School of landscape design. lesson six: how to pave garden paths

How to paint rubble with your own hands - a step by step scheme

Step 1: Prepare the styling site

In the place where the material will be poured, it is necessary to remove about 10 cm of the top layer of soil. Fill the soil in the wheelbarrow - for sure there will be a place in your garden where you can put it later.

Step 2: expose the curbs

If you decide to make a regular garden path, all you need is to set curbs. Natural stone, or plastic and metal strips can be used as them. The curbs should be firmly on the surface, you can even dig them into the soil slightly.

Step 3: prepare the base

After installing the curbs, it is necessary to pour a layer of sand of at least 5 cm. Smooth it around the perimeter and pour water over it for better shrinkage. Let the sand dry a little and proceed to the next stage of preparing the base - lay an insulating material over the sand. Manufacturers offer special synthetic materials with ready-made holes through which water flows. You can use regular plastic wrap, in which you make enough holes in advance to drain water in case of precipitation. Another layer of sand is poured onto the polyethylene, this time already smaller - 2-3 cm.

Step 4: prepare the stencil

If you are planning to make a track or other surface multi-colored, for convenience, prepare in advance the internal borders made of metal or plastic strips. Thanks to them, the crushed stone will not mix with each other, and you, in turn, will be able to form any geometric patterns. You can skip this step if the material is the same color.

Step 5: lining up colored stones

The last, final step - our decorative crushed stone is evenly poured onto the prepared base. You can level the surface with an ordinary rake. If you are laying gravel on a lawn or in a flower bed, a small layer of 2 cm will be enough; for pedestrian paths, it is advisable to pour at least 4 cm of gravel.

Pros and cons of such a solution

The main advantage of such a solution is that even a beginner in the construction business can make a path or path from stones in the country. You don't need expensive equipment. A shovel, a primitive rammer, a rubber hammer and a grinder for cutting stones are enough. Even a concrete mixer is practically not needed, that small amount of concrete can be made by hand. In addition, it is possible to lay stone on the paths without concrete, just on sand or a cement-sand mixture.

If we talk about the cost of the material, then the residents of the regions in which you can use the available free stone of various types are in an advantageous position. The only thing that is required is transport to get him home. And if we are talking about buying, then you can pick up materials in different price categories, taking into account your financial capabilities and your own design taste.

In addition, laying stone on paths has additional advantages:

• Simple technology for base preparation and installation.
• High resistance of the material to moisture and low temperatures.
• Significant service life, subject to installation technology.
• Excellent appearance and the ability to implement various ideas for landscape design.

If you make efforts, then such a path will look much better than the usual concrete ones.

Advantages and disadvantages of bulk paths

Positive traits:

• ease of implementation of any design projects using fractional material;
• affordable price;
• no need to use special equipment when arranging tracks;
• fractional material is characterized by low weight, which makes it easier to work with;
• multivariate solutions: you can create paths of any width, height, shape;
• it is possible to make tracks with your own hands without the involvement of specialists;
• the site looks attractive, more neat, impassable puddles do not form in the country during the rain.

The disadvantage is the limitation on the mechanical load exerted on the surface of the fractional material. So, paths are often laid in areas with low traffic, where a car will not pass. Another disadvantage is the need to regularly correct the shape of the paths, level the surface. This is due to the fact that under the weight of a person, the fractions are displaced, forming depressions.
It is difficult to care for such paths; weeds periodically sprout between the stones. In winter, it is difficult to remove ice from the surface, since the integrity of the path is violated during its crushing. In addition, the paths are often damaged by moles.

Garden path curb: what material to make?

We have already learned how to choose a stone, how to make a base, and how to prepare a solution. Now another important detail of the garden path is the border. It must be done so that the path does not crumble, the stone does not collapse and retains its original appearance as long as possible. You can buy a border for a garden path in a store, or you can make it yourself.

Most often, the following materials are used to create borders:

• wooden planks
• brick
• large stones
• plastic bottles filled with sand
• wooden cuts of logs
• stone blocks

Everything is clear with stones and bricks, but you will have to tinker with the boards. Wood is not as strong as natural stone, therefore, before installing a wooden curb, craftsmen are advised to impregnate the boards with a special liquid. This will prevent decay and make the wood more durable.

