Guest Post by Stephanie Sheffield
Stephanie Sheffield is a neurologist who has been designing and making gardens across the US and New Zealand for the past 30 years, specializing in naturalistic designs (+/- on a shoestring). She commented on this post to suggest a super-affordable way to create paths, offering to tell us more if interested. I said yes, please! And she’s obliged. Susan
If you want a porous, easily moved, inexpensive, and attractive “hard” surface that is pleasant to walk on with shoes or bare feet, I don’t think you can do better than class I sand/paver base. Class I sand is apparently a local term, while paver base is more generally used, but less specific. Here is the best explanation I’ve seen of paver base and what makes it unique.
To clarify from the start, the paver base I use from a local quarry has a maximum particle size of about 3/8 of an inch (all the way down to dust). I first got a truckload of 7 tons almost 20 years ago, for $15 a ton. Since then, I’ve mostly purchased it in smaller quantities from a local place that sells compost, mulch, rocks, and gravel of all kinds. It costs about $30 for a scoop/half a ton, which would be enough for many garden purposes. That happens to be how much my pickup can carry safely. Purchased in larger quantities direct from a quarry, it costs about $32/ton, but then there’s delivery (which might be more than the product cost)!
The critical qualities of paver base are that the particles are of varying size, and the smaller particles have jagged/flat edges that can interlock and thereby form a solid base that doesn’t shift as you walk on it (the way pea gravel does). The nature of variable size particles also leads to a wonderful quality – the finer layers go to the bottom and form a firm base and then the larger particles lie on the top and look good – like gravel, but stable.
Apparently paver base can be made of all kinds of materials, but at our local quarry it’s limestone. Paver base can even be made from recycled crushed concrete, which is of course a wonderful reuse of unwanted concrete. Paver base is also used to form a base for laying pavers ON POINT?) and to make high-strength concrete.
To my mind, the appearance is both sophisticated and soft, and can evoke anything from a boules court in a charming village in Southern France to an idyllic country road, or the most formal Italian garden with statuary, fountains and lemon trees in pots 🙂
The fact that it is extremely cheap is just a bonus.
A front walk with integrated steps.
How to DIY. Although you can hire someone to put it in place, it is extremely easy to do yourself. I have typically killed grass or weeds in its intended location ahead of time by laying down cardboard or tarp, but in most situations this step is not necessary. I think I would do this only if there were thick grass or other growth on the intended site. However, all plants, dead or alive, need to be scraped away and the ground smoothed, e.g. with the back of a rake. Then you just lay paper over the ground, either specialized garden paper (which costs more than 10 times as much) or brown recycled builders/construction paper easily purchased at your local hardware store or big box construction store, which comes in 3 to 4 foot wide rolls of 50-520 feet. I used to use newspaper, but we don’t get a physical paper anymore ☹️. Any paper will do, I think; it’s just easier if it is in rolls or sheets.
Then you dump the paver base on top, in a layer about 4 inches thick, maybe a little thicker since it compacts a lot, and smooth it out. You can wait for the rain to do its thing, but I typically hose it down so that it isn’t dusty, and to accelerate the layering where the small particles move to the bottom. Until it’s been through a couple of rains or waterings, it is dusty, but it is literally only a day or two before the dogs’ paws are no longer tracking it in. If done by a landscape installation company, they seem to insist on compacting it, but that really isn’t necessary, and I never do.
Planting through it if desired. The paper decays over about a year, which is enough time for any plants under it to die, and after that, you can plant within it if you like by pushing your spade down a few inches to the intersection of paver base and soil and sort of popping the paver base up. You plant your plant in the soil, smooth the paver base back around the plant, and it will look as though it has always been there.
New plants/weeds can seed in the gravel, of course, (I sometimes tell people that plants will grow on barely cooled lava after a volcanic eruption, so they shouldn’t think that any surface is safe from plants trying to grow) but it is extremely easy to either hoe them out with a stirrup hoe (as my husband prefers) or to pull them out as you are walking by. They stand out against the gravel and are therefore easy to see when they are small. This use of paver base has made me realize how many plants really like good drainage – but I have also been astonished to see that Lobelias (e.g. cardinalis and siphilitica) also sow along the edges very nicely in low areas that hold onto damp. It is my main source of seedlings for transplantation and giving away.
Paver base is also used for the floor inside the conservatory.
Gotta slope? The paver base can handle some slope, but not a lot, of course. Our whole garden is on a slant and on a large project I just recently worked on that’s also on a significant slope, it stays in place. But if there’s an actual hill, it may be moved by a hard rain. However, as you can see from one of these photos of our front garden, it is easy to integrate with rock steps (I admit these pieces of cut stone cost a good $50 each)! I typically use old bricks for edging, but I think anything would do.
Our conservatory is not a good example of gardening cheaply, but it is by far the most I have spent on any single garden project and way cheaper than adding a screen porch to our house!
Great information – thanks! We’re looking to re-do and extend two paths in our backyard so this is really timely. Thanks much for the thorough diy instructions.
