Restoring the Picnic Area

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a restoration of the picnic area. This is a stone patio area surrounded by a low stone wall. We call it the picnic area, as this is how it was described to us by the Parisers, the prior long-time homeowners. They have told us there was originally a large maple tree outside the southwest corner of the patio. When they purchased the home there was a 12-foot picnic table and a grill at the western end of the patio. The tree, the picnic table, and the grill disappeared long before Andrew and I arrived. We do not know when the picnic area was built. Likely, it was built soon after the house was completed. There is another stone picnic area in the neighborhood. The walls are constructed the same, however it does not have gated piers at each end and no pyramidal caps.

It is a difficult area to maintain, and I will confess that after the initial clean out in 2019, when I removed trees and bushes growing in the patio, I have not done a lot with it. We have allowed plants to grow and have had stands of lupines, milkweed, and snakeroot growing between the stones. At times the disheveled look could appear romantic, but lurking under that romanticism was a host of problems. The photo above shows the picnic area after I had cut down all the plants growing in the center.

Ivy growing over the wall was a particularly pernicious problem. The ivy was causing the cement between the stones to deteriorate. I had to remove the ivy to see the extent of the problem. I had a neighbor come over as I was ripping the ivy off the wall. The neighbor chastised me for ruining the beauty of the wall by getting rid of the ivy. Sometimes I listen to my neighbors, I generally value their opinion, however I did not pay any attention in this instance.

These two photos demonstrate the pervasiveness of the deterioration. The photo on the left shows a jumble of loose stones on the top of the wall. The photo on the right shows that cement was completing missing, allowing me to insert my trowel all the way into the wall. Without some attention, the wall would eventually just crumble.

On the east and west ends of the picnic area are entrances with small wooden gates. These gates had also deteriorated. The gates hung from small piers which are slightly taller than the wall. The piers were in terrible condition.

The mortar on one of the western piers had completely disintegrated. The stones were just stacked on top of each other and only the weight of them kept the pier from falling down. I took it apart and reconstructed it, as well as repaired the original pyramidal cap.

Over the course of many days, I dug out failing mortar, remade the pyramidal shapes for the east piers, repointed the walls and attached the cap stones. I removed rotted wood from the gates and cut new pieces. I am not a mason, but the walls look better, and they are sturdy.

We let the repairs dry for a week and then Andrew spent hours power washing the walls. This enabled us to better see if there were any spots I had missed and to provide a more uniform appearance.

My final task was to clean off the stone floor of the picnic area. I pulled weeds and scrapped dirt to reveal the stones. Many of the stones had to be pried up and repositioned to create a more even surface. Where the ivy had been growing the stones were under several inches of dirt.

I single handedly move the urn from the center of the picnic area to the spot where the grill had been decades ago. This was no small feat, as it weighs hundreds of pounds. We plan to buy a patio table and chairs and begin to use the picnic area as an alternative dining spot.

One day, while I was intently working, I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye.

It was a coyote. The coyote briefly stopped and looked at me. When I went to get my phone out of my pocket, it decided it should move along, so I did not get the best photo.

Today, I returned from a weekend in New York City and was greeted by a hawk sitting on top of the gate to the Oriental garden. He was not shy and allowed me to get quite close. The photos were taken about 15 feet away.

With a romantic picnic area and interesting wildlife, our home has many interesting and pleasurable diversions. We are looking forward to sitting in the newly rebuilt picnic area, leisurely enjoying a meal and watching the many birds, squirrels, foxes, chipmunks and maybe even a coyote. It will be a newly discovered spot in our garden.