Any of these materials have proven to be excellent as a garden path curb, so you can choose whichever one suits your taste!

Material selection

For the construction of a garden path, the following types of materials are suitable:

1. Pebbles (gravel) - small, medium or large flat stones of a rounded shape, they can be sea (smoother) or river (slightly rough). Suitable for all natural soil types. The wide color palette and the cheapness of the material are opposed to the need to install curbs or lay the stone in a layer of no more than 7 cm. While walking, it can "part" underfoot.
2. Slate is a medium-sized stone with sharp edges, which is obtained by crushing large pieces of the rock of the same name into layers. Such tracks do not deform due to good adhesion, make it possible to create unique patterns, however, such a coating is traumatic and expensive.
3. Gravel is a rock composed of smoothed debris, a loose structure, an inexpensive option, dries quickly after rain, a variety of colors. There is a possibility to fit into any country design. However, it can only be used for walking paths, because splits under heavy loads, making it difficult to clean. Some types of soil are not suitable as a base. For paths, it is better to use a stone of a small fraction.
4. Crushed stone (granite, traditional) - material with sharp, uneven edges, obtained in the process of crushing rocks. Such tracks are durable, do not creep, withstand loads well, do not require adjustment. The stone does not slip, does not suffer from temperature changes, and is suitable for high embankments. However, it can stick into the sole, traumatic, and if you use large parts, it will be difficult to move along the path.
5. Brick - a clinker type of building material is used to lay out the tracks. A wide range of colors, durability, the ability to create various patterns withstand the high costs of purchasing material, the need to pour a concrete base and install curbs.
6. Paving stones (chipped or sawn) - a rectangular stone with uneven or even edges and a rough surface. Withstands heavy loads, non-slip, inexpensive, fits into old-style landscape design.
7. Cobblestone - small stones with a smooth rounded surface, can be used in conjunction with large (boulders). They are resistant to moisture, frost, temperature extremes, and are characterized by durability. However, they slide, need a concrete foundation, have a uniform color palette.
8. Rubble stone (wild) - irregularly shaped slabs obtained by crushing dolomite, limestone, sandstone. It is characterized by strength, water resistance, frost resistance, low cost.
9. Sandstone is an expensive layer of clay, ore, quartz sand, or feldspar, colored light brown or other shades. The shape is irregular, the surface is irregular.
10. Granite with a finished or untreated surface is a durable, expensive rock. It consists of quartz, mica, feldspar, the ratio between which determines the color of the slab. Crushed stone can be made from it by crushing. Resistant to dirt, moisture, frost.

The main stages of the design of the tracks

The arrangement of gravel paths is quite simple. It is enough to have the necessary tools and materials with you, as well as to make a sketch of the future landscape design. The technology of how to make a gravel path consists of several main stages.

Markup

Before proceeding with the main work, it is necessary to draw the outlines of future tracks. For straight paths, it is best to use low pegs, as well as twine, which must be tied between them. The distance between the pegs should be an average of 1.5 meters.

Trench preparation

It is necessary to remove the sod from the previously prepared areas, and also to dig a pit, the depth of which should be about 20 cm. It is best to dig the side parts of the earth with a bayonet shovel, and remove the soil with a shovel. It is also necessary to carefully dig up, clear of debris and level the bottom of the trench.

Installation of curbs

The use of curbs in the design of the gravel path is mandatory. Otherwise, the material will quickly scatter over the entire area. Curbs are installed during the preparation of the ditch. This will help make it easier to fill in the gravel.

For its manufacture, you can use wooden posts, bricks, natural or curb stone, bottles or a special tape border. It should be about 5 cm higher than the track.
The material for making the curb should be fixed to the mortar. It is first necessary to make a concrete base or at least a sand and gravel backfill. The curb stones should be about the same size, and the curb groove should be a few centimeters wider.

Depending on what height of the curb will be, it is necessary to pour a substrate of sand and gravel. Then concrete should be poured into the groove. Let it freeze. Then it remains only to lay stones or bricks on the finished base, after pouring cement mortar into it.

