Can you believe I reached the end of my stone? I emptied the truck the day I brought the stones home but only yesterday did I finished my stone projects. Please keep in mind that finished is a relative word since many of my projects are ongoing. You might remember a little while back I added a few stones to begin a
stepping stone pathway between our deck garden and the
birdbath garden. I used many of the large flat stones from my
latest rock hunting excursion to add to the pathway. Unfortunately I ran out of stone to complete the path but not before I managed to complete a large section of it leading from our patio to the side yard (AKA Eventual Shady Side Corridor).
I've annotated the picture to help you see the areas around the pathway better. If you follow the pathway it leads you along the house all the way over to the side where the arbor stands. There is a gap between the newly laid stones and the arbor itself that I'll fill in over time. You will also notice in the picture that there is a very large stone just in front of the
viburnum. I don't have a close-up picture but I can tell you it resembles a very large home plate in shape. I situated it so that it would be a good stone to branch off with a second pathway to the right. The first pathway and the (eventual) second pathway will circle around the viburnum and connect near the
stone bench in front of the birch tree.
I dug each of the stones into the ground so that the riding lawnmower would have no problems traveling over them. I tested it last night and while the stones might have been a little bumpy to mow over (most natural stones are) there were no issues. Encouraging a low growing ground cover might be an option for the future.
I followed a few simple steps to set the stones:
- I laid the stones down with the flattest side up since it would be the best side to walk on.
- I spaced them out to the desired distance. In this case they matched my normal walking pace. (Anyone else is out of luck!)
- I used my shovel to cut an outline of the hole around the rock. Then moved the rock.
- I cleaned out the hole of sod and left loose soil underneath to make setting the stone easy.
- I replaced the stone and filled and holes along the sides with more loose soil.
Another option would be setting the stones then filling in with topsoil but since I didn't want to change the grade of the land or take a trip to get topsoil setting the stones in the ground was the best option. But I also think that digging in the stones is less work!
