

Because you will likely be working with your own measurements based upon your personal needs for your own raised beds, I’m not going to break this down into my exact measurements. 

I do believe you will gain enough knowledge on how I built my beds, to be able to turn this around and build your own beds to your desired measurements, by following the general design of my beds and planning ahead, like explained above. 

Start With Your Base

After you return home and have all of your materials available, you can start piecing your beds together.  Now that you already have all your boards cut to size, it will be a breeze moving right along. 

Group Your Boards By Length

I suggest organizing all of your boards together in piles based on the length so you can ensure you have all the correct pieces, and will not have to make any correction cuts at home.  You will likely have a few stragglers that don’t belong in the project and were leftover cuts that you will not need, and might grab by mistake if you had not already grouped everything together.

Start Framing Your Base

Take your two front and back as well as width length boards and line them up in the shape of your bed.  You will then grab your 4×4 corner posts, which will be your support boards, and what each outside board will be screwed into – making sure the first row is level. I do wish I had taken a picture of this part, but it escaped me as I was either holding the boards together or clearing out the area of our yard to place the finished beds. 

I chose to keep the 4×4 corner post a bit shorter than the overall height of the bed because I didn’t want it showing up once I filled the beds with dirt.  Just make sure it’s tall enough to screw the top board into. 

Once you have screwed in each board to the height you wanted, you can begin on the next garden bed as the privacy panel will come later.  

Consider Additional Support

If your beds were longer than 5 feet, you may want to consider including another board in the center front and back for additional structure, but the boards I bought were pretty solid already so I was not worried about them warping once filled with dirt. 

At this point it might look like you just built a bunch of coffins, haha.  That was my very thought when we were moving them to our front yard for placement alongside the fence.  Don’t worry though, it will look better once you fill it with plants. 🙂

Incorporate a Privacy Panel (or Garden Bed Trellis)

Normally when I think of raised beds, I don’t think about adding a privacy panel or permanent trellis on the back because if you have a spot to place them and access them from all around, there is no need for this.  

However my beds were serving multiple purposes, and I needed to incorporate a back panel so I could prevent my neighbors’ vines from growing into my beds.  I thought the look of these smaller wood slats would look nice and cover enough of the view from behind the beds, so I chose to go with this look.  

Add 2×4 Vertical Supports

For this addition, you will simply tip the bed forward and screw in a couple 2×4’s at the height you want your back panel to be.  

I chose to go with a height of 5 ½ feet because I didn’t want to run into any issue with this being considered a “fence”, which I believe you are not able to install at 6 feet.  Besides, this height was just enough to keep from seeing most of the vines peaking above. 

Once you have your 2×4’s secure, you can start screwing in the wood slats.  

How to Evenly Space the Wood Slats

Spacing your 1×2 wood slats was a little more of a challenge, and when I had my Dad here to help, we were moving a lot faster with the three of us.  However what we did was grabbed an extra slat of wood on the flat side, we stuck it between each section to get the same distance and screwed them into the 2×4 from there. 

Alternatively, if you have any Trigger Clamps this was incredibly useful during this step of the project to secure the wood slat on one end as you screw in the other. 

Include the Mesh Screen (If Needed)

Once you have your back panel built, you can now staple on your mesh screen if you need to prevent anything from growing through your wood slats.  This is much easier to do before you fill your beds with dirt since we could just tip the bed forward again, and stretch the screen over the back and start stapling it into the 2×4 on the back.  I chose to keep the top and bottom alone so that whatever may fall into the back can easily be removed without getting stuck in between.  

Stain Or Paint Your Beds

Now that your beds are fully built and ready to be filled with dirt, you can choose whether or not you want to add some color or maybe even additional protection by staining the outside of the beds.  

I chose to stain the bottom of the bed the same color I have used on another bed of mine in the backyard, which was made of concrete blocks.  You can read more about that under my post 5 Steps to Build a Budget Friendly Raised Bed Using Concrete Blocks if you are interested. 

