happgarden - Wow! Love the size of your pergola. I agree that pavers or mulch under it would be awesome! I put large pavers that look like brick under my mini-pergola. It was very cheap and easy for me to do that versus other options. (I, too, garden on a budget!)
Brick-look pavers:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unb...
And then edged it with actual bricks of similar color (the photo at HD makes the brick look really dark, but it actually matched the pavers):
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unb...
