Instant patio: it measures just 7 feet across. You can build it in a weekend for less than $200 - Garden Outdoor Living

Sunset, July, 2002 by Kathleen N. Brenzel

* Most patios take time, and days of effort, to build. But a small, detached patio like the one pictured here comes together quickly with minimal effort.

Think of the possible uses for this circle of bricks (we show three). You can tuck it into a perennial border. Or place it in a remote corner of your garden, where you can linger at day's end over a glass of wine, or on Sunday morning with a latte while perusing the papers.

Such flexibility was our goal when Sunset's Bud Stuckey installed this patio near the end of a wide flower border in our editorial test garden in Menlo Park, California, last summer. But we also wanted our tiny tuck-in to be relatively inexpensive to build, easy to install in a day or a weekend, and moveable. (Since heavy foot traffic wouldn't be an issue, we set the bricks in sand.)

You wouldn't want to walk on this patio wearing spiked heels. But if throwing fancy-dress garden parties is your style, set the bricks in mortar on a concrete base. Or arrange them on packed soil so you can grow plants such as creeping thyme in wider spaces between them. (You can edge the patio with bricks set on end in a trench around the outside, soil packed firmly against them. For other ideas, see Sunset's Complete Patio Book.)

If bricks don't match the other payers in your yard, you can adapt the idea, substituting flagstone, slate, cobblestone, or colored concrete payers. In place of a round slate paver in the center, you can use a concrete paver embellished with broken glazed tiles in pretty colors.

Locate your patio on level ground, out of wind and hot sun. Position it to take advantage of any grand views and create access to it with steppingstones. Then comes the fun part--styling your patio. Oh, and settling in with a tall glass of something cool to celebrate its completion.

RELATED ARTICLE: Three seasons, three uses

* Spring: Make the patio a focal point. Place a birdbath and pots of blooming annuals such as purple nemesia and bacopa in its center. Edge it with low mounders--New Zealand hair sedge 'Frosty Curls' 'Oriental Limelight' variegated artemisia--and add color makers such as breath of heaven, pink marguerites, pink and purple anemones, Swan River daisy, lilac, Berberis thunbergii 'Aurea'. Tuck low growers such as creeping thyme between the bricks.

* Summer: Bring out the bistro table and chairs. Tuck summer bloomers like purple verbena, yellow daisylike helianthus, purple coneflower, and coreopsis behind it. (Golden seedheads top eulalia grass behind chair).

BUILD IT YOURSELF

Installing the patio

TIME: 1 day (plus a day for planting)

COST: About $190

MATERIALS

Two 7-foot-long 2-by-4s * Two 1-foot-long stakes with pointed tips * String * Gypsum 12 1 -cubic-foot bags (about 1/2 yard) clean sand * One round slate or flagstone paver, about 17 inches in diameter (add two or more for steppingstones--optional) * 150 used bricks (includes a few extras for color matching)

Optional

One 80-pound bag Quikcrete mortar mix * 1 quart mortar color

TOOLS

Rotary tiller or spade * Rake * Carpenter's level * Tamper * Hose * Rubber mallet * Bench broom

Optional

Bucket for mixing mortar * Grout bag * Trowel * Rag * Burlap

8 A.M.

1. Rototill or dig the soil; rake it smooth, Lay the 2-by-4s about 7 feet apart to serve as temporary guides. Place a stake in the soil to mark the patio's center; tie a 7-foot-long piece of string to it, then tie the string's free end to the second stake. With the free stake, trace the patio's outline in the soil, pulling the string taut as you walk a wide circle around the center stake. Remove the stakes and mark the circle with gypsum. Remove the 2-by-4s from the sides; then place the carpenter's level on one of them to make sure soil is level. (Recheck level at every stage.)

2. Pour six bags of sand evenly over the soil to about 5 inches beyond the gypsum mark. Smooth it with the edge of one of the 2-by-4s, then tamp it evenly to firm. Spray with a fine mist from the hose, then tamp it again into a layer about 2 inches thick.

3. Place the center paver on the sand base. Working from the center outward, set down the bricks (follow the pattern above), tapping them into place with the mallet and butting them together as tightly as possible. Spread three bags of sand evenly over the surface of the finished paving, let it dry if wet, then sweep the sand into the joints between bricks. Mist lightly with the hose. Add sand until joints are full.

4. To mortar the center paver in place (optional. but recommended), mix the mortar and add color, if desired, according to package directions. Using a grout bag, apply the mixture between the bricks immediately surrounding the center paver (use a trowel tip to smooth it if necessary). Allow it to dry; wipe away excess with a clean, soft rag. For extra firming (also optional), mix 1 part mortar with 1 part sand, then brush the mixture into joints between the outer bricks. Carefully sweep excess mortar off the bricks. Mist periodically over the next two hours. Scrub bricks with burlap to eliminate any mortar stains.