Redesigning a Patio area

There is a young kid in the neighborhood who comes around and helps us with our yard work which seems to be becoming an overwhelming amount to do during April and May. We call him "Magic Mike"

because he has an abundance of energy and the desire to carry out a plan until something looks "magical".

Last week, Mike and I were both tired of the maintenance involved in keeping this one area looking clean. Stuff gets lodged in between the goose egg rock and it all needs to be pulled apart and cleaned and put back together... hello?!!!? Work much?

Years ago this strip had yucca plants that got too big to have by the pool, because as you walked past them, they stick you) so we moved the yuccas down in a garden and replaced their old spot with the rocks.

You can see the debris and weeds we were left with each spring.

Weeding, blowing out the fallen leaves and winter mess that accumulates each year, has become harder as time wore on and it was time for an updated, lower maintanence plan.. 

So hubbo and Magic went to Home Depot, and came back with these choices..

...which I wasn't too fond of ...for this spot. 

Hub and I agreed we both liked the grey patio stone, we already had, that was interspersed, but the goose rock had to go.

We just could not agree as to what we were going to combine those grey slabs of patio block with. :(

He liked the small dark grey. I wasn't nuts about any of them. And lets face it... this kid is not a brick layer, so....the small stuff would be way too many cuts...And the other stuff was rubber... I tend to like more natural looking stuff and have a lot of slate and flagstone around my yard....so off to Home Depot I went, to figure what we could do for the least amount of cuts. And to accent the slate look of my old patio blocks which no one around me is selling anymore! There must be some option my design challenged hub overlooked.

I found a smaller patio block 12 x 12 that went pretty well with my original 

So Mikey piled them into the truck and off we went home, to see how it would work.  

And Magic Mike did his thing!

And I am super happy with my "no weed pulling, sweep the dirt and debris right off " results.

 Cleaner and easier.

What do you think?

All I need now is a few palms in pots.

Now I can think of a few other places that need...some Magic Mike

Before

After

 The kid did good didn't he?

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