Creating good garden paths

Just joined this morning, very glad to find such a great forum. I am working towards a "cottage garden" style, with my garden shed being my cottage.

I have raised beds with paths between, a bed that runs along the property line/fence of my garden. I always have problems with my paths. I created a path to the south of my garden cottage that is lined with the "big" rocks from our property, put down some landscape fabric and pea gravel. This has been the easiest to keep clean of weeds.

I have tried larger rock and then bark in the larger area North of my cottage. I am itching to try the "cobblestone" form I have, but just can't see doing more than a "paths width" with it. What should I place on the sides of the cobblestone? Pea rock, bark, sand?

Woke up to snow on the ground. So much for getting out in the garden today to work.

GREAT shed! I'm not sure what you mean by cobblestone -- long rounded rocks buried small end up?

Brigidlily, it's actually a cement form, about 2ft square, that looks like cobblestones. I have had it for several years now, waiting for when, I don't know, but I'm thinking this may be the year. I have watergrass that likes to find it's way into my garden, esp. during a wet season. Most awful stuff for me to deal with.

The shed was the first thing we built, without power too, here on the property when it was still raw land. I was very excited for such a large garden, esp. after growing up in the city. I became a country girl in 99'. Still loving it and I DO NOT miss the city.

baabonnybelle, I used one of those paver forms on a walk last summer. Here's a photo.


early_bloomer

Good job, early_bloomer. I like your path. Did it take you very long to do?

~Lucy

Lucy, It went pretty quickly. Digging out the sod and putting in a layer of gravel and sand took most of the time. They don't move when stepped on and seem quite solid. I used the form so I could work around and with the large roots from the big fir tree just out of the picture to the right. If you look closely you can see a couple of them in the path.

Here's a wider view....


early_bloomer

Very nice. How much gravel & sand did you have to put down? 6 inches?

Dave, I used around 3" of pea gravel, put down a layer of that heavy fabric they sell for under stone and brickwork and then added another 3" of sand. I used the high-strength concrete mix and added some dark charcoal dye to the mix.


early_bloomer

Well, I just added another item to my growing list of wants. Gotta have a pretty path. : )

~Lucy

Thanks for the pic EarlyBloomer...the path looks lovely. I've got it working in my head, now to wait for the weather. :)

Wow! I've never heard of this method of path making...and it looks fantastic! I'm trying to think of where I could put one of those! Are those cobblestone things moveable if you want the path to change later on?

BBB, I can't remmeber your question, but it had to do with you only want to make a 2'0 x 2'0 sectioned path & how to do it? How wide will the whole thing be? Does it pretty much look like EarlyBloomer's? I'm guessing you want a 36" path and the form is 24", so you need 6 inches of something or other on each side of it? Could you go with a totally different material like brick? They are 6-8" I think and you could do a basket 2 brick running north-south and 2 bricks runing east-west, or all running N-S or all flanking E-W. If you use pea gravel, you run the risk of it bleeding into the beds or grass on the outer side unless you have a big trough or edge cut out. Bark would work, tho.

I love your shed -- everything about it! I can't believe you made it -- with or without power!

Suzy

Darn. I want that shed and I want that path!!!

The shed will never happen, the path is a possibility if I get some energy one of these days! That's a lot of work, Early, and you did a marvelous job and from the sounds of it, really did it right. I've been looking at those forms at the garden center for a couple years - might have to invest.

I pondered the path last night, then I started thinking I need to move my raised beds, but, so much work. Living in an area where the hardpan is about 2 ft. down and a rock is hit every few inches, I put up raised bed of untreated wood. Six years later they still haven't started to break down. This is leaving me wondering if I should start the cobblestone path yet or stick with the bark I put down last spring to control the weeds.

Portions of my garden curve, giving the thoughts of a cottage garden, then the raised beds. Stick straight, all in a row. I'll put a pic in from last spring to show.

I need to clean the natural side beds I have created, the path in front of that area is in dire need of my full attention. (over to the left of the picture, not in view)

After typing this out, reading your ideas, I've decided to just take one path at a time...with or without cobblestone. :)

I LOVE YOUR GARDEN!!!!! Makes me think I'll get that old iron bed out of the attic and use it somewhere out back.

Hmmm...

BBB, We haven't much talked about it on the forum yet, but you've got a potager inside your Cottage Garden. Exactly what it should look like -- in fact, yours is more attractive than they usually are. I would definitely stay with the bark on this one -- over time, the bark will (hopefully) make the hard pan underneath better and if you ever decide to change things around, the ground will be ready, or at least more ready, than if you had used rocks or pea gravel.

