Our Easy Method to Clean a Pea Stone Patio of Winter Debris Including Pinecones and Pine Needles/Rock Garden and Yard Cleanup

We love out outdoor space.  We have a nice lot surrounded by woods, a pool and a pea stone patio and pergola we put in two years ago. We live in the Northeast so the canopy that covers the pergola during the summer months is taken down and stored during the winter months. This leaves the pea stone exposed to all the debris falling from the surrounding pine trees. Pinecones, when whole, are no problem to remove but when thousands of dried scales fall onto the patio and become mixed into the pea stone it is EXTREMELY difficult to clean. Not only is it messy looking, the scales can be sharp and isn’t nice to walk on when you get out of the pool.

So we were faced with how to go from this ↓

To this ↓

Not only pretty but barefoot friendly:)

My husband gets all the credit for this idea. It involves a wet/dry vacuum, a large container or bucket and a hose. I also recommend a sunny day and some gloves to protect your hands from the water and debris. 

I should start by saying our pea stone isn’t packed down so the stones move around. I have seen pea stone packed to where the stones form a solid base and the stones stay put. If that’s the case cleaning up your pea stone is just a matter of sweeping or blowing the debris off with a leaf blower. But with loose stone those methods don’t work.

Start with the vacuum empty and the shorter hose attachment. (Many come with two hose options: a shorter and larger gauge and a longer and narrower gauge.) Vacuum up the debris from the stone. Many of the stones will also get sucked up. It’s pretty impossible not to. When the vacuum is approximately half full, detach the hose and remove the vacuum from the patio surface. (This is where it gets a bit messy.) Put the debris and stone from the vacuum into the large container or bucket. Once approximately half full, use the hose and add water. The debris will float to the top. The pea stones will stay at the bottom of the bucket allowing you to scoop out the stuff you want to get rid of. 

Remove all the floating debris until there is mostly just water and the stones left at the bottom. You may have to empty some of the water or mix the stones around at the bottom of the with your hands to loosen all the unwanted pieces from the stones. 

Once the pine pieces and twigs etc. are cleaned from the water, scoop the stones back onto the patio space and spread them around to redistribute them and fill in the thin spots.

I know this process sounds a bit daunting but it can easily be done by one person but two is better especially if you have two large buckets for each person to work from. Vacuuming up the stones and spreading them back out is a cinch. Cleaning the stones can be a bit tedious but it’s easy and if your lucky enough to have a sunny day…Even better:)

This method is so efficient for cleaning the pea stone I was able to move onto cleaning the rock garden.

I hadn’t gotten a chance to do cleanout of any kind last year before winter started so there was quite a bit of dried plant material covering up the new growth of the returning plants. This garden has mostly perennials some of which were starting to thrive and others that had died off. I want to streamline my yard as much as possible this year, though I love to garden, I wanted upkeep of the garden and various bushes and shrubs low maintenance. 

At this time the  Catmint, Veronica and Dianthus are all coming back. That makes planning for the rest of this year easy. I have tried Foxglove and Rosemary in combination with the other plants in this bed but they haven’t returned. So if I mean to keep it easy I’m sticking to my plan and only going with what’s working instead forcing something that’s not. My problem is I like everything!

I’m very happy with the result of the cleanout today. All the dried up foliage is gone. All the struggling and dead plants are gone. I loosened the soil around the plants that are beginning to thrive and I watered and added fresh mulch. All very simple steps that will hopefully yield healthy plants and add to a pretty yard. Since Catmint seems to thrive the best I’m planning on adding one or two more to this spot and leaving it at that.

Here’s a recap of the two areas we managed to pull together over the weekend:)

The freshened up pea stone patio with black iron furniture and the canopy now in place. I will be adding some plants and hanging some pretty Edison lights. I LOVE the ambiance of Edison lights during the warm summer evenings. (Sorry about the glare in this photo!  The sun was insanely bright when I was trying to take photos towards the end of the day.)

Lastly, here is a peak at we I left off with the rock garden…

Not to shabby for one afternoon of work. I have this pretty bench placed there by the poolside in place of the deck we have yet to decide on. That may or not be an addition coming this season. (We will have to see if the price of wood drops:() In the meantime this is my temporary solution.

This is my first attempt to keep my life simple this summer so we have more time to actually enjoy our yard yet have it look pretty and relaxing. Getting the basic cleanup done early this year. Check!

Secondly, going with what is already working and keeping it simple. Working on that…

Thank you stopping by:)

Roni♥