Friday, July 17, 2009

Garden Walkway Begins

The clutter in the driveway is starting to get to me. I really need to clear out the last of the flagstone to free up some space and make it look a bit more presentable. I had held onto the leftovers from the front walk way for a garden path between the raised beds. I had also hoped to use some of the stone for under the trash cans to decrease the potential muddy mess when it rains.

I worked on the garden path between the raised beds first. As I dug out the foundation for the flagstone I decided I really need to redo the center raised bed at the same time. It rearranges project orders but it was in the plans. I started by digging out a 4-5 foot long section of the old walkway. The garden weed cloth did little to stop the weeds. Two types of grass grow right through it and many things just grew on top of it. I’m tossing the weeds into the compost, sifting out the remains of the weed cloth to toss in the trash, pulling out the big rocks (fist size), and all of the dirt and old multch is being set aside for a new raised bed. The old bed edging was removed and the edges trimmed to fit the new garden wall retaining stones. After leveling the dirt, I added three bags of sand were spread out across the bottom. The garden stones were carefully set in place. To be honest I didn’t use a level, I did it by look and feel. After the section of retaining wall was done I sorted through pieces of flagstone for the walkway. After a lot of rock lifting, sand shifting, stomping and jiggling I think I got it. I even worked in one of the pieces of rock I dug into the walkway. It had a nice smooth side and fit the space wonderfully. I used two pieces of the old garden edging bricks to separate the portion I finished and the part yet to get done. If the stones weren’t there a summer rain storm could wash out the sand and require repairs before it was even finished.

I finished a small section. Hopefully I can do this bit by bit and have it still work out well. I’m going to need another pallet of stone but it keeps me busy and out of other trouble along with increasing the appeal and value of the house so I guess it is worth it.

No comments:

Post a Comment