First, yes you do have to put down the gravel and sand. If you don't then the pavers or stone WILL heave and sink on you. Second question, if you don't like the look of the concrete patio then you'll like it even less as a broken concrete patio. Plus it would be very difficult to do what you were asking. Good luck!

Sorry ladies. I should have spelled it out during the first post. Jeri, I figured you would have tried this at one point in your time. I appreciate your input. I have this ugly ugly stacking brick engineered retaining wall and a huge concrete patio, so the overall effect is grey. I usually put the wine barrels on rollers and I actually use them for all sorts of things including a couple fruit trees and veggies and blueberries. I was thinking, "why not roses?" The space I'm looking at gets filtered light and only a couple hours of sunlight in the afternoon. The area is currently my little rose nursery... and I noticed that the EvS bloomed all summer in that spot, probably because it's a hybrid musk, and it stayed evergreen most of the year. I'm secretly hoping the wine barrel might check the size a little... I guess I have to decide if I should try it even if I only get 5-7 years out of it. It would bring lots of enjoyment and beauty to that area of the patio. I actually don't mind if it gets big. But I forgot that EvS really does get BIG. Saw one in the ground in Petaluma last spring, come to think of it. I was hoping to put a wooden trellis behind it, and sort of tie it into multiple sprays... but maybe I'm off my rocker. (My DH certainly thinks so.) I'll have to go back to the search function and see if there is a post about which roses can handle containers. I also have a couple smaller roses (Honorine de Brabant, Vicks Caprice, and La Reine Victoria... but those will all need more sunlight than a Hybrid Musk, I'm guessing.) Eh, maybe I'll throw in a camelia and call it a day. But I just love the way EvS smells in bloom. Decisions... decisions. Thanks! -k

Here are the directions. I wish you could see the pictures of how this looks, but they sent me a color copy, not a link. Since your patio is green, you would probably have to paint it some sort of cement type color to form the 'grout lines' before rolling on the bricks. If you have patience and a steady hand, this is a great cheap fix. Let me know if you do this and how it turns out. Or, if you have any questions. from Cottage Living: for painting old concrete to look like brick. This is the technique I used on my patio that I got from Cottage Living Magazine. They sent me a reprint, since I misplaced the article. I only wish I could post the photos from the article so you could see what she is doing. But here are the written instructions. Let me know if you need any help. You can do it Go Faux it. The plain paving around the 1930's cottage did little to enhance its charm, but tearing out the concrete and laying a brick walkway would have cost thousands. Instead, Claudia mixed a batch of brick colored paint and rolled it right onto the concrete. Initially, she tried stenciling the bricks, but when it looked 'too neat and perfect', she decided to do the job by hand. After painting a 100 foot long path in an afternoon, she was so pleased with the results that she went onto brick her entire driveway. Details: Paint a brick walkway:Gather the goods: 4 inch paint roller, paint tray, custom blended paint 1) Claudia Darr used 1 gallon of Benjamin Moore's MoorGard Low Lustre Latex House Paint (#103-4B) in the following forumla (the paint dealer will know what this means):OY 1x8, RX 5x, BK 1x22, MA 3x, WH1x16, TG 18 2) Clean the area you plan to paint, and let it dry thoroughly 3) Beginning in a corner, use a 4 inch roller to paing " bricks". Make each one about 7 inches long, leaving about 3/4 inch between each brick (to simulate grout line). Stagger adjoining rows so bricks form a wall pattern. Good luck with this and let us know how it turns out. Some tips from me: sweep the area well before you do this. The 4 inch roller is a skinny little roller that I found in the Benjamin more paint store. It came with a roller stick. I attached one of those wooden poles that screwed into the handle of the roller handle. It is the type you would use when you would paint your ceiling. Trust me, you do not want to bend over with the roller for an entire day painting the ground! Experiment on some old newspaper first to get your technique down. And, I first went around the entire outside of the patio laying the 'bricks' out along the edge in the opposite direction that I ran the rest of the bricks in. It makes for a nicer look.

That was the house we had in Houston TX. Now we are in the Dallas Area. That was our only major mosaic project. The front porch was also done. We did not know what we were doing. I took a hammer and tried to soften all of the sharp edges before the mosaic part began. Major job but I understand there are more safisticated ways of doing it now. Ha At our house here I have a bunch of scrap tile that I got from Freecycle.com I am probably going to do the same thing for the back porch. I have never done a patterned mosaic picture before so I'm not quite brave about trying that. But this was just an example of what busted up tile would look like. Susie