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! 🌿

Why Plant Hydrangeas In A Raised Bed (And How It Saved My Shrubs)?

I feel that raised beds can serve multiple purposes in your garden. You can take an area of your yard that may seem flat and boring and bring additional character by raising up your gardens and adding height or layers that will be visually appealing when overlooking your lawn.  Not only that but it can improve your ability to provide the right growing conditions, or simply give you the option to plant in an area you may have otherwise deemed hopeless due to drainage issues (spoiler alert: this was my issue). 

Below are a few reasons why I think planting hydrangeas in a raised bed is a great idea.

Adds Aesthetics To Your Garden

Now I didn’t choose to build beds myself for this reason, but I will say that I’ve enjoyed the look it has brought to our backyard. I built my raised bed out of concrete blocks and painted them a slate blue color to match my garden shed door, and let me tell you that finding a matching color was quite the challenge for me. 

I would grab color samples based on memory, but get home to compare to the shed door and would just laugh at how wrong I was.  You should have seen me the day I found it though, as I was ecstatic and had to go tell my husband how proud I was for finally finding the right color match. 

Here is a picture I had to take just so that I could prove just how close of a match I found when comparing it to our shed door off in the distance.  It really is the simple things. 🙂 

I try not to care too much about something like this since at the time it was just my solution to keep my hydrangeas alive, but a small part of me really just wanted to see if I could do it, and it looks so much nicer because I took the time to focus in on those details.  I’ve also chosen to continue this paint color with the other beds I’ve built for my vegetable garden in my front yard, to keep things uniform, as shown below. 

I like the idea of raised beds because there are so many options to choose from, and even though I went with concrete blocks, you could really go with just about anything. Think about building your beds using lumber/wood, bricks, stones/rocks, or even recycled materials like old used tires.  

The list could go on I’m sure, but obviously you want to consider your situation and why you are choosing to add raised beds into your landscape, and what sort of look you are going for in your design. Raised beds will allow you to define your space, and how you might want to use it.  They can give a clean look as well if you choose to build them that way.  Here is how my bed turned out once built and my hydrangeas started to spring to life once planted. 

However you choose to incorporate raised beds in your landscape, it will provide you the added character in your garden, and with the added height you will be able to see the layers in your plants even without having to buy a larger sized plant to gain that extra height. 

Help Manage Soil Conditions

Another beneficial reason to incorporate raised beds into your landscape is when you might be dealing with soil conditions that are not ideal for the particular plant you want. 

I live in Minnesota and we are known to have clay and slightly acidic to neutral pH rated soils (meaning we fall around the 6.0-7.0 pH scale), which honestly works great for many plant varieties.  My hydrangeas seem to thrive wherever I plant them around my house, although this too is not a reason I chose to plant them in a raised bed. 

However, this is another excellent reason TO plant these shrubs in raised beds because if your area does not have ideal pH levels, perhaps much too alkaline for your plant, you can correct this from the start with a raised garden bed! Add in the right type of soil and amendments from the start, and it will turn the soil into the perfect conditions your hydrangeas will thrive in. 

Also, it would be much easier to maintain and likely last longer than planting directly into the ground because you can try to amend your natural soil as best you can, but unless you keep it up there’s a great chance that it will return to its original state eventually as this is where it’s supposed to be.  

Improves Drainage Issues

And here we are, the main reason and only reason I chose to plant my hydrangeas in a raised bed. I probably wouldn’t have thought to do this early on in my landscaping journey, but thankfully I had to experience it for myself, and in turn it has brought me more inspiration and confidence to include raised beds in my garden designs. 

Before building this bed, I started by landscaping around our deck, and simply planting my hydrangeas directly into the ground.  It looked really nice, until it didn’t work for us anymore. 

This was truly a trial and error garden experience too, as you will see in the pictures I’ve shared, this was not the first design attempt. I should have known it wouldn’t work from the get go as I was fully aware of our drainage issues during the spring, however we did have a french drain installed so I was hopeful that this would be our final solution to our flooded spring seasons. 

The image below demonstrates what we were dealing with after winter passed and all of the snow melted.
Note: this was before our french drain was installed. 

However when you are also working against a steep hill leading down to your house, I feel you are destined to have to deal with some sort of standing water regardless of having a french drain.  The snow will melt and in turn that water will flow downhill and concentrate where it starts to level out. 

Here is a picture the following season after a heavy rain when I was working on my first garden design.  This was one of the original garden projects I was doing when I initially started landscaping around our house, and I think I was digging my holes so deep because I thought it would help with drainage beneath the plant, since the soil in this area was so compact and I didn’t want my newly planted hydrangeas to get waterlogged.  I was still learning, and through this experience I’ve taught myself that there are multiple things to consider when landscaping, which I share more of down below. 

