Use A Cheaper Alternative To Concrete And Build A Cozy, Natural Patio This Weekend

The backyard is a great place to sit back, relax, and soak up the sun, but if you like to do that often, and you like to do it with friends, your lawn is going to suffer. The usual way out of this dilemma is to build a backyard patio, but if you make it out of concrete, there goes your naturalistic backyard setting. Not only that, but installing a concrete patio is expensive and takes a fair amount of work. Here's an idea: Build a cozy patio out of mulch instead of concrete. 

The idea isn't as crazy as it sounds. Mulch automatically conforms to the lay of the land and isn't as easily displaced as gravel, so there's no need to dig deep and install a base for it (although you can if you want). Mulch made from wood chips is easy to find and often inexpensive — sometimes free if you happen to come across a brush-clearing operation in your neighborhood. If you're mulching your garden, you can use straw, barks and hulls, or even an inorganic material like rubber, but wood chips are your best bet for a relatively long-lasting patio that preserves your naturalistic outdoor space. 

The big pluses of mulch over concrete are cost effectiveness and ease of installation, but the main drawback is service life. Mulch decomposes in about a year or two, but all you have to do to keep your patio alive is add more. 

Because mulch is a loose material, you need a border to contain it, but mulch isn't as unstable as gravel, so the border doesn't have to be very robust. Some wood or polypropylene bender board will probably do it. If you want to get the family involved, you could also make a border using old bricks or stone garden and landscape edging. The time you spend making the border will probably be about 80% of the time you spend on the entire project.

It's a good idea to cover the area inside the border with weed-blocking fabric to prevent your hangout space from being invaded by thistles and other vegetative volunteers. You can hold the fabric down at the edges with garden staples, or just place rocks. Cover the fabric with enough mulch to hide the rocks while staying below the level of the borders, rake the mulch flat, then set up a table and chairs. Keep your shoes on, because you could get splinters if you walk over wood mulch in your bare feet.

A mulch patio doesn't need too much in the way of maintenance, but it does need some. Exposed wood chips will turn gray, so you may have to rake occasionally if you want to preserve the natural wood coloration. You'll also have to add more mulch in a year or two to replace material that has decomposed.