To stain your back panel, I would strongly suggest getting yourself this Stain Pad Applicator because it made my life so much easier when trying to get enough coverage on each wood slat.  This thing made this part of the project so much faster and smoother over trying to use a normal stain brush which I can picture dripping stain everywhere. 

I also used this for the base of the bed which was fairly quick as well, but a little trickier near the bottom of the beds as I’d get too close to the ground at times, but not an issue at all since this is just outdoor beds after all. 

Time To Start Growing!

Now that the beds are built and ready to go, all that is needed now is to start filling your beds with dirt and add some plants. 

I took awhile to do this only because I wanted to fill my beds with dirt from another project I’m working on that would give me plenty of dirt to use.  I started off by adding sticks, leaves, and grass clippings for the remainder of the season, which would all get very packed down after winter, leaving plenty of bed to fill yet.  

Once I was able to start adding in dirt from our backyard, I filled it a bit over half full, leaving enough room to add in bags of really good soil and compost to mix in with my existing dirt.  I knew my free dirt had a lot of clay in it, and I wanted something to help with drainage and reduce the clumpy-ness so my seeds had a good chance to take root once I began to plant. 

I hope I have been able to share enough with you from my own personal experience, that will give you plenty to base your own project off of, and allow you to build the raised beds that will work best for you!  

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and if you have any comments to share down below, I’d love to hear them.

Happy Gardening!🌿

You can imagine I’ve thought of every way to get rid of these annoying vines, but chose to go with raised beds that would allow me to get use out of this area in our yard that before would only be looked at in disgust. 

What To Do About The Invasive Vines?

Unlike most raised beds that you see with just the base to hold the soil, I needed something that would hold back these vines as well.  I decided to build a back panel that would allow me some privacy, look nice, but specifically hold back the vines from hanging over the garden beds. 

Privacy Hedge Was Not An Option

You might be thinking – won’t these vines just grow straight through the slots? You are correct!  I thought long and hard on this, even before having the garden bed idea.  I wanted to plant tall arborvitae that would eventually grow a privacy hedge.  That’s when I realized these vines would just grow through and around, and become more difficult to maintain (as I will still need to cut them back each year). 

I had imagined building posts behind these arborvitaes and using a large amount of screen cloth to shield the vines back. This could have looked quite horrendous to be honest, so I kept thinking of possible solutions.  At the same time I had been itching to start growing a garden, but had a hard time deciding where we received enough sun to grow most of the vegetables I would like to plant.  As I clocked the sun during the season, I started to notice this was truly my only best spot, and that’s when the planning began. 

Raised Beds Were The Solution

I decided to build raised beds with a tall enough backing that would allow me to utilize my screen idea without the unsightliness, as it would be hidden by my wood slots or the neighbor’s vines. 

Best Type of Garden Bed

However now I had to decide what type of bed I’d want to build.  I’ve always loved the look of beds built with galvanized steel and a wood frame, so I started pricing out the materials needed for something like this.  I began watching plenty of videos to understand how to build these too, which didn’t look all that bad.  However I decided against it after realizing I didn’t want to have to deal with buying these steel sheets and then cutting them to my preferred size.  I felt more comfortable dealing with wood, so I went that direction instead. 

Sketch Out Your Design

Before I begin a project, I need to visualize what I’m working with, and what I’d like it to look like, so I went outside with my tape measure and spray paint and started marking up the area.  Then after I got an idea of how many beds I’d like to build, I went back inside to start sketching a rough draft for the look of the beds and made note of the measurements.  

Plan Ahead

When I realized that I was intentionally spacing my beds apart so that I can easily access around them for fall cleanup, I was dealing with a decent 3’ space between each of them which was a welcome space for vines to make their appearance.  I had to solve that problem quickly, which is when I started looking up how to build privacy panels using lattice fencing, knowing that it also had to be removable so I can still get behind each bed. It’s amazing how much planning goes into what started off seeming like a simple enough DIY.  

