Walkway

The course I am taking at UA and this blog are really helping me to make decisions about our front garden. Breaking the whole front into sections makes it seem manageable, and writing on here, placing sticky notes in gardening books  and pinnig pics to Pinterest has helped me match budget and dream.

One area that we are ready to move forward on is the walkway. Right now when arriving at our home a visitor must squeeze between all of our cars/boats/4-wheeler trailer to get to a short walkway next to the house connecting the driveway to the courtyard. You know, builder basic.

When we began the planning we had no real plans, just a vision of a path to the courtyard. We also had no firm budget or idea of the costs of things.

Mister wanted something made of stone, with moss growing in the cracks and a rustic and natural look.

 

 

Beautilful. Just beautiful. And very expensive. Out of our budget - our walkway would be much longer than the one shown, and of course we would want to have other large rocks laying about like in the picture. 

Then we thought about pea-gravel. It is affordable, easy to maintain, and attractive. We visited a friend who has gravel paths throughout her garden. We sat in her garden and pondered....

What the pea-gravel needed was some large rocks to make it more wow. We ruled that out because what we were really saying was we liked rocks better than gravel- but our budget didn't.

Next we thought about paving the walkway. It would lead to easy access to our courtyard and blend with the driveway. We actually like the idea of a paved walkway. With rocks.

We couldn't get away from rocks. It is more than fatuation...it is love.

Check out what our future walkway will resemble:

 

 



The slope goes downhill from our driveway to our courtyard and front door. We are going to have the flat areas paved with concrete and use rocks at the steps like in the photo above. Love it!

We plan to use the same rocks as used in the steps as a retaining wall/barrier in front of the cement girl. So excited that our front garden is coming together. I know there is nothing to show for it, but we have made a decision!

You may recall I was concerned about wheelchair access to the courtyard. We plan to widen the builder walkway next to the house so that family in wheelchairs can bypass the steps but still enter through the front door. Of course, if one wants to brave the garage that is a no step entry to our home.

I have called a three people to come out and give us quotes on doing the walkway and I have to submit a plan of the walkway to our neighborhood POA, but it feels as if we are on our way to our dream garden.