We’ve used a small copper fire bowl for our backyard fires for years. Normally we’d set it up in the middle of the yard, clearing a small patch of leaves and pine needles. It worked ok, but it could be rather messy after a good rain, and sparks could occasionally get to leaves or pine needles. Since we have been home all Fall we finally splurged on the flagstone needed to make a small patio for hosting our future fires.

We found a lovely grey and rust flagstone labeled ‘Rustic’ that seemed like a good fit for us at a local landscaping place. Thankfully we could have it delivered (we were 0.2 miles inside of their delivery limit!).

Leandra used the round creek stones to outline our existing drainage area.

Meanwhile, I was moving all the flagstone to the backyard so we could see each piece for layout purposes. After some leveling of the ground we started placing stones into a rough oval shape approximately 16′ across.

By the end of day 1 we had the general outline.

The next weekend we finalized the layout and leveled most of the rocks.

On day 3 we completed the path from our brick walkway to the new patio.

We are pretty happy with the final product – it should give us a safer and more stable base for our outdoor fires, and plenty of room for social distancing too.

Leandra is currently working on transplanting some moss from our front yard to some of the dirt-filled spaces between the stones to hopefully fill in over time.