Trial & Error

I ended up finding a product online called a ‘keyhole hanger’ that I thought was a perfect solution (at the time) to mount the lattice panels to the back of the garden bed.  Spoiler alert, this was not ideal and very difficult to line up perfectly between both bed and lattice panel.  We nixed that idea pretty quickly. 

My husband thought up the idea of using really strong magnets, which too, sounded perfect!  We started looking up strong but flat magnets that we could screw into the wood post, and panel frame.  He found some magnets on Amazon, and we gave those a shot.  They arrived, and we both got to work.  It all seemed to be going well at first, and we grabbed the lattice panel to hold up to the now mounted magnet, and it latched on instantly which brought a smile to my face. We did it!  Until we let go of the panel and it just dropped.  I think I laughed pretty hard, my husband not so much, haha.  I just realized we didn’t factor in gravity.  Sure it was a strong magnet to pull things together, but not hold things up. 

Finding The Right Product

Back to the drawing board we went.  This is when we came up with the idea of adding ‘U’ shaped brackets at the bottom back of the garden bed, which we could rest the lattice panel on to bear the weight, and the magnets would pull the top and hold it in place.  Ding, ding, ding!  This was our solution, and it worked wonderfully.  It’s so easy to pull these things off now and place them back. 

Make Sure To Complete Your Project

I do need to add in another failure that occurred, but this was only due to the fact that we had not finished the lattice panels before eagerly using them between the beds. My design on the panels wasn’t the best, as I wanted wood that would be light enough and cheap, which is why I went with ‘dog eared fence’ to frame the lattice.  I only bought enough to frame the front, in such a way that got the job done.  If you look closely I framed the top (bottom) fence shorter than the vertical side pieces for the frame. I had not been thinking at the time, and thought this made sense structurally in my head.  

When making lattice panels, make sure you have a solid frame on the back as well.  Without a frame on both sides, you will be dealing with a wobbly panel.  This was the reason our magnets eventually failed too.  The sun started to warp our lattice frame, and with the heavy winds we were getting, I’d find these panels unlatched and not lining up as well.  

I thought I had to find another solution, so I found these wide furniture clips on Amazon, which was my cheap fix to holding the panel to the garden bed.  It worked great, but I wasn’t happy with it.  This is when I realized we needed to finish building a frame backing to our lattice panels to straighten them out again.  I used the same wooden slots we had used on the bed as we had leftovers that were the perfect length.  We screwed them into the lattice and the dog eared frame in the front.  Noting, we had to find the perfect length screw so it would not go all the way through, so please make note of this if you make it a DIY of your own. 

Final Touches

This was the completion of our project.  Everything is still holding up nicely, and I no longer have to use the furniture clips.  The vines are remaining behind the garden beds, and the screen cloth is working to keep them from growing through.  I’ve added some stain and paint to the beds to match up with another raised bed I built out of concrete blocks in the back, and now I just need to fill them with dirt and start planting my vegetable garden. 

Another project in the books, and reason to enjoy our yard.

If you like what you see, or learned anything, please tell me about it by commenting down below!

Happy Gardening!🌿

One thing we did not know when purchasing our home in the Winter of 2018, was just how wet our backyard would get come Spring after all the snow melted. 

Yes, of course there was the expectation we could be dealing with some aftermath of wet soil, being at the bottom of a pretty steep hill and all.  However, the length of time it would take before it would dry up was not something we thought we’d encounter…

This area where it would remain wet for a long period of time just so happened to be the very area that our stairs from our deck would lead us to, and where you would need to walk if you wanted access to the rest of our backyard. 

For a long while we were unable to mow this section of our lawn, and let me tell you, that grass was certainly starting to get tall.  I’d try to run our lawn mower through it from time to time just to see how it’d take, but as you can see here in the middle of June when this picture was taken, we are still dealing with a wet lawn. 

