Finishing up the Flagstone grouting

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Gardens are meant to be enjoyed. And if people have to walk through mud, or over slippery gravel, or try to step on "stepping stones", you have made a mistake. This path along the far edge of my yard started as just a simple set of stepping stones that allowed me to get the lawn mower out to the yard. It had never been intended as a real walking area, and slowly it evolved into one. This is the lowest part of the yard, where the rainwater collects, as it's supposed to, and has been neglected for years. I started putting in left-over pieces of flagstone and this spring I am finally getting around to doing the grouting. The surface is not flat as there is the slope to take into consideration. After a heavy rain, this area will still flood. The rest of the time it drains well.

The goal here was to create as stable a walking path as is possible in this area. It's not as refined as the other areas of the yard, but it still works well. The flagstone is set in sand, and the blocks don't wobble. I kept the blocks laid "dry", that is, without mortar, for over a year. If they developed any type of wobble, however slight, I picked them up and relaid them on more (or less) sand.

If you want to learn more about putting paths in a garden, visit your local botanic garden and see what they did. And if you didn't notice the paths before, well, that's the whole point. Enjoy the plants!

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