Making a New Garden: The Evolution of a Fire Pit
The gods of fire compelled the Facilities Manager to construct a fire pit in the garden. While not quite completed -- more flagstones arrived yesterday -- it is pretty much as it appears, i.e., a place to grow warm and enjoy the companionship of smoke and flame in the great outdoors. Join the FM now as he journeys through the process.
Ah, the fire pit. Home-made and golden, we are ready for our first fire! What follows is the short tale of how we did it:
Here is the old landscape. As the entrance to the gardens is most often down the stairs we reckoned the best fire-pit placement would be here so we can see the broad vistas to the south or turn and see the house in its steel-clad glory. Note: Pink is no more. Hooray! The scraggly maple in the center of this photo is a good point of reference to use throughout this post.
Facilities Manager's mother is attacked here by numerous and ground-hungry plants we brought to our gardens from our former residence in Portland. Yes, FM's mom is just 30 inches tall. Tiny Sharon. This photo, from February, shows where the fire pit would be, just behind Mom. Note where the maple tree is.
Hark, the memories of the back-breaking sod-cutter! Well, we had to remove the sod to start to landscape the surface. Note: In the background you will see the beautiful chicken-coop under construction. The very first picture in this blog post features the green cube in a lovely fashion.
Yep, that's the fire pit in Stage One. A tad larger than the end-result, but a good place to start. Maple barely visible in the upper right-hand corner.
From the north-side now, looking down the garden slope to the south. The ring for the outline of the fire pit is just visible on the right. The soil from the pit and the pathway leveling effort provided the materials for the embankment -- see below -- for the grass gardens. Note: There below is that beautiful coop again, this time in mid-construction primer.
Let the digging begin: Kind of shallow. More digging is necessary to ensure the fire pit does not become a garden pond. Tamara here: I just want it noted that David, I mean Facilities Manager, did this all by hand. Not that it's such an overwhelming task, but I thank my lucky stars every day for him!
This was all moved by shovel in hand. Good exercise!
Tamara again: OK, so he beat me to it.
Tamara again: OK, so he beat me to it.
This is the construction of the rock embankment. Chief Gardener did this duty. I believe at this stage we enjoyed a fire in the pit.
Yep, we sure did. See the remains. And the yard debris is ready to go again.
There we go. The FM dug down about 40 inches and then filled the pit with three wheel-barrel loads of gravel. Some four inches of sand was then added. This is a so-called "french drain" to, again, prevent a garden pond in the fall and winter months. In any case, the FM plans to make a lid for the pit, i.e., a pit-lid!
The pit was then filled with water to determine two things: A, How it drained; B, To find the level of the bottom. Working on a slope one often becomes confused as to levelness.
Here the FM installs the floor of the pit. These are hard kiln bricks available at Lowe's for $2.66 each. We used 96 bricks in the pit with four bricks to spare for repair purposes.
FM spent an hour or so making sure the bottom bricks were as level as possible. Paver-sand was sprinkled on the surface and swept by hand to fill in the gaps between the bricks. This will help dissipate the heat. So we believe, anyway.
These are the rings to rule all rings. Again the paver-sand was used between each ring of bricks.
Here I back-filled with the removed soil. Carefully, though, so as not to disrupt the bricks. Tossed in some gravel, too. Then the FM watered the outside fill and compressed it. It turned out as hard as concrete and the bricks are very secure in place.
So three rings (to rule them all) up and checking out how the stones would look.
More testing. Kind of swirly, no? The Chief Gardener wondered about hanging the flagstones over the lip of the brick ring, but fearful the heat would crack the flagstones and to ease cleaning, it was decided to just line up to the edge instead with about an inch of sand and gravel between the top ring of bricks and the flagstones.
Ah, now that's a fire pit!
Okay, a comment or two. We thought of mortaring in the flagstones but decided to try the laid-in method first. The mortar may crack under the heat and the just-laid-out in the manner shown above allows the stones to be a bit flexible. We are sure they will settle in as the rains come and we use the fire pit and walk on them. Not at the same time, haha; we won't be fire-pittin' during a rain storm!