We ended up purchasing a lawn trimmer just to “cut our grass” before it got out of hand.  This worked, but we really just wanted to enjoy our new backyard so we had to find a way to fix this issue we had. 

Some days it was like walking through quicksand (disclaimer: I don’t actually know what quicksand feels like, but I imagine it was close enough, haha).  My feet would sink into the mucky soil as I tried to get through it, and the bottom of my shoes would be caked in wet heavy mud, which would make it all that more irritating to deal with. 

Since this was our first full year living in our home, we thought we’d give it some time.  Maybe it was a bad season with a lot of rain. I can’t remember to be honest, but I did start researching and watching a lot of YouTube videos on how to install a french drain because we knew something had to be done eventually, and this seemed like the obvious solution. 

We were new homeowners again, this time with a yard we needed to take care of, so of course we will try to solve our problem ourselves to save a buck right?  Seems like it should be an easy enough DIY project.  

I was all ready to do this too, after watching who knows how many hours of YouTube videos, it seemed “simple” enough so I thought sure, why not?!   However, that’s how I am when I start an idea.  I figure if I learn everything I can about something, I can do it myself. 

Then reality struck, and I began to realize just how much would have been needed to do this correctly by sloping it appropriately, factoring in that our yard was already sloping towards the road from the backyard, so I just started to confuse myself with the math required for this part of the job.  Then I started researching materials and costs, and knew we’d need additional labor to pull this off correctly.  So, in the end, unless you truly know what you are doing, and you have the equipment and help to perform the job, just hire a professional. It’ll likely save you money, and most definitely time, and maybe even a headache, depending on your situation. 

Now fast forward to the beginning of 2020, the year we brought our new puppy, Archie, home who was a ball of energy, and loved to play outside any chance he could get.  He was still rather small by the time spring came around however even with a french drain installed, he’d still end up with muddy little paws when he’d come running up the stairs. 

Then he got bigger, faster, and loved to jump off the end of the steps when running down to go outside, which of course depending on the time of year he’d create a muddy section on our lawn until things started to dry up again towards the summer months.  

So what happens next you wonder?  My head began to fill with ideas to prevent this issue we are facing with “still”. Although I’m sure our french drain is contributing a lot to filtering out the water more quickly, as we do see it spewing out in the road when it’s full, in the short term our issue will remain where we deal with wet soil near the end of our steps during the wet months or rainy season. 

The Patio Planning Begins

As you may have learned a little about me above when I explained how we got to this point, you might already know what I’m about to share with you next as I begin the planning stages of building a patio.  

Yep! You got it! (maybe;)) …I began to watch SEVERAL YouTube videos, as well as image searching ideas online for patios that people have installed to get my inspiration and understanding of what will be needed for a project like this, and I knew hiring this out was not going to be an option since we just spent $$$ having our french drain installed.  

Because I like to consider DIY first, I’m fine not paying someone to do something I very well may be capable of doing myself.  Also, I wanted this patio badly enough that I would put in the effort to figure it out because I knew once it was done, I’d no longer have to deal with so much mud at the bottom of our stairs.

What Kind Of Patio Do You Choose?

After watching so many others build their own DIY patios, I wondered what style of patio I could see myself building. I also questioned the cost of materials, which I started paying closer attention to when I’d make my visits to the garden center “just to look”.

What about Brick?

I started thinking I could make a small section using brick, just enough to extend the section of our cement stoop that Archie would jump over to, when leaping off the stairs.  However after thinking about the process going into this, and having to ensure I had a good flat foundation to start laying brick down onto, I started to think this was not what I wanted to do.  

