The courtyard

My lovely 1962 home had a courtyard that was 24x24 feet with a brick fence and iron gates.  I step out from the hearth room into this lovely area.  However, the concrete pad had glued on rock--an old style that was popular in the 1970's but dated the house now.  I decided that I could brick over the courtyard and update the look.  So, part of the 3800 bricks I had ordered was to be used for this project.  This project would be simple as I only had to pave over the patio, I did not need to do any major leveling or whatnot.  My only concern was how to keep the edge pavers in place.  I used an adhesive that has proven to not be too effective, but I can fix at a later date when weather is cooler.

Here is the initial patio.  Because the rock was on top of the concrete, I did not worry too much about the idea of a freeze/thaw cracking because there should be space for that to occur and not have the pavers heave up.  I started at the back door and chose to do the basket weave pattern as that is the simplest and did not require any bricks to be cut--something I cannot do anyway.

Play sand is used to fill in the gaps between the bricks and will settle to help the underneath of bricks as well.

                                     

The patio is actually a plus shaped design with bed areas around it and in the large plus sections.

I had had the original plants in the patio area dug up except for the two evergreen trees as I liked them.  With laying the pavers atop the concrete, this created a deeper bedding area.  I ordered a truck of mulch, which the dogs thought was for them.  If you look closely, you can see them being queens of the hill and digging it up.  

Here I am taking a break--once I remembered I had a wheel barrel, moving the bricks was a whole lot easier, however, it still was tiring.  Paving over the old courtyard required 1944 bricks.  But it was worth it.  I kept a heavy dusting of sand on the courtyard as rain and snow would eventually fill it all in perfectly, which it did.  Later photos for other postings will show that.

I managed to plant quite a few fruiting shrubs and trees in this area.  My hope was to create an edible courtyard space that perhaps the dogs would leave alone.  One can always hope, but a dog will do what a dog does. They have helped dig up my areas.  I planted a peach tree, plum tree, cherry tree, fig tree, banana tree.  There are blueberry bushes, a grape vine, goji bushes, blackberry bushes and a raspberry bush.  I shall have to prune the trees each year, as the space is small, but they should grow fine and produce well.  I managed to find space for a rose bush too.  The rains we have had this year has been tremendous and the plants have taken off like wildfires.