Design

An unusually balmy fall day (it hit 75° F in mid-afternoon) was great for gardening. The low humidity made for a deep blue sky, not the usual sort in the Southeastern U.S. My gardening companion (aka my husband) suddenly thought that we needed to place the stones 'left-over' from our front pathway project (uh, a couple of years ago) in the mulch beyond the backyard gate. He spread the gravel (the pile next to the garage has been there awhile, too), spread the stones, and said it was ready for the expert stone-placer (that's me). The front pathway has been a pleasing addition, but it WAS a huge effort, although quite rewarding . It was a bit challenging (these were the leftovers, after all). And, a couple of months of relative inactivity has left me in need of more strengthening work, and I'm certain to be sore tomorrow! But it was a good start to the path and patio that we've got planned, after a new delivery of stone. The gravel and stone are quite bright-l...

A recent comment on a couple of old posts about laying a flagstone path reminded me of how well our path has held up. My most recent picture was in January (the one here), but I had just been thinking last week about how pleasant it is to have a nice stone path compared to its previous scruffy state. I haven't done any more stone work since then (aside from a small retaining wall next to the shed), and tidying up the wall bordering the main vegetable garden. Last summer's extreme drought made the short path and patio below the porch totally unappealing as a project. Maybe this summer!

It's really time to get rid of more grass. The drought is an incentive, not that we ever water our drought-tolerant Zoysia. But the frequently-trampled patches that used to be full of honeybee-friendly clover have become hard-packed clay punctuated by unattractive tufts of something unrecognizable. And as we're walking more around the house (post-garden shed) and taking Mocha (the pampered Golden retriever) out the kitchen door more (the main vegetable garden side), we're wearing down a path more than ever. I've been planning a flagstone patio on the porch side for awhile, mirroring the front walkway that I put in last fall, but I'm thinking I'll extend it around the house in an informal path, replacing the scruffy grass between the house and main vegetable garden with some sort of mulch or gravel/mulch mix beyond that. Flagstone there would be too much, competing with the house and the main vegetable garden's stacked stone edge. And the slope below the h...

I needed a third pallet of flagstone to finish the front path, and it was delivered late Saturday morning. In the meantime, my gardening companion dug up the rest of the base, taking a break from his regular mulch moving so I was ready (notice the HUGE piles dropped off 'free' by the powerline tree trimming contractors). There were a number of roots to work around and the path goes downhill slightly towards the drive, so it was a bit more challenging to do the final segment. But, I finished laying all the stone this afternoon, and cleaned up the area, although I still need to put in the rest of the granite paver base around the stone and make sure each stone is firmly set. It looks good, and Mocha was enjoying the view late this afternoon. It took roughly 2 1/2 pallets of flagstone and a couple of 'scoops' of paver base to do the pathway. My labor was about 2 days, spread out over 3 weekends. I worked in 2-3 hours stints, at most half a day, with plenty of 'light...