Because we live in Minnesota, and the snow is not going anywhere, we will always find that we are going to have to deal with some sort of standing water, at least once the snow melts or we have days with continuous heavy rain. Through experience, we’ve discovered ways to speed up the drying process.  One not so fun way was on a nice sunny day I’d go out with my bucket and scoop up water to then pour into the french drain basins, haha.  

This worked, however it took a long time, so I will share a product I found that has been a life saver for us.  I highly recommend this water pump if you deal with drainage issues of your own, or to be honest, simply need an easy way to move water from one point to another.  

I don’t like to waste water, so I decided to test it on our dog’s kitty pool at the end of a hot summer day. I grabbed our ‘WaterBug’ and tossed it into the pool, hooked up the hose, and directed the water to my plants. This worked so well too, and I didn’t have to just pour the water out into the lawn in one spot where it’d get sloppy, and depending on my dog’s mood that day, it wouldn’t become a target mud spot he’d dart back and forth in, out of excitement, getting his paws all filthy. 🙂 

Anyway, back to what may seem like an obvious reason now, but by building a raised bed I was able to lift my garden space above its flood zone and keep my hydrangeas from getting waterlogged. 

Do Hydrangeas Grow Well In Raised Beds?

You might be thinking it is not as common to landscape with raised beds, especially when you are planting larger sized shrubs or anything besides vegetables really.  The idea behind raised beds is for convenience right?  Well yes, but truthfully there are many other reasons as you hopefully learned above, that make the idea seem more appealing now, right?  

Hopefully I’ve given you a reason to want to think about using raised beds in your own garden design, but another thought comes to mind, and that is can your hydrangeas even grow well in beds?  I’ve shared my reasons down below to hopefully better persuade you, but as shown below, through my own experience, these hydrangeas are thriving in this raised bed. 

Ideal Growing Conditions

As mentioned previously, hydrangeas can do very well in raised beds because you have the ability to provide them their ideal growing conditions by amending the soil to match their needs. 

Managing pH Levels: 

Hydrangeas do well when your pH levels are falling closer to being slightly acidic, and if you are living in an area with highly alkaline soils your plant may not receive the appropriate nutrients it needs to perform like it should. 

Soils Compaction: 

Raised beds will keep the soil from becoming too compacted as well since it remains undisturbed by human (or pet) traffic. Compacted soils can become an issue if you are experiencing heavy rains, and the soil does not absorb the water as easily which will affect the plants ability to pull in water or nutrients when it needs them. 

Soil Erosion: 

Another thing you may not think about when starting a garden, is having to deal with things like wind or heavy rains which can remove the top layer of your garden’s soil and take the nutrients with it. At least in a raised bed, it has no place to go but remain inside of your planter. 

Provides Hydrangeas Added Protection

I included this section in my list because my mind instantly goes back to all of those times my hydrangea’s branches would break off because I happened to find the most fun ball for my dog to play with in the backyard, and he becomes so obsessed as well as fast with it that he pushes it all the way up the hill with his nose and charges back down straight towards my hydrangeas.  These were not in the ideal spot for this type of play and I attempted to protect my hydrangea by barricading them with a plastic garden netting as shown below, but I didn’t have the heart to take this toy away from him because it has come in so handy when needing to tire him out.  

If you are interested at all I’ve linked it here because besides it being tough against my plants at times, it has been enjoyable to watch. Even my neighbor a couple doors down had to come over and ask me where I got it because they enjoyed seeing him play in the backyard and wanted one for their own dog. 

Alternatively, raised beds may help keep smaller animals away from your plants since they could be more skeptical to jump into something unfamiliar, or depending on the height of your bed, won’t be able to access them at all.  

However, do know that if they are determined, they WILL get into your bed.  This is confirmed through experience, as my neighbor next door sent me a picture of a rabbit nest full of baby bunnies, in her raised garden bed last summer, and her beds have to be waist high. 

Lastly I think raised beds will add the necessary protection to your hydrangeas or other plants when dealing with lawn maintenance. Think of the maintenance that goes into your lawn care, or perhaps you have a landscaping or lawn service that comes by to spread weed control or use string trimmers.  By lifting your plants above ground level, it can also prevent them from receiving unnecessary herbicides or harmed by a string trimmer. 

