A yard of sand, a pile of salvaged flagstones, a sorta cool (though humid) weekend, et voila! -- my new flagstone paths.Okay, so it wasn't quite that easy, as my aching shoulders will attest.
The stones originally came from my grandmother's house, and where she got them from, I don't know. My mom had them for years, and when she sold the old homestead last summer, I hauled as many as I could find home intending to use them.
This summer, I decided, I'd have me some stone paths. I ordered sand last week, and spent this weekend excavating the woodchipped paths. The old woodchips went in another part of the yard, and I dug out a few inches of dirt all along the path (the dirt pile is just visible by the fence). I filled in the excavated paths with sand, and sank the stones into the sand. Some are still a bit wobbly, so I'll keep working on individual stones to make them more stable. There was enough stone to do about 10 feet on the other side of the sidewalk, this 25 foot path, and the 15 food fork off to the left, plus a few large stones for stepping stones and some smaller ones to pile up at the base of the pole that holds up the bird feeder. The smaller stones lining the path are ones I've been digging out of the yard ever since we moved in here about 10 years ago. I need a few more to finish the edging of all the paths, so I'll have to look around and see where I can find some.
Next project: That horrid concrete pad in front of the house that the former owners put in as a basketball court, and is now cracked, mossy, and ugly, is going to go. In its place will be a raised bed potager. Alas, the old "hobbit tree" of a crabapple has died and I'll have to take it out later -- I'm leaving it in until fall, since the Lincoln Constance rose that's been scrambing up it still casts some shade on the house. Once that's out, I'll be putting in some fruit trees in front.
The renovations never end, do they? But then that's what gardening is all about. What fun would it be if you got to the point where you said, "I'm done" and had to stop?
3 comments:
So true. I deal with one project and up pop a dozen more...just like weeds.
Your flagstones look great and how nice that you recycled them from you gran's. That gives the path an extra reverberation of personal history.
What a great job you did with the flagstones! It looks wonderful!
Your path may be new, but by recycling those heritage flagstones you've made it look natural as well as attractive for a not-brand-new house.
I'm glad you're posting again! It will be interesting to see what happens when your basketball court is an ex-square of concrete.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
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