The final work to do is to install the new stones, which will simply enlarge the flagstone pattern, and then to clean out the sand and gravel from the pit and then toss in some logs and enjoy the crackling fire and the Chief Gardener's stupendous gardens.
Thanks for checking out Chickadee Gardens this week. Happy burning!
Tamara's final note: Thank you guest writer Facilities Manager for giving me the week off. And yes, happy gardening and now that fall is officially here, happy burning!
This looks fantastic; can't wait to see pictures of it in use! : )
ReplyDeleteThank you Stephilius! You guys are welcome out here any time to test it out with us :)
DeleteI'm suitably impressed! What a lot of work! The pond issue would never have occurred to me but then I live where rain is little more than an abstract concept.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kris! Yes, although it's dry as a bone here during our summer months, I have to remind myself it **does** rain from time to time in the winter :)
DeleteIt is a thing of beauty! I, being an urbanite, have issues with fire pits in the city. If you want to fall asleep in a campfire go to the county!!! However, you all being in the country,...well knock yourselves out! I really do think you've done a fabulous job and hope you get to enjoy it over and over and over again.
ReplyDeleteAah, thank you Danger!
DeleteYes, I don't think they are so practical in an urban setting, what with people living in them and stuff. Haha...can you imagine? Your neighbor with a fire pit like this on the other side of your fence? Oy. But with enough room...well...
And since we're talking about safety, by the way, the plants around the fire pit are all fire retardant, just as a precaution.
Another wonderful job done, I should like to have such a fire-pit, such a good idea. Did you use it already in the meantime?
ReplyDeleteAAw, thanks Janneke. We broke it in last night, the first eve of autumn! We had to have our pagan festival after all :)
DeleteI need a Facilities Manager. And a Chief gardener, for that matter. The firepit looks great. We can't have a firepit in the city where I am, but I grew up around one and miss it.
ReplyDeleteWell, if my Facilities Manager ever needs a vacation, I'll send him your way :) haha... Well, to Loree's point about fire pits in urban areas, I'm not surprised it's not allowed but good memories growing up around one! I've never had one myself, nor has FM but we are thrilled (and a little scared) to have this one. We'll treat it with respect, to be sure.
DeleteWow - that looks fantastic! Well done! I'll bring some hot dogs and smores!
ReplyDeleteCome on over, the fire's ready!
DeleteWe are going to build a fire pit in the backyard even though there is a burn ban every summer. It's still going to be so fun to go out on a cold night and sit by the fire. I hadn't considered that it might fill up with water. Good to know those things before you build it!
ReplyDeleteYes, we had a burn ban here too until last week, but it's ok for fire pit fires and bbq's. I hadn't thought of the water thing either until we started doing a bit of research. Good to know, yes!
DeleteWow, we are going to use this as a manual for how to make a fire pit. Thanks, T!!
ReplyDeleteCool! You are welcome....thank Facilities Manager, actually. And get your dad out here, we'll light a big ol' fire to keep him warm!
DeleteThat looks well built and perfect for a bonfire! I love fire pits too. We have a movable one in our back yard. Of course I sometimes fantasize about a gas one I can turn on with a switch...
ReplyDeleteA moveable one? Cool. We thought of that but with 2 acres we figured a more permanent location was best. A gas one to turn on would be fantastic! I've seen those at friends' gardens and they are lovely, the kind you can sit around, literally, as they are raised up to provide extra seating if the walls are thick enough.
DeleteFantastic!
ReplyDeleteThank you Mindy! I hope you can bring the fam out and enjoy it sometime.
DeleteThat looks great, especially the use and arrangment of the flagstones. Hopefully many happy evenings spent there soon.
ReplyDeleteJust wondering if you thought about using retaining wall blocks for the walls instead of bricks?
Yay! Thank you Hoover Boo. As far as retaining wall blocks, I think that would work fine, it's a matter of how hot they can get without exploding. I think many use retaining wall blocks for fire pits just fine. I think David wanted to make sure it's extra safe.
DeleteSinging and telling stories around a campfire...now there's a memory worth recapturing. Your fire pit is a thing of beauty, besides.
ReplyDeleteYou bet! And having a glass of wine or three :) Come, bring the husband and enjoy it with us!
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