What Should You Know Before Planting Hydrangeas In Raised Beds

I know I’ve shared my reasons above as to why you should consider adding raised beds in your landscape, but there are always other things you should take into consideration before fully committing, so you can give yourself the best chances of success from the start.

Here are a few things I think you should also know before you start building beds of your own.

Consider The Space

It’s important in all situations to consider the space whenever you’re going to be landscaping around your home, and even more so when you are limiting your space with a raised bed. 

Some plants may be too large for the bed you place them in, so please always check the mature size beforehand.  Hydrangeas are shallow rooted shrubs and I’ve noticed they tend to spread out near the surface, so you can imagine if they reach the outer edge of your bed they may end up becoming rootbound if it would have needed more room to spread. 

The hydrangeas you see in my bed are known as Bobo hydrangeas.  This dwarf variety is considered to be the smaller compact version of Limelights which you may know can get very large. This is why I think mine have done so well these past few years as their root balls stay fairly compact, and their size shouldn’t get more than 3 feet around. 

Think of the root ball as a mirror image of the plant you see above ground. If you know the mature width of the plant you plan to use, this will likely end up the size of its root ball.  I think that might also be the reason you want to follow the drip line when fertilizing or watering, so that you are placing the nutrients the plant needs where it’ll be most successful in reaching the active roots. 

And it goes without saying, if you are planting more than one plant in your raised bed be sure to space them far enough apart so they will not overcrowd each other. I might have gone a tad bit too close with my own, but I think they are still far enough apart to get adequate air circulation to keep from the leaves forming any fungal diseases.

Provide Adequate Irrigation

The major advantage of planting directly into the ground is that your plants have the best chance of absorbing the natural moisture in the soil.  It will not dry out too fast either, so you are having to irrigate a lot less frequently. 

Not the case with raised beds.  If you choose to plant in raised beds, you will need to know that the soil within the bed walls will dry up much faster, and in turn you will need to remember to water your plants more frequently. Consider the days you get rain too, as this does help delay the frequency of you having to water your own beds thankfully.  

You could also consider using mulch, or do what I did and plant Creeping Jenny to shade out the soil and protect the roots from the direct afternoon sun my hydrangeas receive during the day.  Just know this is a spreading ground cover and it does grow quickly.  I have trimmed it back during the summer to prevent it from entering my lawn, although it is easy to pull up if I don’t get to it in time. 

Location

Location is very important to consider as well when planning a garden design using raised beds because unlike simply planting something in the ground and moving it if it doesn’t work out, you are sort of stuck with your decision on where you build this raised bed. 

I know it can be done of course, with effort, but chances of you relocating a raised bed once it’s been built is slim. So be sure to clock the amount of sun you are receiving in the location you plan to add raised beds.  

It is always wise to consider what your beds are made out of as well, or what the outer color of the beds will be, as the sun will be absorbed into darker colors better than lighter, as well as certain materials will take in more heat. I did not build my beds very tall, so the concrete blocks, which I painted a dark color, do not see a lot of the sun during the day.  Besides, the Creeping Jenny does a good job at spilling over the edges anyway…  

Should You Plant Hydrangeas In A Raised Bed?

Now that you have read from my point of view on why I think landscaping with raised beds can certainly work, as well as what things you should consider before moving forward with a project like this of your own, it’s time to think if this is something you should do in your own garden plans.

I’ve listed a couple recap questions to ask yourself, that might help with your decision.

How Are Your Drainage Conditions?

If you are dealing with a situation like me, I say without a doubt, adding a raised bed would be a great idea and provide you the ability to grow the plants you want in this area of your yard that may have seemed hopeless before. 

Just be wise about the material you choose to build your bed with.  I deal with standing water in the spring or after heavy rains, so there was no way I’d build my bed out of wood, even if it was treated, because the water is bound to win eventually and the wood will deteriorate. 

Could Your Yard Use Some Added Aesthetics?

Some people’s yards are simply flat and perhaps boring to look at, and plants of various sizes can certainly help grab your eye and define layers in your landscape, but if you’re someone like me that likes to incorporate a little character with additional aesthetics other than just plants, I think adding raised beds can provide something extra to your design. 

In my case, I was able to add some color in my garden by painting the sides of the bed, and I framed it with stained wood to give it a more elegant look.  Now when I’m in my backyard, I get a sense of pride to see how nice my raised bed compliments the flagstone patio and path I installed, to help from walking on the wet ground until it had a chance to dry up. 🙂 

If you’ve made it to the end, thank you so much for spending the time to read my post.  Hopefully I was able to provide you with enough to think about to help you decide if adding raised beds into your landscape is the right choice for you.

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!🌿