Suzy

BaaBonnyBelle, I agree with Suzy about sticking with the bark. If, in time, you wish to soften the look of the raised beds, I would spend the money on something you like better than the untreated boards, rather than on stone or gravel. I would also try combining a few of the beds into larger beds thus giving the space more variety and also allowing you to incorporate some larger plants in the beds, plus giving you fewer paths to weed. You could always plant some edging plants on the outside of the raised beds to hide the wood (box, germander, mini roses, lavender, geraniums, like Jolly bee, or nasturtiums). I am always for less weeding and more plants! I put in stone walks in 1982 and had to relay them a few years ago. That was a huge amount of work. They look great, but as I get older they are harder to walk on and to weed. My nearly 92 year old mom was just here for Christmas and I think she thought they were a bit treacherous and she is very spry and active. I, too love the use of the iron head board and the wooden waddle. I would love to see more pictures. Nice choice of color on the shed. Patti

Now... how many of us are going to go look up "potager" and decide we MUST have one?

Edited to say, I looked it up and yes, I must have it!

This message was edited Dec 28, 2006 2:43 PM

Yes indeed, I've learned about a "potager garden" today. Thank you Illoquin! There are some fantastic pics out there regarding such.

Ah, but that's the beauty of it,. BBB, yours is as good or better than most of them! Patti is right about the edging plants -- your paths are wide enough you could put marigold "gem series" or little French marigolds around each raised bed. Well, you can choose whatever flower you like, but Marigolds are traditional around vegetables because it is thought they repel some bad bugs and insects. Nasturtiums, the bush kind, not the climbers, would also be lovely.

For the future, I would think about putting a small circle bed smack dab in the middle. (We have one in Indianapolis smack dab in the middle of the 2 main streets, where other midwestern towns have a courthouse square, we have a circle and are known as "the Circle City") Yours could be raised 18" - 30" in the air and be very striking. Sort of like a wishing well, either real or just the idea. I was thinking of flowers, but in a raised circular planter.

Four beds would be altered to shorten them a bit, and the raised bed board of each would be set on an angle to accomodate the circle. You could actually cut the boards in several places for a circle -- if you could make that cottage shed, it might be easy for you. Most people couldn't do it, though and on a single angle would get the job done.

In the center circle bed, you could put really pretty vegetabes/edibles or even roses. Climbing Nasturtiums would be lovely there, too, and they would drop down and cascade over the edge instead fo climb, and some are fragrant.

If you have to have that wide walkway, then it wouldn't work as well as I'm imagining, and likewise, if you need every single square inch of what you have and then some, for vegetables, then it also wouldn't work, but it sure would be pretty!

Lime

I like the idea of the circular bed in the center, Illoquin. I have used three cement tree rings to pop in an extra squash during a growing season before.

There is one raised bed I would like to dismantle, then move the smaller strawberry bed from East-West to run North-South, could do this on the other side as well, opening up an area in the center for a good size circular bed.

I love the ground level vegetable garden that have the four corners, the NSEW smaller plots, the circular or octagon center and the lovely paths that run through and connect.

Now that I have a name for this portion of my garden it just makes me want to get out there and get moving even more...LOL Now, if Mr. Freeze would let up a bit I could ply some garden magic.

Here's my per. garden...it would look lovely with marigolds around the bottom...to cover up the wood.

edited to say:
Regarding the twig & twine on the per. garden:
We have chickens that we let free-range when we are at home. A bad winter this year, coyotes have been through a few times and something else, that didn't want to eat my flock, just destroyed them, leaving them in the corner of the chicken run...so, I don't think we will let them roam about the property anymore. only four girls and one guy left. This gives me a bit more freedom to rid myself of the twine and twigs that I have used to keep them out. I purchased some adorable country fence picket edging for the per. bed, white to work in with the iron bed frame. Girlfriend had two of these frames and gave me one a few birthdays back, excellent gift for a gardener, don't you think?


This message was edited Dec 29, 2006 5:49 PM

Sharing another photo...my first wattle fence. Whew, what an interesting way to use up the natural resourses on the property. Can you see the bit of bark laid down around. I think another round this spring, it just looked so fresh once down. The only drawback was all the little slivers of wood chips everywhere, clinging to me. :)

Will you quit coming up with cool ideas for my property? LOL
I like that also. : )



Hurry, think of something else. : )

But I loooooooved the twig and twine!!!! LOL!

Suzy

Bonnybelle...........I really like your old headboard. I'm going to keep my eyes open for those at yard sales next summer.

Here's a photo of a new flower bed and path I installed in Sept/ Oct. of 05. I took the photo the first week of June this year.


early_bloomer

Early, that is absolutely lovely - both the garden and the path . . . love the arbor, too!!

I've been reading all the posts and admiring all the photos - just had to jump in again and say something!!!

Early...I love the garden, the curve of the path, the arbor. Beautiful work. I love seeing what others have done for that itch of inspiration. Thank you for sharing.

