🖼️
The project:
We stopped repairing the lawn and started redesigning the problem.
Our one-year-old female Border Collie had claimed this section of lawn as her personal excavation site. No matter how often we filled the holes and repaired the grass, she returned to the same area, leaving behind bare soil, damaged lawn and exposed irrigation.
Rather than continue fighting a losing battle, we decided to redesign the area around the way our family actually uses the backyard.
With products from Bunnings, plenty of wheelbarrow trips and a lot of careful measuring and hand-placing, we transformed the damaged patch into a low-maintenance outdoor fire-pit retreat.
We removed and plugged two redundant sprinklers, lifted the remaining lawn, levelled the area, installed weed mat and created a symmetrical arrangement of concrete pavers. River stones were then spread and individually rearranged to achieve consistent coverage, before polished decorative stones were added as a contrasting finish.
Two Mimosa Eden Merbau benches and a portable Mimosa fire pit completed the transformation.
What was once an unattractive and constantly damaged section of lawn has become one of our favourite places to gather as a family. It is used for relaxing during the day, spending evenings around the fire and enjoying time outdoors with our children and pets.
Our Border Collie still rules the backyard—but this time, D.I.Y. won the digging battle.
- Materials:
- Pope poly plugs and plumbers tape
- Weed-control mat from Bunnings
- Concrete pavers from Bunnings
- River stones
- Polished decorative stones from Bunnings
- Two Mimosa Eden Merbau three-seater arm benches from Bunnings
- Portable steel fire pit from Bunnings
- Solar lights from Bunnings
- Tools:
- Shovel and spade
- Garden rake
- Wheelbarrow
- Tape measure
- Spirit level and straightedge
- Scissors for cutting the weed mat
- Garden gloves and other appropriate personal protective equipment
- Step 1:
Remove and plug the sprinklers
We began by locating the two sprinklers positioned within the fire-pit area.
We carefully excavated around each sprinkler, removed the sprinkler fittings and sealed the poly irrigation lines using Pope poly plugs.
- Step 2:
Remove the damaged lawn
The remaining lawn and damaged turf were cut into manageable sections and removed by hand.
This exposed the sandy base and allowed us to remove loose organic material and identify any low or uneven areas that needed to be corrected
- Step 3:
Install the weed mat
Weed mat from Bunnings was rolled across the entire area and trimmed to follow the existing curved patio edge and the straight edge beside the pool fence.
The mat created a neat separation between the underlying soil and the decorative stone and will help reduce ongoing maintenance.
- Step 4:
Measure and set out the pavers
We measured the area to identify its centre and establish the correct position for the fire pit.
The central pavers were arranged in a balanced grid, with larger pavers positioned underneath the benches to provide stable locations for the benches.
We stepped back several times and adjusted the layout until the pavers appeared symmetrical from the patio and aligned with the surrounding backyard.
Once we were satisfied with the set-out, every paver was placed in its final position and checked to make sure it sat securely.
- Step 5:
Add and arrange the river stones
The river stones were transported into the backyard by wheelbarrow
and gradually distributed across the area.
Team work and the help of the girls, made the physically demanding job, much easier. Much of the work involved arranging them individually by hand. Larger stones were repositioned, gaps were filled and the overall coverage was adjusted until the finished surface appeared consistent.
- Step 6:
Install the furniture and fire pit
The two Mimosa Eden Merbau benches were positioned on the larger perimeter pavers, facing one another across the central area.
The portable Mimosa fire pit was then centred on the concrete pavers, completing the layout and creating a natural focal point.
- Step 7:
Enjoy the finished retreat
The completed space is now practical, attractive and significantly easier to maintain than the damaged lawn it replaced.
It has already become a favourite place for our family to sit together, enjoy the backyard and spend cool evenings around the fire—with our Border Collies supervising the area our one year old female tried to excavate many times.
