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About This Project
You don’t have to be a skilled mason to lay a natural stone path like this one. If you have a strong back and an eye for fitting jigsaw puzzles, you can weave a casual garden path like this just about anywhere in your yard. There’s no thick base to install or difficult cutting and fitting—you just lay natural stone over a simple sand bed.
You’ll be moving a lot of dirt and stone, so a good shovel and wheelbarrow will pay off here. To simplify the grass removal, we rented a power sod cutter ($45 per half day, and you’ll need a pickup truck to haul this brute). For smaller paths, a kick-type sod cutter would work fine ($20 per day to rent). Buy a heavy rubber mallet or deadblow hammer ($10 at hardware stores) to settle the stone into the sand bed. If your project requires a step or retaining wall like ours, you’ll also need a level and a hand tamper. Buy a tamper for $28 or rent one for $8 per day. Finally, you’ll need a garage broom to sweep the soil mixture into the cracks, and a good pair of heavy leather gloves to protect your hands.
You’ll Order Tons of
Stone
For our path, we chose a locally quarried limestone called
Chilton. The 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 in. thick “stepper” stones cost about
$300 per ton (a ton covers about 90 sq. ft.), but costs vary widely depending
on what’s locally available. Measure the length of your path and multiply
this by its width to determine the square footage. Then add about 15 percent.
Our 3-ft. wide by 70-ft. long path required about 3 tons of
stone.
Check the Yellow Pages under “Stone, Natural” or call local landscaping suppliers to find stone in your area. Visit the stone yard to select the stone, since it varies in color, texture and cost. This is also a good time to discuss delivery options. Usually the stone will be stacked on pallets and dropped off near the street.
In addition to the steppers, we needed about a ton of 8-in. wide by 3- to 5-in. thick stone for the wall and a few 6-in. thick stones to build the step. Your stone dealer can help you figure the amount of stone you’ll need for special projects like this.
Because this garden path is informal, we decided to set the stone on a 2- to 3-in. thick sand bed rather than the 6-in. deep compacted gravel base used under more heavily traveled walks and patios. Although you’ll spend a lot less time digging and moving dirt with our method, you may have to reset a sunken or tipped stone every few years, because the base isn’t as stable.
Landscape suppliers, sand and gravel companies, or your stone supplier will charge about $20 per cubic yard for the sand, plus delivery fees. Divide the square footage of your path by 108 to calculate how many cubic yards of sand you’ll need for a 3-in. deep base.
Finally, you’ll need some potting soil and mulch or compost to fill the spaces between stones. We mixed equal amounts of soil and sifted compost in a wheelbarrow and swept it into the cracks.
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