Down the Garden Path

Welcome to our picket fence and arbor my husband and I built last year. The cutting and glueing of the multiple pieces of wood that went into the curve at the top was an experience that tested the strength of our marriage like nothing else. Truly. Well, that and a certain winter car trip from Chicago to Seattle, but that is another story . . .

We are very happy with our white picket fence and arbor. We have 2 different types of climbing roses that we are training up over it and they have taken off this year - I hope to get them over the arbor by the end of the summer. But there is no pathway from the arbor to the front door. During the fall, we redid our front lawn (well, okay, it was 90% weeds/10% lawn) from scratch and now it is lush and green. We did lay down landscaping material down before we seeded to protect our path-to-be. It is held in place with bricks and stones. Besides getting a cottage garden growing strong, my goal by the end of summer is to lay a path.

This is going to be another do-it-ourselves project. I have been looking at all sorts of projects, including pouring concrete into molds, like this cobblestone path project featured by Lowes, or making our own molds by making some forms out of wood, pouring concrete right into shapes cut into the ground, or spending the big bucks for stones from a big box store. I want this path relatively wide, so if I used a mold, I would lay it double-wide. If any of you have laid your own path, I would love some advice and to hear about your experience.