First, I dug a narrow trench; I marked guide "holes" at the end and the middle, and then set to work:
After digging the trench, I carried the stones back over (you may remember that this is where they WERE before I moved them across the yard... back again) and laid them out:
I was careful to choose only stones with a relatively flat edge, as I hope to have the edge flush with the grass for easy mowing.
I chose NOT to use landscaping fabric for two reasons (actually... three):
1) It's made of plastic, and I don't want to add more. (Please ignore the landscaping fabric in the fire circle... it was installed 2 years ago).
2) It isn't fool proof; see fire pit from two years ago.
3) It's expensive.
I'll line under the gravel with heavy sheets of newspaper; the edging stones will just have to accept grass growing between them.
Here is the finished edge; now I need to remove about an inch of soil between the edge and the beds to make room for two inches of gravel.
We are trying to decide between straight 3/8 inch crushed rock, and between the 3/8 minus (or breeze) rock that creates more of a hard packed path. Also trying to decide on color... I'm thinking grey would be nice. Not buttery yellow... but maybe rose/red. It's the cheapest. Seems funny to be buying rocks... especially since I see craigslist adds of people giving away landscaping rocks all the time. It's usually the 3/4 to 1 1/2 inch rocks, though... the kind that don't make a nice path... or pea gravel, which I am not a big fan of.
6 comments:
Wow, your back must hurt from lifting all those stones!
It's looking great!
I echo Debbie. That's a lot of lifting. Be careful.
But it's going to be fabulous when you're all done.
I agree that newspaper is the best way to go; so far, it's worked well everywhere we've tried it. Lookin' good!
Looks great. What a ton of work.
atticroute66
I got the house! So, in September I can start my own back breaking labor on my very own yard!
I hate to say it, but the only reason why people on craigslist sell the rocks, is because it is a pain in the *** by fall to rake leafes, weeds and other stuff out of it. Sure looks nice, and thats why people get it in the first place, and then they get fed up with the cleanup. Also, the newspaper only last a season. It prevents weeds poling trough from the underside, but weeds still grow on top. And for the weed barrier, they make non plastic ones now, which will not last as long, but degrade with time.
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