Maybe a little like my own body, my garden lacks definition.
Although the veg garden fenced off, the muddy track down the middle is a haven for weeds and general messiness. I decided that I would use the free slabs I got back in the winter to add some paths and try to make it look a bit tidier.
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| The garden did look a bit wishy-washy and weedy |
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| The slabs make it easy to see the divides and to see where I should be weeding |
I was quite pleased to get around 80 slabs down today (although I can feel it now), and although I know they're settle yet and move a bit when it rains, it's really changed the whole feel of the garden. In fact now it feels like a proper garden!
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| Quite a long stretch up there! |
Quite pleased with my days work today. Anyone else have experience of laying slabs on dirt and how they fair?
Envious is THE word
ReplyDeleteI love a freebee but I did have to pick them up on a cold winters night. I'm so glad I did though as I bet they would have cost a fortune to buy this many!
DeleteNice work!
ReplyDeleteThey will sink and you will have to re lay them, but will be ok for a year or more in my experience - ours ( the ones along the polytunnel into the wood - remember?) need re doing now and have been down for ( thinks) 3 years?
A path is an esential on our heavy clay soil :-)
Yeah the clay soil can get a little sticky! I don't mind packing them up every few years. Next time they might even get some stone under them!
DeleteNoe your little girl needs an electric car...the path would make a great race track!
ReplyDeleteWe've been tarting up our patch this year...it looks so much nicer even with the small amount we've done. Yours is looking very professional!
Jane x
I think with the slope it might be a little dangerous as I think she would reach quite a speed by the time she got the bottom!
DeleteNext job is garden gates and herb garden I've gotta try to keep on top of it all this year!
They start to rot rather quickly, but you can always look under them for fishing bait!
ReplyDeleteYeah a good place to find worms! These are concrete slabs so they should out last me if they dont sink!
DeleteOr are they STONE slabs?
ReplyDeleteGreat job on garden path Kev, I think it looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tania! I think it might look better in the photo than in real life though!
DeleteSlabs straight onto soil never worked for me, every rainy season they wash out underneath and look like the Mountains of Mourne. All my pathways are concrete. I'll admit, slabs look much, much nicer than plain concrete but you can get a product called cretestain http://www.decocem.co.za/Cretestain.html which permanently stains the concrete in a variety of colours and finishes. If you impress the concrete to give the appearance of tiles, you can recreate what looks like a terracotta pathway at a fraction of the cost. Not sure if you can get a similar product in UK though, mine came from the supplier in SA.
ReplyDeleteI've seen those things your on about and they're meant to work well. These were much cheaper than concrete (free) so thats why I chose them. I doubt our rain comes down as hard as it does in your rainy season. These are on to clay so in the summer its rock hard.
DeleteThe path looks great, Kev. Putting slabs straight on to our heavy clay soil has worked just fine. And, as you say, it makes it easy to change your mind later and move them around.
ReplyDeleteCheers for the comment. I think they will move a bit (our soil is heavy clay as well) but I can cope with it. It would have made it far too bigger job to do it properly.
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