Is my landscape gardener leadýng me up the garden path?
David J James
cotswold 'stone' paving slabs on flat concrete in a large square path all
the way round my garden about 5 foot off the fence all the way round.
He tells me that this is to thin and that the 1 foot by one foot tiles will
not be stable enough and will come out of the base after a while. He tells
me to forget the one by ones and do the whole thing in 2 foot by 18 inch
tiles, which will give the required stability.
I have four questions and would be grateful for some response:
1) Is this correct? Should I forget about the one by ones?
2) How much should laying a path 100 feet long cost? I provide the slabs but
not the underlying materials, I want it dead flat but the garden is quite
flat already. (It is not far from Heathrow airport, visible about four
minutes after take-off most days.)
3) Is it correct that one should first lay the path and only later add
topsoil to bring the rest of the garden flush with the path?
4) Is it correct that one should start laying the path by the house, work
backwards into the garden and get the two sides to meet at the end of the
garden?
Thanks in advance for your comments
David
3)
G.G.
<dav...@kki.net.pl> wrote:
> I asked a landscape gardener to lay for me some (112) 12 inch square
> cotswold 'stone' paving slabs on flat concrete in a large square path all
> the way round my garden about 5 foot off the fence all the way round.
>
> He tells me that this is too thin and that the 1 foot by one foot tiles will
> not be stable enough and will come out of the base after a while. He tells
> me to forget the one by ones and do the whole thing in 2 foot by 18 inch
> tiles, which will give the required stability.
>
> I have four questions and would be grateful for some response:
>
> 1) Is this correct? Should I forget about the one by ones?
If you're using a concrete footing that's properly installed, as I believe
you mean to do, then I should think you could pave it with just about
anything. As long as the footing is flat and level, the pavers on top of
it shouldn't tip or be "unstable." That's the whole point of using a
concrete footing. (I don't know what the climate and soil are like where
you live, but perhaps you don't even need such a serious foundation for
such a narrow path... have you considered just using the pavers as
stepping stones in a sand/gravel bed?)
>
> 2) How much should laying a path 100 feet long cost? I provide the slabs but
> not the underlying materials, I want it dead flat but the garden is quite
> flat already. (It is not far from Heathrow airport, visible about four
> minutes after take-off most days.)
Sorry, I've no idea what this would go for in England. But making it flat
is a standard expectation and you shouldn't get any extra charge for it.
>
> 3) Is it correct that one should first lay the path and only later add
> topsoil to bring the rest of the garden flush with the path?
The path should be sunk into the garden so that the pavers rise above the
topsoil level about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm?), to prevent rainwater from washing
soil onto the path, and to generally keep the path from puddling up. The
usual way to do this is to dig out the pathway, insert edging boards to
hold back the garden soil, and build the path (of concrete, gravel, etc.)
between the edgings. You shouldn't need to add topsoil unless your
garden is lacking it (i.e. this is not connected to building the path) but
if you do add it, it's probably more convenient to wait till the path is
laid.
>
> 4) Is it correct that one should start laying the path by the house, work
> backwards into the garden and get the two sides to meet at the end of the
> garden?
The concrete should all be poured the same day, so it doesn't matter where
you start. Regardless of the building material, as long as the path is
properly planned out in advance, you can start building it anywhere along
the way.
>
> Thanks in advance for your comments
>
> David
I've learned a ton from library books; I strongly recommend a visit! I
hope I haven't engendered too much cross-cultural confusion. Good luck
and happy gardening :-)
--
G.G.
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