We asked a local contractor to build a covering over the doors and he did a nice job. Now it was our turn to finish the path. He would have poured concrete for us, but I worried that there may be water issues with concrete. I wanted a more porous surface so water could drain, yet have a hard surface for people to approach the front doors.
We decided to shift the flagstones closer together and so we needed more of them to fill in the spaces left behind. We leveled them without using sand, a level and screeding under the flagstones because we are lazy.
Next we dug around the flagstones to allow for a few inches of crushed rock. We placed treated 2x4s along the sides of the path to hold the rock in place. Lee cut and pounded in some wooden stakes to hold the wood in place and then screwed the stakes to the boards.
We went to the Landscape Store and got a ton of crusher run (also called crush and run) in the back of the pick up. You heard me, a ton. So no wondering why my hands are hurting this morning. Crusher run is crunched up rock of various sizes, all the way down to powder. This allows it to compact and get quite hard, yet it allows water to soak through. It is frequently used for driveways.
Lee filled the Mule and drove to where I was waiting and dumped it a small load at a time. The truck is too big to get through the gates. The dump bed on the Mule is a great help in these kind of projects.
We had enough leftover to spread around the water room door and the flagstones we put there. When we bought the house there was nothing in front of the water room door and dirt splashed up on it every time it rained. We hope this will make it dryer and cleaner in there.
We may add another ton or so to the side path. We hadn't planned on it as it isn't the main entrance, but now it looks like we forgot something.
This project took three days, what with driving back and forth to the Landscape Store for stones and crushed rock. But mostly because we had to stop and go volunteer at the library for a few hours, give blood in the bloodmobile there and ....wait for it...prepare for our second group of guests! Yay for Airbnb!
We still need about 4 truck loads of mulch around all of the gardens and we may plant some flowering plants around the entrance..
Any suggestion for flowering plants that thrive on poor soil and benign neglect?
That's what I need also: flowers and other plantings that will thrive in lousy soil and won't need a lot of attention. Your new entrance looks very nice!
ReplyDeleteYou could plant some flowering bushes... we have some at the front of our house and do nothing to them... total neglect, and they do well. I think they are some kind of azalea bushes. On the other hand, you may have guests that are highly allergic to flowery fragrances, so you may want to consider that as well. Talk to one of the gals at the plant area at Southern States and see what they say.
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