Garden Cobblestone Design Walk-path
First impression is everything to me and after almost 2 years of relocating from New York and moving into our first home in the state of Florida, looking at my garden mess day in and day out...it was time to change everyone’s first impression (about my front yard) for good!!
Best natural weed killer!
We started by removing all the stones, weeds, garbage, bugs and leveling the dirt by digging dirt from higher areas with a shovel, etc...The walk path is tilted away from the foundation of the house and it‘s sligthly lower than the wooden floor which leads to my front door. The cobblestone design and the fact that it is not a flat leveled surface prevents water from coming into my front porch. I purposely made it lower to prevent flooding into the wooden floor area seen in the picture. when it rains all the water falling on the walk path makes its way to the plants that sit on the right of it and the plants at the end of it. Those plants were burnt from the Florida heat this summer and after building this walkpath and adding mulch around those dying plants the difference is very visible!!! All the plants around and at the end of the walk path have grown incredibly because the rain water goes directly into them the mulch around them gets soaked and the soil around them stays moist.
We then dug straight lines around the edges of the walk-path deep enough (about 4-5 in) to lay wooden posts separating the dirt from plants and area where the mulch would be later placed
Once the area was completeley bordered with wooden posts and rocks behind the posts all around it we started our project
We used two types of cements (concrete mix as a base and mortar for the cobblestones). We poured the concrete mix over the path and once the base was covered we used a hose to water it until it was soaked wet.
Once the concrete mix was solid as rock we mixed the mortar in a bucket by hand and proceeded to pour it inside the mold which we purchased at Lowes for $20 bucks
This is the mortar used to create the cement cobblestones looks on my walk-path
This is the first cobblestone we created. We spent a bag of mortar to fill the mold each time. The walk path is 22 feet long by 1.5 width and we spent 13 concrete mix bags and 10 bags of mortar in total
The project is not as easy as it looks due to the mixing by hand, bending on your knees, summer heat and florida bugs that invade the garden areas. Home depot rents cement or concrete mixers by the hour or day if needed for easier mixing...
The walk-path took longer to complete than I ever imagined but it was so worthy!!
This is the walkpath maker purchased at Lowes for $20. It is worth every penny.
Reaching the end of my project felt so relieving.
The end is here, now it was time to let it all dry, remove the wooden posts (carefully) and move on to cleaning up the surrounding plants for a neat and clean garden look. I ran out of time and space in this page but you can go to my facebook page to view the after photos, videos and a lot more projects/ideas!!! 👌🏻😍
Tested the walkpath and it’s stability.
Before and after pictures
Resources for this project:
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Comments
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Looks lovely maintenance free.
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I have a problem with standing water that slopes toward the house after a heavy rain. The slope is not noticeable until it rains. I was thinking there has to be a simple way to correct it and I believe your method will work for me. I will slope it back toward the yard and that will keep the water from seeping into the brick and the foundation.
Thanks for 😊sharing.
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