Down the Garden Path

Earlier this week, Ivan, Isabella and I tackled an exciting DIY project in the garden. And since it was fun and simple, and yielded dramatic results, I thought you might like to hear all about it. Landscaping work done by professionals can be costly, depending on the size of your project and prices in your area, so we’re always excited about projects we can DIY with our limited skills, and without calling contractors. (Not that they’ll show up when they say they will 🙁 )

Pictured above is Cammy Pollak‘s entrance to her kitchen garden, which I’m obsessed with right now… Ever since we moved into our house, we had a list of projects we wanted to get done, and an even longer list of design ideas to implement. High on our wishlist was a more organized garden with walkways and focal points, and structure, and last Monday we made an important step. Using the instructions from a Black & Decker Landscape Construction workbook (courtesy of a local Goodwill), we designed a little pathway from our driveway to the side gate. The booklet made it look so easy that we felt it was necessary to start digging right away. Only five steps? Easy peasy! (My back still hurts though…)

Overall, the design and execution took approximately 24 hours. Mind you, the path is short – one of the reasons we started with this section was to gain confidence, see if we’re able to accomplish the job without outside help. And we did, which was impressive. I love the look of brick pathways in a garden but we don’t have brick anywhere on the foundation of the house, so I thought gravel will look better. Inspired by Cammy Pollak’s lovely kitchen garden, as well as @riverroad59’s garden paths (not that our garden will look anywhere near as pretty as theirs), I chose gray pavers for borders and pea gravel chips from Lowe’s.

Okay, this is how it went down. First, we decided on the width and shape of the path. I used a garden hose to play with different shapes and locations until I got one we all loved and felt like a most natural walkway. Next, I grabbed a can of red spray paint leftover from a different project (that project was a total flop, but at least I had the red paint). Any color will do, as long as it is highly visible. I carefully sprayed along the garden hose to get the desired contour of the path.

Digging up the sod was next. This was in my opinion the most difficult part. I did have help but I dug it up mostly by myself because hubby was busy and I was stubborn and excited and wanted to do it right away. I paid for it later, when my back muscles spasmed and I was in pain the greater part of the week. Now I’m better. So unless you’re in excellent shape, or have experience digging for a couple of hours straight, I recommend that you ask for help at this stage.

We finished digging up the path on Sunday evening, and then measured the length of the walkway to figure out the number of pavers and pea gravel bags needed. We planned on laying the pavers on the length instead of standing (at this point I was done digging anyway) so we added the distances from both sides of the path and divided that number by the individual length of the pavers. (We bought 50 and ended up using 47 so at least the math worked out okay. )

Monday we got the gravel and pavers and had them all in place by sunset. Getting the pavers in place and aligned was a bit of a bother but totally worth fussing with because we’re happy with how it turned out. So happy that we’ve already started working on another section of the path, leading to the rose arbor!

After carefully laying down the landscaping fabric, to avoid weeds from creeping up, it was time to set the gravel in place. The three of us (Isabella wanted to help so she was in charge of opening the pea gravel bags for us) got the job done in no time and it was the funnest/easiest part of this project.

Voila! Here’s the path, all finished! I like the definition it gives to this side of the front yard and am looking into ways of covering our driveway with gravel. It’s in an incline and it’s not clear if it’s at all possible…Anyway, we’re now working on the other side of the front yard, creating a similar pathway leading to the rose arbor. Will share next month, when we’re finished 🙂

P.S: If you decide to do something similar, let me know. I’ll be happy to share your results on the blog!