Stone Pathways For Your Yard

Installing a stone pathway in your yard or garden is a great way to give it the impression of being well tended, as well as making it stand out. While concrete is easier, it is also more expensive and less aesthetically pleasing. A stone path conveys both rustic charm as well as a serious devotion to giving your yard or garden a unique look and feel. Further, for the dedicated landscaper, adding stone pathways for your yard can be done by yourself without hiring a contractor.

The first step is to determine what your stone path should look like and where it should run. Be sure that you have access to the type of stone you want to use and ensure that it is priced within your budget. Once this is covered, you can trace out where the stone path should run. While a stone path in a large garden may be nicer if it is winding, in general you want yard paths to be fairly direct because otherwise people will be more inclined to step on your grass to get more quickly to their destination.

Once you know where the path is to run, stake it out using stakes and string or spray paint. Then it is time to start digging. You basically want to dig out the entire pathway while keeping the base of the path as even as possible. You should probably use the back of your shovel to tamp down the ground to keep it even.

After the pathway is dug out, the next step is to lay a layer of landscape fabric over the base of the dug out pathway. This will prevent grass and weeds from growing through your stone pathway in the future. Landscaping fabric is usually reasonably priced and should be covered with a thin layer of sand once it is laid. Again take the time to tamp everything down and make it as even as possible. In the process be careful not to accidentally puncture the landscape fabric as this will likely result in a lot of growth beneath – and later through – your stone path.

Next, you lay the stones. Start with larger stones that will take up most of the space and provide the primary footfalls for people walking along the path. After the large stones are laid, surround them – and fill in any gaps – with smaller stones. It is the smaller stones that provide the “natural” feel to your path; as though there is a natural seam of this stone in the ground that just happens to go precisely where you want it to.

This is basically all there is to adding stone pathways to your yard or garden. Concrete and the like involve serious drainage planning, this is largely unnecessary for a basic stone path. Excess water will seep between the stones, get caught in the sand and then gradually soak through the landscaping fabric. Assuming your path does not run through a natural depression or sink, drainage should not be an issue.

What is a Garden Center?

“A garden center is a retail firm that sells plants and products related to gardens as its primary business” or so says your average dictionary. This definition is merely functional however. It fails to find the heart of the matter. A good garden center, or even a great one, is a community resource to anyone with an interest in plants. All garden centers should sell the tools you need to create and maintain your personal garden -- from the plants themselves, to the fertilizers and irrigation systems necessary to support them. The difference between an average center and a great one is lies in their service and their knowledge base.

The staff at your garden center should be polite, attentive and knowledgeable. They should be willing to help you design your property when provided with the proper specifics of size and expectations. Their advice on plants and landscaping should be free to all customers. A landscape architect should be available to help you with plans for landscape design, if you need or want it. Your garden center should be willing to help you choose the plants that are best for your local environment. The staff should be willing and able to tell you when a plant is not appropriate, even if it is the plant that you have set your heart on. Their advice should be honest. A good selection of native plants, which should be a gardener’s first choice, should be available and the staff should be willing to special order materials that are not in stock. They should be willing to answer questions about your garden and their stock either over the phone or in person. Finally, a good garden center is one that is involved in their community and willing to go the extra mile for its members. Be sure to check out the programs and activities offered by your garden center so that you, too, can get involved. It’s about being local and rooted as well as selling plants and watering cans. The keys to a good garden center are its love of the plants and service to their customers.

Lake Oswego Nurseries

Lake Oswego is pleasant city of about 40,000 residents situated on the Wilamette River just south of Portland, Oregon surrounding the private Oswego Lake. It is a highly desirable location in the Greater Portland Metropolitan Area offering tree-lined streets, great recreation, excellent schools and with a unique history and mix of American small town and suburban life. It has a particularly vibrant life in the Spring-Summer-Fall seasons, with a popular Lake Oswego Wine and Food Festival, summer concerts, movies in the park and many other events and activities for both residents and visitors.

Lake Oswego is also a verdant “Green City,” or “Garden City,” much of which owes to the fact of the abundance of both small and large nurseries and garden centers found here – in fact there are more than 40 of them. These nurseries and garden centers are great for both residents and visitors – anyone with gardening as a hobby – and offer a very large selection of healthy, vibrant, colorful and well-cared-for flowers, plants, bushes and trees. They stock plants that are annuals as well as many seasonal varieties, including berry and other fruit-bearing varieties, houseplants, roses and other flowers, bedding plants and numerous types of landscape shrubs and trees. Many of the nurseries in Lake Oswego also sell products which you might need for your own garden, like insect-combatting solutions, seeds, tools fertilizers and soil amendments. Also available are accessories which you can use to enhance your garden or landscape such asl pottery, chairs and tables, statuary and birdbaths, and so on. Nurseries in Lake Oswego have regular events and festivals where you are able to learn about the different types of plants, and also offer gardening classes