How are you at demolition? The far portion looks fairly even. I might remove the rest, use this area for dining. Then, make a path with some of the broken pieces to your door, plant grass. Maybe some hosta around perimeter. Do you have friends or neighbors who need to divide hostas or other plants? They might share especially if you offer to help.

How about an outdoor carpet, or two?

I'm not going to change the patio as I said in the above comment. I'm 61 so hard labor is not an option. I simply need opinions on PLANTINGs around the patio to soften and hide it.

Nothing will hide it, unless you cover it. Are you staging for resale?

Before you plant anything.... Treat the weeds that are growing in the cracks- as they will continue to grow. The weed killer run-off will kill the plants.

Ceramic planter pots will protect/elevate plants from weed-killer.

Outdoor rugs and outdoor pillows will make this more inviting.

Anything planted around the patio will need to be well positioned or it will make it awkward to walk out onto the lawn. What are you looking for? Shrubs? Perennials? Annuals? What height? And, importantly, where are you geographically? But as D K Haas said, planting around it won't hide the patio itself. I'm sure that at only 61 you are not too decrepit to get a tub of ready mix mortar to fill in the cracks? It's cheap and would cost no more than a couple of plants. Planting in the cracks of a frequented patio sounds like a trip hazard in waiting. But if you want to go ahead a packet of some flower seed suitable to your climate would be cheaper than plants.

I'm looking for comments on what to plant. The patio is not frequented all that much and the cracks are not going to be completely filled with ground cover, just here and there. I want idea about what to plant around it, maybe flowering shrubs. I'm in Wisconsin and the patio gets a lot of sun.

following

I don’t know what you mean by “hide it.”

You mean you want to plant around the perimeter so when you are out in the yard, looking back at the slab, the surface of the slab is hidden? Or do you mean you want to plant something in the cracks - like moss - to fill the cracks? ( I’m not sure that would be the best way to hide anything - seems to me that would accentuate the cracks).

The very simplest thing to do would be to find a cheap outdoor rug to lay over it. Walmart has them. Sometimes you can find them on sale for $40 or less. Cheaper than buying a half dozen shrubs.

By the way, 61 is not old. I’m 64 (and female) and I tackle hard labor projects in my yard all the time. If you have a physical impairment however, I can understand why you might not be able to break up, dig, and re-lay concrete pieces.

I dont think you will be satisfied with the advice as you need to address the cracks vs the perimeter and well... planting will not remedy the issue-- a quick trip to home depot for masonry patch may provide you with a SAFER patio- the cracks are a tripping hazard

St.johns Wart... is a great spreading ground over.. just spread around a few sprigs ... water once in awhile.. it is green year around and pretty yellow flowers in spring... or ivy...

St. John’s wart ...10-12 tall... ivy hugs the ground closer..

Can you seriously not choose plants by yourself? Go to the garden center or Menards and buy something you like. The patio is immaterial to your choice of plants, and ignoring its present condition means that any old plant will do.

Just spotted your nice lawn... ground covers will spread .. may not work...

I like the fill in the cracks ideas. That is what I'm going to do. There are plenty of old vintage porches and patios I see with groundcover filling the cracks. And, I love the look of an area seeming like it's been there for many years. The tripping part is not a concern. Heck I could trip in the yard trying to maneuver through the garden path. I'm pretty coordinated so I don't trip a lot and filling in the cracks will help the situation. I'm talking more about the areas around the rectangle to soften the look of the corners and to do a bit of pretty too. It's bright sunlight. I'm thinking more flowering bushes. Perhaps a rug would work for half of the area (so it wouldn't have to be so big) Still it's not a covered space and the rug would probably last for a season only. I'm thinking my neighbor has old pallets and a piece of fence he's looking to get rid of. I'm trying to imagine how to use those for a bit of art interest. The house and yard took a lot of work. After a lot of labor on my part, I have managed to make the house look cozy and charming . That is what I'm looking to do for the yard.

Some low growing sedum here and there and a bit of pea gravel to fill in the rest. That would work well.

Hydrangeas.

Another thing I read for filling in between plants is aquarium gravel and epoxy. Small and in different colors too.

SO, there ya go. I shall celebrate my cracks. LOL. And, find a few flowering bushes.

Ha ... your initial question is like asking, "What can I bake to hide the wear in my carpet?"

Nothing. Nothing at all.