I consider myself an imperfect perfectionist, as I like to do my best with the projects I work on and usually spend a great deal trying to make it look good, I don’t always have the necessary skill to perform certain tasks so will choose a look or style that doesn’t necessarily have to be done perfectly in order to look perfect.  Hopefully that made sense. 🙂 

In this case, I really didn’t want to have to get out any string and make sure the foundation was perfectly level, etc. to perform the job… I want the option to eyeball what I’m doing sometimes, haha.  

With brick, I felt in order for this to look right, I’d need to do everything perfectly.  I didn’t completely knock the idea right away though, as I did make my trips to Home Depot to check out prices, and style options.  In the end, I wanted something more natural looking. 

Why Not Concrete?

I figured I’d include this idea to the mix since it was brought up as another option when discussing the idea of what type of patio to build at the bottom of our stairs.  It would have likely been a lot less expensive and would solve the issue at hand.  However, as mentioned above, I just didn’t have it in me to want to deal with the effort to make it look perfectly level and smooth.  

Also I strongly believe we would have ended up with cracks in the concrete eventually with the ground shifting during the seasons freeze and thaw cycles, and it wasn’t the look I was going for. 

Flagstone it is!

Not only does flagstone look great no matter where it is, and how it’s used, it provides you the flexibility of making your project imperfect, and still look great.  Another bonus is if you have yourself a landscape supply company nearby where you can buy a pallet of flagstone like we do, it’s much more affordable, in my opinion. 

This is what remained of our pallet after filling our truck, but we ended up coming back for the rest of it to complete another project I had in mind which was to create a flagstone path from the back gate door to our new patio. 

We had already been purchasing our river rock and mulch through this company, so when we explored the flagstone options, I was itching to get started right away.  

I was happy to finally have found something that we were ready to move forward with.  However, now that we know what we want to use, how do you begin?

How To Install a Flagstone Patio:

Now that you know what materials you want to build a patio with, where do you begin?  If this is a first time for you too it can be hard to see the end result.  I like to begin all my projects, if I’m able, by marking up the area with visual cues to help me see the picture more clearly in my head.  Somehow when I see a layout in front of me, my imagination steps in, and I can see what things might look like. 

Spray Paint Helps Visualize

I have always found it helpful to visualize my plans by grabbing a can of spray paint, and marking out where I want things to be. When you begin to mark up the layout, and step back, you will find yourself making tweaks to your design ahead of time which for me, saves time. 

You will be able to see if you prefer straight edges over curved ones.  It will allow you to decide the shape of your patio, maybe you want it larger than originally intended.  

I started with a tape measure to determine the size I wanted at first, and later began to mark up the grass based on those measurements.  I found out that I liked a more curved look, and I also made it larger than originally planned because I was trying to think ahead on what I’d like to do with the space. 

Rip Out the Turf

This has to be my least favorite part of landscaping.  If you have an area of your lawn and do not have the patience or time to lay down cardboard to kill the grass, you will need to rip up the grass yourself.  

I will warn you, it’s a great deal of work if you have thick grass.  Thankfully I wasn’t dealing with too much of it in this area at the time, but I do want to share this link to a garden tool that has come in handy for me for several of my landscaping projects.  It’s a Steel Landscape Edger and it makes shaping your border and cutting into grass roots so much easier. Alternatively you could use a shovel, but the teeth on the edger is what will make this job less difficult. 

Keep in mind too, if you are like me and could use the grass you remove from one project, to fill a space in your lawn that has exposed dirt or maybe a dip in your yard, having an edger with teeth will help you cut deeping under the turf to pull up a decent strip of grass.  I’ve been doing this around my lawn, and it has worked very well.  Just remember to water those strips and step on them enough to make good ground contact with the soil. 

Time to Start Digging

It is always best to call ahead before you start digging into your dirt, and regardless of the area being marked by your city, if you are new to the property, it doesn’t hurt to still be cautious when you push your shovel down into the dirt. You will either run into plenty of rocks, or potentially unmarked cables like me.  

