Front Garden Project–Stone Pad for the Birdbath

A couple of weeks ago, Jackson helped me dig out the stump of the Japanese Maple that had died in the front garden. That left a big hole, but not to fear, I have wanted to build a stone pad for my copper birdbath to sit on to keep it level and out of the mulch. I want to make this an informal formal garden with espaliered figs, a birdbath feature, and strawberries.

I started today by gathering my materials.

I took my spade and cut a straight edge around the hole for the rocks to butt up to.

Then, I cut landscape fabric and used landscape staples to pin it to the bottom of the hole.

It is about a 5′ diameter area. I added 6 bags of Paver base to the hole.

Then I raked it out and tamped it with my tamper.

The birdbath will sit on the very center stone, so I made sure that one was absolutely level.

Then I worked outward from this stone until the area was filled. I pour two bags of polymeric sand on top to fill in the gaps between the stones.

I swept the polymeric sand around until all the cracks were filled.

I need to water the sand in and it will set up and help keep the stones in place.

Next up, I am going to espalier two fig trees on the wall you can see behind the bird bath.