You can also use wooden pegs to make a border. However, they must be of high quality, the same size, and have been pretreated with insect and rot detergents. For such a curb, you need to dig a groove about 15 cm deep, and dig in the pegs. The logs can be of the same height, or you can alternate high and low pegs.

Preparing a cushion for gravel

A decorative gravel bed can be prepared in several ways:

• It is necessary to put geotextiles at the bottom of the trench, and then fill it with large rubble, which should first be mixed with clay. This mixture must be filled with water and compressed. For this, it is best to use a vibrating plate, but you can trample it well with your feet. After that, the thickness of the pillow should be about 10 cm.
• Sand can also be used to make a pillow.Its use is better suited for drainage. In this case, first you need to lay out large crushed stone with a layer of about 7 cm, then close it with geotextile, and only after that pour sand with a layer of 5 cm.
• The easiest way, which can be used in the case of a gravel path, is to fill the pit with coarse gravel, after which it is covered with geotextile.

Backfilling gravel

A day after the preparation of the pillow, you can proceed to the main stage of work - backfilling of gravel. The layer thickness should be approximately 5 cm. If several types of decorative gravel are used for the track, it is recommended to pre-mix them so that the color and texture are uniform. The gravel must be well leveled and tamped down a little.

The consumption of gravel depends on its layer, type and size. On average, 50 kg per track with a width and length of one meter with a layer of 3 cm, 60 kg for 5 cm, and 100 kg for 7 cm. The amount of material may vary depending on its fraction.

Thus, the way to properly make a gravel path is quite simple. The path turns out to be durable, beautiful, neat and fits perfectly into the exterior of almost any house or summer cottage. In addition, manufacturing takes a minimum of time, and when using material of various fractions and color, an incredibly beautiful landscape design will turn out.

Garden paths made of stone

If you have a country house with a garden, a summer residence, then you know firsthand how much work you need to invest in your plot to recreate the comfort and good atmosphere in your garden. Landscaping is a popular occupation today, which is occupied by both professionals for hiring and amateurs - the owners of their land wealth.
Decorating a garden is a fun process that is rich in creative techniques and creative finds in the transformation of the garden. You can find many options for paths made of stone, both on the Internet and invented on your own, relying entirely on your taste, imagination and sense of style.

Video: Geotextile in a flower bed

Organic bedding

Organic bulk materials include crushed structures of natural origin, such as:

1. Wood chips.
2. Needles.
3. Pine nut shell.
4. Bark of large and small fractions (pine, oak, cedar, etc.).
5. Coniferous cones (whole or crushed).
6. Sawdust and shavings.
7. Peat and compost.
8. Husks of cedar cones.
9. Straw.

Natural free-flowing decor is painted with ecological paints of a wide variety of colors, which absolutely do not pose a danger to soil and plants. But due to their light structure, they are carried away by strong winds, so the top layer should be renewed every year.

Almost all organic dumps are waste from woodworking industries, so they have an affordable cost. Wood material can be protected from rotting with a coating of used engine oil or paint that dries quickly and does not crust. For wood impregnation, a special Pinotex varnish is used.

Important! Sawdust, pine needles and wood chips cannot be used on acidic soils, since they already increase its acidity by absorbing nitrogen. They are recommended to be placed on alkaline substrates when planting heather plants.

Husks and wood chips are suitable for decorating flower beds and garden paths. The tree bark looks spectacular on the alpine hills and among conifers. Compost and peat can be laid on the beds as mulch, but they have no decorative function.

Inorganic backfill

Inorganic free-flowing decor can be natural or artificial.

Among the first, the most popular are:

• quartz sand;
• boulders;
• stones of various fractions (marble chips, granite);
• crushed stone;
• gravel;
• pebbles (river or sea);
• expanded clay;
• seashells (whole and shredded).

Artificial fractions are multicolored stones made of plastic or glass, obtained industrially, as well as films that slow down the growth of weeds, geotextiles and other types of bedding. Synthetic backfill comes in different sizes and shades, but it is not recommended to carry out an embankment on open ground, since over time it causes soil subsidence.

