Now that we have uncovered an old sidewalk on the property its created a great opportunity to define an entrance to the orchard. At the end of the sidewalk, we are creating a 15ft circle that will be filled with pea gravel and feature a fire ring in the middle. We will either use bullnose cinderblocks or large logs to create 4 seats around the firepit.
P.S. A 5 gallon bucket and shopping bag make a great trashcan.
If you have access to a pickup truck getting pea gravel from a landscape supply company is more cost-effective than buying bags from a big box store. I will need 2.18 cubic yards to fill a 15 ft diameter circle at 4 inches deep. If you need it, you can use this calculator to help calculate cubic yards. Menards sells 1/2 cu ft bag of pea gravel for $3.54 per bag. To fill my hole I would need to purchase 118 bags which would be $417.72. Instead I’m going to purchase pea gravel by the cubic yard from Hulvey Landscape Supply at $28/cu yd. If I didn’t have a Dad with a pickup truck the delivery fee would be $50. Still, $106 is a fraction of the cost. Menards offers a galvanized steel fire ring for about $45, less if you can catch a rebate offer. Before putting the pea gravel down I’m going to pin down some landscaping fabric with garden staples to help make sure that weeds and grass don’t grow back up through it.
Because one of my goals is to keep all of the organic material on this lot at this lot I have been reusing the sod I pulled from the sidewalks to fill in low areas (ankle rollers I like to call them) on the property. But this firepit area was producing a lot of sod and I had nowhere else to put it. So I decided to mound up the edge around the firepit and along the sidewalk. Because this was an unplanned design feature I’ve been looking into some good native plants to grow on the mounds that would help with erosion control. I really enjoy using Prairie Moon Native Nursery’s website to sort and filter through possible native plant options based on light and soil conditions. I believe I’ve settled on ordering Columbine, Bishops Cap, Western Indian Physic and/or Drummond’s Aster.