Making a walk is a good way to give your yard some character and can actually be put to good use. Using mulch or gravel are a couple of the easiest ways to make a walk as long as you are not planning on using it in heavy traffic situations. If it is a walk that will be used heavily you might want to keep in mind that the material used will get displaced and often thrown outside the edging. If you want to use mulch, bark is less prone to rot and fungus. If you are going to use gravel consider using pea gravel or crushed stone, as these make the best gravel walks. It really takes some common sense in deciding what type of material you want to use because only you know what it will be used for most.
The first thing you have to do is lay out and excavate the area so it is deep enough to accommodate a 1 to 2 inch layer of sand plus 4 inches of your gravel or mulch. Then dig a trench for the edging and place it along the sides of the pathway. Add a 1 to 2 inch layer of sand within the area and level it. The sand will create a good drainage surface for under the walk itself. Tamp the sand with a hand tamper and then wet the sand down and tamp again if you feel it is necessary. You want to make sure that the sand is pretty compact because you don’t want the sand coming up through the walk.
Once you have your edging and sand down you want to lay some landscape fabric over the sand. The landscape fabric will help keep the sand in place and more importantly, help with weed control. Cut the fabric to fit snugly against the edging and if you need to use more than one strip make sure and overlap the pieces by at least 6 inches. I like to lay my fabric down and then add a little more sand on top of the fabric just for a little weight. The temporary weight from the sand will drift back down once you start laying your surface. The reason I like to do this is because the fabric will shift with the slightest breeze and make the process even more difficult than it is.
Now you are ready for the surface itself. First pour the gravel or mulch from a wheelbarrow onto the sand and spread it with a rake. This part is a little tricky because you want to make sure the material is spread out evenly but you don’t want to snag the landscape fabric. You can use a rake but be careful, I actually like to use my hands because you seem to have more control and you won’t dislodge the fabric. Make sure the material is spread out evenly across the walk and against the edging. People tend to leave the middle of the walk heavy with mulch or gravel and the edges with very little. As long as you have set up the walk with proper drainage you can even out the material evenly over the entire walk. In fact keeping the edges thin with material won’t help your drainage at all it will soak through the material and down to the ground no matter what you do. Compact the gravel or mulch by spraying it lightly with water and rolling it with a drum roller. When you are using the roller just be careful not to bump the edging as you could loosen it. If you don’t have access to a drum roller you can always go back to the hand tamper. I actually like the hand tamper because you have more control of what you are doing. It may take a little more time but I think it does a little better job.
These is just two ways to make a walk, there are many others and I will get into some of them in future articles. These are two of the easiest and most economical ways of doing it. The good thing about walks is that there is always room for more than one, so you can build an easy one to start like this and build another one down the road that is a little more difficult and intricate. Good luck with building your outdoor walk.