I am sitting here in the great room, woodstove going, the sky is blue and the sun is out. I can see my a bit of my garden (most of the raised beds) from my garden door. The sun is shining here and there in the garden path, but alas, no sun on my raised beds. The weather will warm up and the rain will come in once I go back to work on Tuesday (I've been on Winter Break since the 15th, secretary at a elem. school). I am just itching to move a few of those beds.

Here's a view from last June...looking from the garden door of the house towards the East side of my raised beds...all green and lush. I'm thinking Winter is Mother Natures way of getting us all hiped up for Spring/Summer, don't you think.

Murmur, where is Greenbank? Eastern Washington? Time to get out my map. :)

Oh, my, that setting is lovely! You'd never guess by the potager pics that a leafy bower was just steps away!

Suzy

BBB, Greenbank is on Whidbey Island - and your setting looks and sounds like a storybook!!! My sister-in-law is a secretary at an elementary school in Lake Forest Park (North Seattle) - I know how hard you work, but the nice part is having the summers to garden, right?

Some lovely garden photos in this thread. I tend to like the natural stones like earlybloomer has best, but the concrete cobblestone ones look nice too. My neighbors have one they made which turned out well.

Actually it gave me the giggles when they did, because they had been passionately hauling truckloads of rocks from their yard all summer, groaning and aching, trying to make a lawn. At one point I accepted a bunch of their rocks for my own projects over here, which made them happy. After all that, they then made a path of fake rock through their lawn??? I thought the whole concept was hysterically funny under the circumstances.

But it is a nice way to make a path. I bought a little rolling cement mixer as I may make some freeform shapes one of these days, but have not gotten that far down my list yet.

Welcome Bonie :) Thanks for the pics. What are the front bloomers in your beautiful iron "bed"?

EB, lovely path..howd' you make that!??

Susan

Susan, Which path are you referring to? The cobblestone path or the natural stone path?

Illoquin, I think you could move the cobblestone pavers as long as they were placed in a bed of sand again.

Murmur, BBBelle, thanks for the compliments. BBB your wattle fence is neat. Like you, I tend to go for the rustic look. Here's a photo of the tree-branch teepees I made for my clematis to climb on.

early_bloomer

EB, the Dec 27th path.. it looks so perfect?? Howd you do that?? It looks like stamped concrete but I have that and it doesn't have the deep indentations you have. Lovely garden..okay now what is the large cluster of purple/blue in that bed just posted??

Susan

Heres my stamped concrete last summer :) And some flowers too!!

Susan, your path is lovely - as are the gardens alongside it!!

Wow, Susan, That is really pretty! I bet the guests love coming up to the door!

EarlyBloomer,I didn't realize they were separate stepping stones. I thought it was a big 36" square of concrete with deep crevices in the mold to look like stones. I imagined hernias trying to move it in place. LOL! Love the phlox, is it? I have a piece 6" -- never blooms, never grows, just come sup 6" and stays that way. I've had it 3 or 4 years.

Suzy

Thanks yall! :)
I love to work in the garden :)

Susan

Susan, are your gray plants Artemesia?

I read the instructions with the path forms, i have it too, but heard it was pretty expensive from how it sounded to get very far. I would have to do it a section a week. Was it costly? Did you use quick crete or the mix yourself kind or what?

Illoquin, The form I use is 2'x2' and makes separate stones. It's really an easy process.

hellnzn11, I used the extra strength concrete mix that comes in an 80# bag at the home center. 2 bags of mix will fill the 2'x2' form 3 times so 6 feet of path is $12-$15. (I can't remember exactly how much the mix was) The entire path was only around $60. Of course, other forms might take more concrete and be more expensive. Hope this helps.

early_bloomer

Yes, artemisia... silver mound. :)

EB, I've tired and I can't even find the repeat for your sidewalk. You did a great job on that! Just curious.. where did you get the forms?? I'd still love to know what the large cluster of plants is on the right. Just lovely.

I have absolutely lucked out. One of the guys that comes to help me with the heavy lifting and deep tree hole digging every so often is regularly employeed by a high end pool builder and he is now bringing me all the left over stone at the end of their installation jobs that they would just ordinarily throw away. I told him that I would take the truck and go pick it up if he just told me where to pick it up and he said that it's better if he brings it as the buyers might get upset knowing that the stone they paid money for was going to someone else and not being thrown in the trash?? oh well.. At least I'm getting it!! :) Also, it has helped my marriage ever since I got help and stopped demanding that my husband do the things in my garden that I needed help with. Win Win for everyone envolved! :)

Susan

Susan, how wonderful - I would jump on a chance like that! And my marriage would improve, too, because I wouldn't be annoyed with dh all the time for not helping me at all - lol!!!