Did you know? At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the Japanese monk Soami erected the world's most famous rock garden on the territory of a Buddhist temple, which is called Ryoan-ji and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Pebbles

Pebbles are natural stones, which in nature are of two types: sea and river. They are small in size, smooth to the touch and rounded. If the material is mixed with colored stones, the landscape takes on special colors. Designers prefer to use sea pebbles more often, because it looks more spectacular than river pebbles.

We bring to your attention various types of flower bed decoration for landscape design.

If the site has clay or sandy soil, it is necessary to lay out a double rate of material on the paths, because it will sink into the soil. To avoid this, the entire path must first be cleared of soil and made of hard soil.

Sand

Fine-grained material is well suited for dumping when arranging a strip foundation. For the garden, sea or river sand is used. However, they also use the one that remains after the processing of quartz, marble, shells, granite and expanded clay. As a rule, when creating landscape compositions, a fraction of one breed is used.

Crushed stone

Crushed stone filling in landscape design is very popular due to the wide range of colors and saturation of colors. It is obtained by mechanical crushing of ore rocks: granite, sandstone, quartzite, limestone, marble, slate, etc.

Gravel

Gravel is a loose sedimentary rock. It can be large, medium and small. When purchasing gravel in a store, it should be borne in mind that acute-angled and smooth rock can be mixed in one batch. The material is used on central garden paths or at the entrance to a summer cottage.

We recommend that you learn about how to use trellises in landscape design.

May be natural or synthetic in bright colors. In addition, the gravel embankment does an excellent job of drainage. The grain sizes are sorted into fractions, but they all range from 0.2 to 7 cm.

Pebble garden paths

River and sea pebbles are excellent material for creating a path in the garden or near the house. According to the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui, rounded stones are ideal for creating paths near the house. Pebbles can be used as a primary or secondary material by combining them with stones, concrete and wood. This material is relatively inexpensive. With its help, you can create original design solutions, while varying the width of the track and its shape.

But there are also a number of disadvantages:

• When laying, you have to dig a trench and reinforce it with curbs.
• If you lay the pebbles using the filling method, then walking along such a path will not be entirely comfortable.
• The pebble path must be systematically trimmed and new material added.
• You can strengthen the pebbles with a concrete mixture, but then the labor intensity and cost of work will increase significantly.
• It is advisable to use a pebble path for zoning a space, but it is not intended for heavy loads.

Dear readers, we talked about the popular options for arranging house paths and paths in the garden. Choose the most optimal one and decorate the space around you with original designs from natural and artificial materials!

Gardening in landscape design - decorative paths

Winding paths can visually enlarge the territory, straight paths can be extended in length, the type of coverage plays an important role. It can be inexpensive plastic garden flooring and natural stone. The review presents the most practical types of coatings used in temperate latitudes.

You can set the direction of movement with a drawing, and draw attention to the colors of the coatings. Garden paths have long turned from commonplace passages to landscape decoration

They not only connect important objects, but also create a mood and atmosphere. A path or path in a garden is not necessarily the shortest distance between points A and B, a path 80 to 120 cm wide so that you can drive with a wheelbarrow. Narrow paths winding through the trees are designed for leisurely walks. Fantasy ones can surround a small artificial reservoir in a divergent spiral

Garden paths have long turned from commonplace passages to landscape decoration. They not only connect important objects, but also create a mood and atmosphere. A path or path in the garden is not necessarily the shortest distance between points A and B, the path is 80 to 120 cm wide so that you can drive with a wheelbarrow. Narrow paths winding through the trees are designed for leisurely walks. Fantasy ones can surround a small artificial reservoir in a diverging spiral.

For the improvement of your site, you can choose any type of paths suitable for both decorative and household purposes

When arranging sidewalks, a slight slope is provided so that melt and rainwater does not accumulate. It is necessary to provide drainage, sand and gravel cushion, then in any weather it will be possible to avoid puddles. The pattern of paved surfaces is drawn in advance to maintain a uniform style of composition. With the help of color combinations, ornaments, they correct the visual perception of straight paths, they become not so primitive.

