Nothing in this life is perfect, certainly not our pathways, and that can be something of a metaphor for us. I have been working on my flagstone pathway again- it is a regular job- and it got me thinking about pathways in general, and how none of them have ever been the perfect choice.
All paths require work and maintenance of some sort and that is a perfect parallel to the situation we find ourselves in living our lives. I’ll leave you to ponder that avenue of thought, though, while I take the more practical route of discussing actual walkways and the potential problems I’ve noticed or dealt with.
Since it is the task at hand, I am working with a crazy quilt pattern of limestone flags that we put in back in our early years here. Having more brawn than ready cash (you thought I would say “brains” here?) we went to our local quarry, hand picked our stones, and loaded them into the car, as much as it would bear. At the same quarry we also filled five gallon buckets with sand for the base and to fill in the spaces between the stones.
It was hard work, and we overlooked the less than perfect job of our helping children, after laying out the curved space with lengths of hose, and removed the sod. Sweeping in the the stones with a mixture of sand and cement, that beginning looked nice and it lasted well. But this would not be the story it is, if it had stayed that way without too much work.
What were the enemies of this welcoming walk?
- without regular sweeping, the walk began harboring rooting weeds. As the weeds were removed, the sand that got swept away left room for accumulated soil- which led to more tenacity and proliferation of weeds to remove.
- Frost action each winter created some unevenness in already uneven rocks, it also cause some chipping and even disintegration of some of the rock.
- Vacations meant that weeds could take hold and become more than merely a nuisance
- When mortaring the cracks, frost action meant that large cracks developed and chucks of fill came loose.
You might think the answer is to make a walk of different material, but all materials have their pros and cons. Nothing will be completely trouble free.
Before the great renovation
Don’t Be Afraid Of Cracks
I grew up in the city with cement walks, sidewalks, front walks, and backyard walks. Trees would always produce the problems of lifting and cracking them, and the weathering that Northern winters produce cased cracking and regularly needed clearing. That was my job. as well as edging. For enduring and safe walking surfaces, concrete is the most practical material, but its not trouble free.
Follow The Yellow Brick Road
Mine was more of a red color, and brick is probably one of the walkways I found most satisfying, although weeds will still find their way into the spaces, and mortaring will crack and come loose from winter freezing.
We had a short brick walk that we had set in our city garden at the first house we owned. My husband had come across a load of bricks that could be had for a good price, and he lay them into a sand and gravel base, filling with the sand and cement mix. It was the simplest pattern possible, which I still favor: brick running bond.
Brick had been more common in some of the really old neighborhoods, and time had shifted those old walks into uneven and weed tufted reminders that nature won’t tolerate a void. Most of those old walks were a herringbone or pinwheel design, as I recall.
For walking, looks, and maintenance, I like brick best.
Garden Paths PageGravel for Grief, and Unpaved Gets Miserable In Mud Season
These two surfaces are the least favorites for me. Gravel is what covers my driveway, and it constantly needs topping up, with regular weed infiltrations and sending stray pebbles off into the grass. How my husband constantly carries the gravel into the house, I’ll never know. It must work into the grooves on his shoes, and then work out of them onto the floors!
Most gravel is lacking aesthetic interest, although I have seen some that are quite pretty. For the cost, though, stone flags or bricks seem the better choice.
Dirt paths are not feasible in areas that get a springtime muddy season. They might work for those in drier climates.
No matter what the surfacing choice, there are always weeds and weathering to fight; and roots from shrubs and trees will invade the space, as well. Perhaps it is best to consider that pathways are simply meant to help us negotiate our traversing from here to there, and cater the materials to the demands of the use and the climate. Permanence will call for more expertise and expense, and while we don’t have to defer our desire for creativity and beauty, those will not spare us a consistent schedule of tasks to keep the paths in order.
As for me, after putting in many hours of working on our limestone walk, I am looking for a good fill for the cracks that will be less conducive to weeds. Keeping it swept does help, but this is not reliable. I think the biggest complaint I might have about this sort of material for walks is its unevenness. It isn’t unsafe, but it does give one less a feeling of security.
Would I make this type of path again. After a pause, I would cautiously say yes. If I could have complete freedom to choose anything I wished I would have liked dressed stones for a flat even surface, but the rustic look of the rough quarry stones is very pleasing and never slippery.
More Paving
For other areas we choose pavers. They can be more slippery than the limestone walk ever gets. Both medium and large sized squares with a pebbled surface were purchased from the home improvement stores. These were laid in sharp sand and have stayed level with moderate weeding needed for the spaces between the pavers. The only areas that need adjustment every few years are where the path had to be laid over the roots of a large tree, we really had no alternative and they get shifted awry over time. The work of resetting them is minimal since it just requires adding more sand and then laying in the stones evenly.
Interesting fact:
Since we laid walks with pavers in different years, what was available changed in size and in styles. You would think that these common patio pavers, etc. would remain fairly standardized in sizes and style ( color, whether smooth or pebbled, etc), but they don’t.
Based on this, I would advise those who like to “DIY” to go ahead and buy all the materials that they wish to remain as standard size and style for their landscape. Our family causes walkways to suffer some breakage with use. Boy and lawnmowers are my only explanation, but that means it is useful to have a few extra pavers in storage.
After a bout of weeding in the veggie garden