Most welcome! Glad the timing was just right.
I do the same…and as you say I get my best spring seedlings from the path, right beside the river rock edging…pansies, cleome, coleus, petunias, vinca, and cosmos are welcomed every spring.
I might just try this as a narrow path through my front cottage garden.. edged with bricks, or I like David’s idea of rocks.
Like you, we get crushed limestone as paver base in our area, so this was a very interesting idea for me. I also really like the idea of using crushed recycled concrete for paths. One thing worth reminding people, though, is that these are both highly alkaline materials, and anything growing in or near them needs to be tolerant of alkaline conditions. The perennnial lobelias you mentioned are apparently not fussy as to soil pH. In my experience, however, other plants will start to show lime-induced chlorosis in proximity to limestone-based gravel, especially if there has been a lot of rain, which can leach the dissolved lime into the soil. You do have to research your plants’ pH preferences.
Good point, Linda. My soil is already quite alkaline so I avoid planting anything that can’t handle higher pH. Interestingly though, two of my best self sowers into the gravel are Carex comans and C. buchananii which both prefer somewhat acidic soil I think, but obviously tolerate some lime. And you’re right, in a different situation you’d have to be careful what you planted next to the path.
Your gardens are lovely, Stephanie. I love this idea for pathways and will look into it. I see that you have nice old bricks for edging, but can you suggest anything else? I’m picturing an expansive pathway at my place and need some ideas.
I’ve used scavenged rocks, found logs, and sort of ugly new brick pavers (turned on their sides to hide the holes) in the past, and I think in a VERY naturalistic style garden you could let the gravel actually trail irregularly into the beds (would look a little like a beach, maybe!) if you had plants that want super good drainage on the edges of the beds — maybe salvias, Nasella for a really beach look, Dianthus, sedums, Gypsophila, thyme and other creeping herbs, Stachys byzantina, etc. Whatever you use, if not ideal at first, you can always replace it later if you find something better!
Thank you for sharing your experience and the photos!
We live on the coast in New England and I’ve been wanting for years to put crushed clam shells on our walkways. However, local supplies and prices depend on production by the shellfishing industry and are seasonal so I always hesitate to commit. Paving base might be a good alternative, maybe cheaper.
Our soil is notoriously acidic, so the alkalinity wouldn’t hurt.
I also love your conservatory and have the same thought about a screened pergola or gazebo being cheaper and far simpler than an attached screened porch. (Though the cat would prefer a screened porch, I think.)
Thanks again!
First, Jenn, I have to tell you that we have been extremely happy with the conservatory. I hope you can find something that works as well for you.
In coastal Maine, it may be that the paver base or screening aggregate (another name for it, I believe, that comes from the fact that it is the byproduct of screening crushed stone to separate out the larger gravel for particular uses), is composed of granite rather than limestone. I know that granite can also be used under pavers or retaining walls and is valued for its strength. I would just check with the quarry that it is composed of particle sizes from about 3/8″ all the way down to dust. (yet another name for this material is stone dust, and another is AASHTO #10. I’ve never heard of a material with so many different names!)
I use paver base, which is finely crushed limestone here, between limestone pavers to lock them in place, but as for walking directly on it, the sharp shards stick in the tread of my shoes and can wreak havoc on the floors in my house. I usually remove my gardening shoes when I come indoors, but I cannot expect the same of guests. I don’t have pets, but I suspect it would also stick between the pads of their feet. For a cheap quick pavement in a large area, I leveled it and put down black landscape fabric, and then the larger limestone gravel that is sold in bags as “drainage rock”, which is too big to stick in my shoes. It would be even cheaper by the truckload if I had a truck. As long as I keep the acorns and leaves off in the fall, so they don’t turn into compost between the stones, I have had only a handful of weeds over 4 years. I’ve made peace with the parking lot look as a trade-off for ease of maintenance and cleanliness.
Hmm. We haven’t had that problem. Not sure why. The dogs (we have 3) definitely don’t track in anything but dust when it’s first laid, before it’s been wetted down the first couple times. Maybe our shoes aren’t a problem because there a front porch to cross coming in at one end and a small deck at the back? But I don’t notice gravel on the front porch or the deck. We also have a mat to wipe our shoes at both doors and maybe that knocks out anything caught in the tread of our shoes.
Oops, “to dust”
I believe this is the British version, should any Brits be wondering about it https://gardenrant.com/2022/10/how-to-do-garden-paths-or-not.html
Yes, that seems to be the same material, “down to zero”. Thank you!
I don’t remember if I read this post of yours before, but reading or rereading it now, noticed with interest your use of railings rather than staking. On a smaller scale, just this summer, I realized that I could use sections of low or medium height decorative wire fencing.(previously used for keeping dogs out of newly planted areas) as a railing much as you described, even within a bed, to limit flopping and prevent sprawlers from overwhelming their neighbors.
Oopsx2 (accidentally put this correction above instead of here). I meant, regarding my reply to Anne, “to dust ” rather than “down to zero”