Questions about my Garden Project

Factual Questions
1

My wife assigned me a weekend outside project this morning that I’m starting to plan out. It’s something I have never done before so I had a few questions I was hoping to get answered by the landscaping pros out there. Here goes.

We bought one of those 11 by 11 foot metal gazebos at the Home Depot to house a nice aluminum patio set we purchased last year. My wife wants to install it in the middle of our backyard lawn, which is really the only place we can put the thing. We live in northern California if that makes any difference.

Breaking down this project into separate parts I came up with:

  1. Mark precisely where it’s going be placed on the lawn
  2. Using a shovel, cut out the 11X11 square of lawn and remove the sod down to the soil level. Get rid of the sod somehow
  3. Cap one spinkler off and modify another one to spray away from where the gazebo will be installed in the lawn
  4. Purchase 1 ton of crushed granite and layer it 2 inches thick in the now exposed area
  5. Screed the rock so that it’s as level as possible
  6. Erect the gazebo and secure it to the ground with 12 inch metal stakes at the corners

My questions are:

  1. Do we need to put down a plastic weed barrier or will 2 inches of rock keep the weeds and grass from coming in?
  2. Is crushed granite the right material to use as a bed for a patio set or is something else better?
  3. Is 2 inches the right depth?
  4. What am I forgetting that will need to happen for this project to be successful?
  5. How long is this project likely to take (one person working)

Any advice or help would be appreciated!

2

1.) A weed barrier will certainly help, but is not absolutely necessary
2.) Dunno; if the gazebo has a floor, it sounds right. If it’s open to the ground, ask yourself: how do you feel about walking barefoot on sharpish rocks. Personally I would look for river rocks (smoother / no edges)
3.) If you don’t worry about frost buckles and rocks moving, however deep your grasses roots are. 2" +/- I’d double check, with, say, someone from Home Despot or bLowes.
4.) Dunno. I suffer from the same problem :smack:
5.) My pop zips through projects; it would take him a weekend, me three days (usually because of the things I forgot, see above). I say, plan one day for sod removal, one day for rock placement, one day for gazebo assembly/placement.

Instead of a shovel, I usually use a pick axe (really called a pick adz), which can easily scoop under the sod and pull up roots. If I have a shovel, I use it to cut into the grass and make more manageable rows, which are then removed via pick adz.

Lastly, how level is your lawn to begin with? You might need a cheep line level and some twine to verify level over 11’.

Good Luck
Geek

3

Oh, for reference, at my pop’s house, we built an outline of 6x6’s, cleared anything within, and laid down enough crushed granite to come level with the outline. There’s a shed sitting on top of it. The 6x6 frame was great, because we could add a bottom layer on the back and sides to make the whole thing level.

4

I don’t live on the left coast, so I don’t know the climate. If you live in an area that has a hard freeze during the winter, I’d go down further than 2 inches, and likely put in pilings (8" sonotubes, deep enough to go below the frost line). If freeze is an issue, and you don’t put in a piling, you could get some shifting of “level” of the gazebo. This of course, all depends on the weight of the gazebo. My father’s shed is put on concrete blocks, in Northeast MA, close to the coast, which does have freeze issues, but has remained level.

An 11x11 square, 2" deep yields 2.2 yd^3, and usually stone/dirt is sold by the yard, so you’d be looking at 2.2 cubic yards. I don’t know how that relates to weight. Keep this in mind when you order.

I’d put down the plastic weed barrier, as 2" of crushed stone will only hold off weeds for so long, considering that dirt will filter in, and stone will settle. It’s easy to install, and good protection, especially if you’ve got soil like I have, which weeds LOVE to grow in.

to answer 4) Get helpers. I’d imagine that you’ll be dealing with large items, and an extra set of hands to hold something steady is ALWAYS a good idea.

to answer 5) I’d ask at Home Depot, they probably know how long it takes to set up, and what tools will be required.

Other thoughts:
Read the directions. Read them again when you are done. Check, then double check the packing list, to make sure that you have all the screws/washers/nuts/bolts/doo-dads.

good luck!

-Butler