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.