An Outdoor Fire Pit Becomes the Focal Point of the Landscape

We had decided that we wanted to add to our backyard area. Our backyard is very private so we enjoy spending time in it. We looked through many landscaping magazines, but we did not find a design that we wanted to add to our yard. We did not want the upkeep of a water feature. We live in an area where mosquitoes are a problem, so we did not want to dig a pond. We went to a home improvement store and started looking through the lawn and garden department. As we were looking I noticed that they had a section for outdoor fireplaces including a ring for an outdoor fire pit. My husband and I knew that we had found the new addition for our backyard.

We used to do a great deal of camping. Since we have moved into a more rural area we no longer go camping. One of the things that both of us loved to do was to sit around the campfire and talk. We agreed that an outdoor fire pit would allow us to do this in our own backyard. We have access to firewood from the huge woods on the edge of our property, so buying wood to burn in the outdoor fire pit would not be an issue.

There were several designs at the home improvement store to choose from. There was an outdoor fire pit that included a brick grill to barbeque on. We had recently purchased a gas grill so we decided we did not need that feature. We decided to keep things simple. We purchased a large metal fire ring as well as fireproof bricks. Our backyard area has a small depression close to the wooded area. We decided that this would be the perfect place to have our outdoor fire pit. We placed the firebricks in a large square in the depression. We then placed the metal fire ring on top of it. This allowed for safety against grass fires and also makes the outdoor fire pit easy to mow around. We also purchased two park benches to put on either side of the fire ring.

We spend a great deal of time around the outdoor fire pit. The interesting thing is that we thought this fire area would give us a place to spend time talking with each other. There is a great deal of talking that goes on around the fire, however most of it is with the neighbors. There is something about the smell of a wood fire that brings people out of their yards and into ours to sit around the fire. We are still glad that we added the outdoor fire pit because we are getting to know our neighbors better.