DIY Gravel Firepit + Retaining Wall
We purchased our first home in December of 2019 with a sloped and neglected backyard. I couldn’t wait to get to work on transforming our own backyard oasis once Summer 2020 came around! Here is a before of the backyard.
We knew we wanted a space to gather but the sloped yard was making it difficult to find any flat space. We had future plans to build a deck but with the lumber pricing being what it was- that project got pushed to Spring 2021.
First we started by drafting a site plan of what we wanted this area to look like. I had already started working on the fence lined flower and mulch beds which gave us a good outline to go by.
We decided the entire bottom half of the yard would be gravel/mulch for better draining and a larger gathering space. We did this by renting a tiller from our local home depot and removing/leveling the dirt that was there. We removed the dirt from one side, to build up the other side where our walkway path would lead up to the top of the yard.
After we tilled the dirt, we tamped it down to as level as we could before laying the weed block fabric. We used the overlapping method to lay the fabric and found this worked best for coverage and to avoid any pull away. We used two different kinds of gravel (crushed blue stone and white marble) for a salt and pepper look. This looked great against the black landscaping edging and black mulch in our flower beds.
We used about 50 bags of gravel and spread them as evenly as possible over the firepit and walkway area. We sprayed the area with our hose and tamped down the gravel a second time.
Since our yard was on a slope and we had some draining issues in the past, I opted to build a small retaining wall with a French drain behind it. The French drain consisted of digging about 1-2 feet behind where the wall would go and laying pea gravel with a drain sleeve with holes in it on top, more pea gravel, then wrapping in landscape fabric and filled back in with dirt. This would later become part of the mulched flower bed on top so we did not have to plant any grass seed.
After the French drain system was installed, I begin laying the stones and using construction adhesive to attach them to each other and and the cap stones on the top. I thought this added a nice functional but decorative part to our firepit area!
With any firepit area, you can’t forget lighting! I opted for solar string lights which looked great on posts and required no electricity to run.
This area was completed by adding cozy chairs, a warm firepit, solar path lights and surrounded by my favorite plants. This project really transformed our neglected backyard into something useful and beautiful! It didn’t hurt the resale value either ;)