Well, thanks to the folks trying to help me out. But, may I just say, to a very few of you, never, ever try to make someone feel stupid for asking a question. That is not what this site is about. And, it's too bad it happens.

Try to find a way to fill and seal the cracks. My experience is that the if the cracks are planted, the winter freeze thaw cycle with soil and roots will cause additional breakage.

Moss is nice - no roots - and can be walked on but doesn't hold up to sweeping.

Otherwise, consider native plants via a university extension or Dept of agriculture website.

Hi Wendy,

My fiance and I just bought a 1941 Cape Cod that is very stylistically similar to your house and we're also quite budget conscious. What you've done with the front of your home is inspirational, and I love the direction you're going with the patio. I think the challenge for this project is going to be finding the right amount of "cottage-y" without going too far towards cutesy/haphazard, especially if you're using upcycled materials. I don't have much experience with gardening (we've only had a yard for two weeks!), so I'll leave specific plant ideas alone. My other thoughts are as follows:

- Filling in the cracks with a pretty ground cover is 100% the way to go. The rest of your yard/exterior is manicured enough that it's going to look intentional not weed-y. The epoxy thing seems like it would work better if all the concrete chunks were level and flat, but they're not, plus the cost of both the epoxy and filling stones seem like they'd be better spent on something else.

- To soften up the patio, I'd go with a nice curvaceous bed around the whole perimeter of the patio, choosing just a few "specimen" plants to feature and filling in the rest with lower plants and more of the flowering ground cover you're using on the patio itself. Are there any dwarf fruit trees or figs that would survive in your region? How cool would it be to eat fresh fruit while hanging out on your patio? I'd probably want to incorporate a few edible herbs in the landscape as well. Having free fresh herbs all summer sounds pretty great to me, especially if the upfront cost is just for seeds.

- The pallet and fence wood would open up some great possibilities. What about using some to create edging for the bed (maybe both around the outside and up against the edge of the patio?) This looks picket-fence-ish to me in a way that would tie into the classic Cape style of the house:

You could also use some to create a pathway from the patio through the bed to the yard:

You'd probably need to waterproof the wood in some way, but that should be simple enough to research.

- I know you said only plant advice, but I'm eyeing your cast iron patio furniture and thinking it would look great in a dark hunter green. Less harsh than the black, but still nice and classic. Give it a quick scrub with a metal brush or steel wool, and spray it with an outdoor/anti-rust enamel. ($2 for the steel wool, $5 for shower curtain liner to use as a tarp, $8 for spray paint). That standing planter basket thing could get the same treatment and be used as a nice neat place to coil up your hose when you're not using it.

Good luck, and I hope you'll keep us posted on your progress.

- Addie

And for you, Yardvaark... The purpose of working on our homes is not so that we can meet some arbitrary standard of what a house or yard should look like, it's to make a place for ourselves and our family where we feel welcomed and cared for. So, yeah, you absolutely can bake something that distracts from a worn carpet. Perhaps you've never experienced the way a homemade cookie or a thoughtfully prepared meal can soothe the soul when bills are piling up, but I'm not sure that "I'm such a jerk that no one has ever wanted to do something nice for me when I'm having a rough time" is particularly a thing to be bragging about on the internet. But to each their own I guess.

I think something loose with movement would help soften the edges...maybe lavender, guara or ornamental grasses?

Addie, you are coming completely out of left field. I am pointing out, tongue-in-cheek, the disconnect between the goal and the suggested solution contained in the title question. Not making any comment about the motivation behind why people fix up their homes. Often people come here stating their intention to go in the wrong direction. And many of them are uncounselable. Still, there has to be some effort made by the more knowledgeable and experienced people here, to redirect those people toward more practical and rewarding outcomes. It begins with, in some way, stating the obvious.

Yardvaark,

I think it is unkind and unhelpful to poke fun at someone for wanting to make their home feel pleasant and inviting using the resources that are available to them. Why make fun of someone for going in the wrong direction if you’re not going to use your knowledge and expertise to help them go in the right direction? If you think the direction OP is taking is wrong, then what, in your opinion, would in fact be a “practical and rewarding outcome”?

I participate in another online forum where I am on the professional side rather than the hobbyist side, so I understand the frustration of seeing people persist in a direction that, just… no.. but I think that if you are at a point where the frustration is such that you’re unable to speak to someone else in a respectful manner then it’s best to just refrain from responding at all.

