They say that if you're in a hurry, a sidewalk ought to be smooth and level. But if you want to slow things down a bit, keep life simple and enjoy the view, a stone walkway can help you accomplish that! Following is the tale of how we built our stone walkway with stones we found on our property.
During an excavation project, we collected the field stones that were uncovered on our property and set them aside, stacking them in piles of small, medium and large sizes until we were ready to build our sidewalk. (While we were waiting for the excavation work to be complete, I had fun building a cairn with some of the stones.)
Our yard was already dug up from the excavation; if it had not been, we would have had to lift up the sod. As it was, we outlined the shape we wanted with rope and laid down landscape fabric to deter grass and weeds from growing.
We filled the area with limestone gravel, raked it, and started laying down the stones. We used larger ones on the edges and scattered in the middle, then filled in between with medium and small stones. It was like putting a puzzle together! (A puzzle without a picture to look at!) The stones could be wiggled down into the gravel to form a more even top surface. After all the pieces were in place, we filled in between the gaps with pea gravel.
When finished, we planted grass seed around it and added some landscaping plants (sun-loving ones for our setting): Blue Fescue, Shasta Daisies, Mums, Asters, and Coral Bells.
A stone sidewalk encourages one to slow down and look around, so add something pretty and interesting to pause and admire . . . like flowers, or chickens!
