Crushed Stone Path

Build an informal pathway to meander through your yard or garden.

Preparation and Overview

A path can do wonders for a backyard. It can invite you directly inside a garden or into a shaded area, or attract your attention to a rose-covered trellis, a busy bird feeder or your favorite maple. There's something relaxing about walking along a pleasantly contoured garden path, listening to the crunch of crushed stone underfoot. You may feel as if you've been away on a short trip.

Designing a pleasant path calls for a bit of imagination. And building one will give you some sore muscles by the time you finish, but it doesn't require any great skill or know-how. The path we show here is simply packed crushed limestone bordered by edging stone set into the soil.

Buy Smart
The stone that you can use for a path -- both the edging and the surface stone -- will vary considerably from region to region in color, texture and the name it goes by. You'll find distributors listed under "Stone" in the Yellow Pages. Visit a distributor's yard to see exactly what you're getting before you order.

The crushed limestone we used in our path, yellowish in color, is common in most of the Midwest and in some areas of the East, South and West. Its colors may vary from gray to reddish brown. The nearest substitute is crushed gravel -- sometimes called pea gravel or screened gravel -- which is usually grayish in color.

Our path was 70 ft. long by 32 in. wide on average. With a path depth of 5-1/2 in., we required 4-1/2 cu. yds. -- about 6 tons! -- of limestone, crushed to 3/8-in. or smaller particles. (It's the smaller particles that help it pack.)

Edging stone can go by a multitude of names: fieldstone, cut stone, wallstone, bluestone and many other names and types unique to specific regions. The edging stone we used is called lannon stone in the Midwest.

Our 70-ft. long path required 140 ft. of 8-in. wide by about 3-in. thick edging stone. (It was plunked down on our driveway on wood pallets, and we wheelbarrowed it to the path site.) Stone, depending on color, quality and the fineness of its cutting, can vary greatly in cost.

Planning a Path
The first step is to form a general idea of where you want to place your path. Look at the contours of your yard, and go with its flow as much as possible. For any dramatic rises in elevation, you might want to create a serpentine or winding path to make the rises gradual.

A garden path doesn't necessarily have to lead to a destination, but it should take you along or toward attractive spots. You can vary the width of the path to take advantage of these spots; widened areas encourage you to pause in your walk. Our path varies from 30 to 38 in.wide, including the edging stone -- wide enough to walk on comfortably, yet narrow enough to feel cozy and intimate.

Even though a garden path doesn't need to go to a specific destination, it does need to start and stop somewhere. Ideally, it should join in a crisp edge with a surface of a distinctly different material, such as a lawn or patio or deck. You'll probably want to avoid a loose-stone path that leads directly to a door of your house, however, or you'll be tracking stones inside. Consider curving the line of edging stones so that they flare out at each end of the path, forming a sort of open invitation to come and walk on it.

Once you have a general idea of the shape and direction, lay out both sides of the path with a long garden hose or rope, as shown in Photo 1. Use hose or rope that will lie flat, without kinks or awkward bends. Leave the outline in place for a few days.Walk the pathway several times, and make adjustments in the contours until you like the way it looks and feels. Then drive stakes into the ground (Photo 2) to mark the outer edges of the path.

Digging the Path and Laying Edges
We dug out the soil 6 in. deep, then a trench 1 in. deeper along the edges to accommodate the edging stone. Our edging stone was about 8 in. wide by about 3 in. thick. Our goal was to have the edging stone extend above the surrounding soil surface by about 1 in. (see illustration). If the stone you use is a different size, you'll need to vary your trench size. The 5-1/2 in. of crushed limestone or gravel that forms the path (Photos 7, 8 and 9) will almost always provide enough drainage to prevent pooling of rainwater. However, if your soil under the path is heavy clay that doesn't absorb water, or if your path is in a very low-lying area, consider digging out an additional 3 in. for the pathway and adding 3 in. of coarser gravel (about 1/2-in. size) as a drainage base. Unless you have a place on your property where you can use the dug-out soil, you'll have to haul it away or hire someone to do it. Or if it's good topsoil, you may find some takers in your neighborhood.

Lay the edging stones as shown in Photos 4 – 6. Keep in mind that you're not building the Taj Mahal here. The look of the path is meant to be informal, so don't struggle for a perfect end-to-end fit. Pick stones that naturally fit fairly well together; cut or chip stones only when absolutely necessary for an approximate fit (see step-by-step photos and instructions). Take a bit more care, however, in leveling the top edges of the stones (Photo 5), since you want the horizontal appearance of the path to have a smooth flow.


Putting Down the Path
You'll probably have the crushed limestone or gravel delivered to your driveway, and then you'll have to wheelbarrow it to the path site. If you need to cross areas of very soft lawn, lay down sheets of plywood to avoid forming ruts with the wheelbarrow.

Level the material as you dump it, to about 1-1/2 in. below the top of the edging stone, then tamp it down with a power plate compactor (Photo 9). You can rent a power compactor from most tool rental outlets. Or if you still have lots of energy left, even after laying all that edging stone, you can compact the path by hand with a heavy tamping tool that you can rent for a couple of bucks.

Make several passes with the compactor, then lay down another layer of crushed limestone or gravel and compact again (Photo 9). The compacted surface should end about 1-1/2 in. below the tops of the edging stones. Over time you can expect the path surface to compact by itself about another 1/2 in.

Step-by-Step Photos and Instructions

1. Lay out the path perimeter with non-kinking garden hose or rope. Make your curves gentle and natural looking. The overall width of our path varies from 30 to 38 in., including the edging. The end of the path flares out to about 4-1/2 ft.


2. Drive stakes into the ground along the perimeter -- wood shims work well -- keeping them close enough to each other to maintain smooth-flowing curves.


3. Dig out the soil 6 in. deep between the stakes. Use a square-nose spade to trim the edges neatly. Dig a deeper trench bed for the edging stones to a depth of 1 in. less than the width of your edging stones.


4. Place all the edging stones loosely in the dug trenches. Select stones with end shapes that more or less fit together. The stones come in random lengths; use the shorter lengths on the curves.


5. Dig out or fill in the trench bottom to fine-tune the leveling of each stone as you final-fit the stones end-to-end. A 4-ft. level helps you get an overall feel for the leveling, but because the stones are so irregular, you'll have to rely mostly on your own eye.


6. Anchor each stone in place by mounding a ridge of supporting dirt about 2 in. up against the inside bottom edges. Dig dirt out from the middle of the pathway for this as you need it. Stamp the dirt tight along the bottom of the stones with your feet. Then fill in with dirt behind the stones, as shown. Work the dirt tight behind the stones with the shovel edge, but don't overfill to the point of dislodging the stones.


7. Dump crushed limestone or gravel in the pathway. Level the material with a rake as you go so that you can wheel each succeeding wheelbarrow load over it.


8. Fill and level the entire path to within about 1-1/2 in. from the tops of the edging stones. Continue using a garden rake to spread and even out the material.


9. Tamp the crushed limestone or gravel with a power plate compactor. Make three or four passes. Use your feet to stamp down spots the compactor can't reach. Next, spread another layer over the already compacted layer, leveling it to about 1 in. below the tops of the edging. Then make another series of passes with the compactor.

Cutting stone

Cut the stones only where necessary to get an approximate fit. Score the stones with a wide masonry chisel and a sledgehammer on all four sides, then continue to strike along the width with the chisel until the stone cracks. Wear full-surround safety glasses and gloves.


Chip off small irregularities or protuberances as necessary for end-to-end fit. Don't get too fussy about this.