As someone new to this forum, I have been put off a bit by the number of times I’ve seen answers that seem to imply that someone who wants to work within a budget is refusing to spend money on a project because they are cheap rather than because that is the reality of their income. I apologize if my reaction to that bled into my reply to you.

www.stepables.com for walk-on ground cover

A lot of good advice here. Addie, thanks for the ideas. I know you didn't say this but, I don't consider this a wrong way because all the pictures and all the ideas actually make it quite doable. And, I've seen it done quite successfully. It's a matter of making all parts work together to create a kind of patio that seems to have grown up into the garden. Just filling in the cracks with repair isn't all that creative and frankly, they'll be more cracks along the way as this slab probably came with my 1942 house. If I had the cash to redo or replace I would. But I don't and it's been my experience, (from working in a small budget with the house) that one has to think a lot harder about creative solutions. Sometimes those solutions can be more rewarding than throwing a lot of money at the problem. It's like those tv shows where the couple is always redoing an existing house and have a huge budget to work with and people to do the work. That is not exactly a challenge, if you know what I mean. As for the stab at humor. I spent my 20's in comedy clubs. One must be aware that the written word isn't always interpreted in the way the writer intends. A wink, wink or LOL at least lets the reader know that the poster is trying to be funny.

For example: Is that a dandelion in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? LOL.

I suggest starting with annual flowers since you have sun and your grassy yard looks great. Try dwarf sunflowers. A seed packet should be less than a few dollars. Also scoop some fresh yard dirt into the large pot by the downspout, then put it in the wire plant stand moved to the far corner. Plant it with a $2 six-pack of petunias or more dwarf sunflowers. As mentioned above, neighborhood websites often have free plants to offer, especially if you volunteer to be the one to dig them up. Colorful bearded iris do well in a lot of climates. A three foot wide border made with free perennials over the course of two or three years would be quite pretty. Start with whatever is free, fill in with annuals grown from seed, add more free perennials next year. When your bed is full, you can be the one to offer free plants to neighbors.

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"I think it is unkind and unhelpful to poke fun at someone ..." Yes, while it wouldn't necessarily be, it could be unkind to poke fun at someone. But that wasn't what I was doing. There is a difference between adding levity to the discussion, and saying something actually mean and hurtful. As Wendy points out, sometimes the written word does not come across as the humor it was intended to be. But I was pretty sure it would here because the circumstance -- baking food to counteract carpet wear -- was so obviously ludicrous that no rational person would believe there to be any link whatsoever between the two. Apparently, I was wrong and at least one person can conceive this link. So I have to be duly charged with forgetting to add the smiley face or LOL, and make it blatantly obvious to everyone, that it was said in jest ... not poking fun at someone because of their circumstances. I was playfully making light of their reasoning about how to deal with those circumstances, in an attempt to get them to see that there is a disconnect between their problem and their projected solution.

The flip side to this discussion is that there ARE people who literally have none, or barely any sense of humor. They can't hear a joke without thinking it is serious and that there is ill intent behind it. Addie, you might consider not looking so hard on the dark side of whatever is said. If something --- especially something that is wildly ludicrous -- is said, you might just ask yourself if it could possibly be intended as a joke. If it's possible, then you might just let it go, giving someone the benefit of the doubt. If you're 100% certain it's not a joke, then it might be worth commenting about. Other than that, it seems you're just as likely to wrong as right.

Yardvaark; But, the projected solution is actually not a disconnect. I've seen it done in several different ways. I guess it's a matter of being willing to look beyond the obvious. That may be a stretch for some, not so much for others. I have a very well-developed sense of humor. Sometimes highbrow sometimes low. But, in all circumstances I kind of have to read the room to see if my audience is receptive or at the very least, familiar with my brand of funny. That is why I say, stick on a LOL because not everyone laughs at the same stuff, but they may laugh if they know it's supposed to be a joke. On the other hand, perhaps your joke wasn't all that funny. LOL. wink, wink.

Wendy, well ... just perhaps it wasn't! (in spite of myself getting a laugh out of it at the time!)

People accept all kinds of things as OK. In my appraisal, what I believe you are after -- surrounding paving and separating it from the lawn, is contradictory to my idea of an acceptable solution. But if it pleases you, I'm perfectly fine with if for you.