You can use different types of paths for each zone of the suburban area

Using zoning techniques, they change the width and direction of the paths, colors, and type of coverage. Applying the methods of narrowing and widening the tracks create the illusion of spaciousness in a small area. It is advisable to decorate the area with taste. Experiments are in trend, creativity is encouraged

It is important to express the individuality of each corner of the cottage or country estate

The device of the base of the bed

Geotextiles are laid on the tamped bottom of the trench. This material is quite dense. It will inhibit the growth of plants. As a result, there will be no weeds on the surface of the track. The width of the paths is often determined taking into account the dimensions of the geotextile sheet. This avoids the formation of seam joints, since weeds germinate more intensively in these areas.
A layer of coarse gravel is poured on top. Clay is used to harden the material. It will hold the fractions of the material. The clay is mixed with coarse gravel and then laid in an even layer. It is necessary to ram this and each subsequent layer. Sand can be used to compact coarse gravel. This has the advantage of allowing sand to pass water better than clay, thus avoiding the formation of puddles on the surface of the track. To prevent mixing of this layer and the covering material (fine gravel), another layer of geotextile is laid.

Screed and border

The next step, which allows you to make garden paths from pebbles yourself, is to lay the curb. It can be purchased ready-made, or made by yourself. The second option will save you money, but make you work hard.

To begin with, the formwork is knocked out of the boards in the shape of the future curb.Then the required amount of mortar is poured into the formwork, consisting of one part of cement, one part of crushed stone and two parts of sand. It must be made sufficiently fluid, the product must be dried in the shade, periodically wetting it with water. To avoid sticking, it is necessary to use sand that does not contain clay and stones, and disassemble the mold only after the curb is completely dry.

The finished curb is installed along the edges of the trench, leveling with a level and twine stretched over the pegs. After its leveling, the next stage of preparing the paving of garden paths begins - pouring a concrete substrate.

If possible, it is better to prepare the solution at a time - it will turn out to be the same consistency and will dry out at the same time. To do this, usually take 1 part of cement to 3 parts of sand. The consistency of the solution should be similar to the batter. After casting, the cement layer must dry.

Next, we knead another portion of the solution, observing the same proportions of cement and sand. But the consistency should be made liquid enough so that it can flow. They need to level the substrate so that the height of the garden paths is the same everywhere. The layer should not be too large.

Paving stage

Next comes the most creative stage of paving the path with your own hands - laying out pebbles. You need to start it until the top layer of the screed is completely frozen. If pebbles have been selected for the future mosaic, you should not first lay out the mosaic shapes of one color, and then supplement them with a different color.

At the beginning, pebble mosaic patterns are laid out on a flat surface next to the future path. And only then the mosaic patterns from the pebbles are transferred to the concrete that has not completely hardened. This will allow you to avoid a typical mistake when laying a mosaic of garden paths or other decorative elements with your own hands - non-observance of the proportions of the pattern, as a result of which it turns out to be blurry and unaesthetic.

If the pebble paths are laid out without a pattern, the work is simplified. It is necessary to monitor the level at which the stones are located. In addition, it is worth first laying large stones, and filling the space between them with a small fraction.

The next stage of work on the independent creation of garden paths is to make a draft. To do this, you need to use boards, cut to the size of the track, and a hammer, preferably with a rubber bump. After leveling, the pebble paths are covered with a film and left in this state until the cement dries.

In principle, it is possible to complete the construction of the tracks at this stage. But many people prefer to level the space between the pebbles laid out and frozen in the solution. For this, a solution is made. It should be liquid and high in cement. The cracks between the pebbles are filled with it.

However, another option is no less popular - the stones are not poured with mortar at the seams, on the contrary - the gaps are left to drain water during the rain. For the same purpose, gaps of 2-3 centimeters wide are left between the first row of stones and the curb. Sometimes curbs of a special shape are made or purchased - with a water-diverting furrow.

In general, making pebble paths without involving construction specialists is a very real task. At the same time, it is associated with a large volume of physical labor. It can be made easier by using modern building mechanisms and ready-made materials.