Now that the pad for the patio and pathway between the garden and patio have been cleaned and prepared by removing all dirt and tree roots, it’s time for the gravel.

(click thumbnails to enlarge image)

The gravel gets delivered by a local rental place.

Chris and I get to work spreading the ‘3/4″ minus’ gravel. Most tutorials and how-to’s say to use 4 inches of gravel, but I have asked around and some “experts” have told me that 2-3 inches is fine.

  

Now I am using a plate tamper to pack the gravel. I first hosed it down lightly and this helps it to stay packed when finished. I made two passes going opposite directions, making sure it was just damp but not soaking wet.

Just in time, our block is delivered and set right where we wanted it.

After packing the gravel down we are making ore starting corner. It must be a perfect 90 deg. angle so the block stays true throughout the laying process. We used a “3-4-5” method using our string line (measure up one side 3 feet, up the other side 4 feet, then measure across the two points you made and it should be exactly 5 feet) we were extremely lucky and it was perfect the first time! (my great eyeballing)