I knew from earlier projects that we had a cable running all the way around our home that the prior owner installed, likely a satellite cable we thought.  Fortunately, I  found this again while shoveling dirt away at a slight angle, and not sticking it straight into the ground.  I was playing it cautious because I suspected a cable would be in this area, based on where I spotted this cable during other projects. 

Making Layers

You will need to start digging deep enough, around 6-7″ to allow you enough depth to provide a solid base for your patio.  

Keep in mind what material you are using to build your patio, as you need to factor in the depth of your rock, brick, or whatever you are adding to the top.  In my case the slabs of flagstone were roughly the same, but some of the thinner slabs we’d simply add more sand to raise them up with the rest.

Crushed Rock (Class 5 Gravel):

Your first layer should be to add a couple inches of Class 5 gravel.  This will help with drainage and provide a stable base.  We filled the bed of my husband’s F150, and that was enough for this space of about roughly 100 square feet (+).  

In between each layer, don’t forget to tamp down your rock or sand.  This will make sure you have a solid layer without loose areas that may shift or weaken your flagstone slabs later.  If you don’t already own a tamper or know of someone that does, you will want to pick this up prior to starting your project.  Here is a link to a Steel Tamper that will be required for a project like this. 

Sand

Our next layer was sand, which this time we just picked up bags of it from Home Depot since I think they were running us about $3-4 per bag at the time.  Here is the sand we had been using, called Paver Sand.

This worked well for us, and was fairly inexpensive.  I can’t recall how many bags we used, but I think we might have purchased around 6-8 bags. 

We too needed to make sure to add our edging before adding too much of the sand so we could ensure we had a good frame for our patio.

Flagstone

This portion of the project is definitely a two person task, as some of these large slabs were incredibly heavy!  They don’t appear this way at first, but just wait until you experience this for yourselves.  I find projects like this an incredible workout.  Don’t forget to lift with your legs! 😉 

The tricky part of this next step is finding out how everything will piece together.  I still have no idea how we got some of these pieces to align so well, but there was quite a bit of rearranging.  Don’t jump into this part right away.  You might need to lay some out, sit on it for a bit, and do some more rearranging. 

We started with several of the larger pieces around the outside, although I think the “rule” is to start in the middle and work your way out.  This is where I remind you that I’m not perfect.  I go with what works for me, and I believe this turned out quite beautifully.

Crushed Granite

The last step to complete this project was to add in the crushed granite.  We chose this over small pebble rock, or another product I’ve recently learned about that is made of polymeric sand that you simply brush into the cracks while wet and allow it to harden, which will help bond the pavers together, and prevent weed growth. 

Although I do like the look of having a sand like appearance in between these pavers, the crushed gravel pairs well with the flagstone, and allows this area of our yard to shift without any issue with cracking.  Plus unlike pebble rock (so I’ve heard), the crushed granite doesn’t move around as much.  I have had very few instances where too much of it has escaped from the patio area and ended up in the grass.  In the fall I have taken the leaf blower at this, and the rocks will barely move.  Just a few will fly out, but easy enough to see and throw back in. 

Final Result

I’m very pleased with how this patio turned out, and although not a cheap project, as it was around $1000+ for all the materials, based on the receipts I kept, it most certainly was less expensive doing the work ourselves. 

We no longer have to deal with walking down the steps into soft wet soil after a good rain, or during the spring while the dirt is still waiting to dry up.  We can even enjoy a fire for two on a nice summer’s night.  

Although this is a perfectly good sized patio for two, I am already dreaming up my next project to add a firepit area on the top of our hill that will seat at least 6.  I’ve already begun the layout, and this season will begin to dig into the hill to start leveling out an area for seating, but ideas are still stewing so come back later if you want to see that project, and how I built it. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope I was able to share enough with you from my own experience that will give you a good start with your own patio DIY. 

If you like what you see, or learned anything, please tell me about it by commenting down below!

Happy Gardening!🌿