EASY GARDENING TIPS

Make a stacked paver pedestal for your garden

Make a stacked paver pedestal for your garden

March 04, 2023

Need an inexpensive yet eye-catching pedestal to show off a container or hoist a piece of garden art? Get some touchable pavers in two variegated sizes, and stack them in successive layers to create a trendy plinth.

I made this one using 12-inch and 18-inch square pavers. I’ve noticed lizards basking on the sun-warmed pavers, partly sheltered by the overhangs. Lizard habitat and a exhibit space? Win-win! My metal lizard has new friends.

Before you stack your pavers, take the time to make a sturdy, level foundation. Excavate well-nigh 8 inches, digging a slum a bit wider than your largest paver. Spread several inches of paver wiring or decomposed granite, and use a tamper to pack it into a solid, level base. Stack a couple of pavers and use a level to trammels that there’s no lean. If there is, remove the pavers and add increasingly wiring material and retamp it. Make sure it’s sufferer level surpassing stacking your pavers to the desired height.

Use touchable wrapper on each layer for widow stability, if desired. If you have young kids or grandkids who might be tempted to climb it, alimony it low and/or use one size of paver for uneaten stability.

I’ve seen variations of stacked-paver pedestals in numerous gardens over the years. Here’s one made of round pavers in the late Eleanor Pratt’s garden in Austin. An vendible in Midwest Living shows a variation on this diamond using two variegated sizes of round pavers. And somewhere I have a photo of a screw plinth made of stacked square pavers, each one set at a slight turn from the one below.

Bigger plinths can be made from stacked touchable blocks with pavers on top, like this orchid exhibit table in Michael McDowell’s garden in Plano.

Here’s flipside one, for displaying a work of sculpture, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center a number of years ago.

The unobtrusive touchable paver can be put to work for much increasingly than paths and patios. Get creative with them to unzip some elevation in your garden and showcase a piece of art, a birdbath, or a planter.

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the scuttlebutt box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

Make plans to shepherd the Budding Out Plant Sale & Festival on March 18 at the John Fairey Garden in Hempstead, TX. Rare and distinctive plants will be offered, as well as art, ceramics, jewelry, food, drink, music, and other entertainment for the whole family. Members have early wangle and get in free. Non-member ticket is $5. Children 12 and under are free.

Experience the Surreal Garden at Zilker Botanical Garden, an enchanting neon-art exhibit throughout the gardens, with supplies and drink, music and dancing, surreal performers, and interactive art sculptures. Surreal costumes encouraged! 25% of event proceeds goody the Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy. Runs April 6 (VIP Night), April 7-8, and April 13-15, from 6:30 pm to 11 pm.

Come learn well-nigh garden diamond from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance. Simply click this link and ask to be added. You can find this year’s speaker lineup here.

All material © 2023 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The post Make a stacked paver pedestal for your garden appeared first on Digging.

.