Garden Change: Crazy Paving Gone Bad

The stone crazy-paving front walk is no more.

The front walk became a constant garden chore. I had laboriously weeded a crazy patchwork of fieldstones that we installed years ago. For a long time it looked pretty good with the original sandy mortar joints. Following the example of a neighbor at my old city neighborhood, we used sand mixed with some cement mix.

Then, as the walk weathered and grew weedy (more often than not) we tried cementing the cracks between the crazy paving. That did not work well. It only seemed to make it harder to weed. Because, yes, the weeds found purchase within the hairline cracks between the stones and the cement.

I don’t use herbicide, which many a modern Gardener would try next.

After my health took a turn, arthritis made keeping up impossible. Garden change became inevitable, and we took out the entire stone walk. The lavender hedge I had loved was long gone after some particularly hard winters. So, it was only a matter of getting rid of the stones, which were stored in piles.

Fortunately, the weed of worst repute in my yard was grass. (Remember, this was originally a loamy prairie). so the fix was to simply return the path to grass which is easily mowed and a walkway that protects from the muddy season that can last from thawed winter to later summer.

Another move to lower maintenance in an aging yard with a now-aged Gardener.

Garden Walk Gallery

Here are some pictures from the walkway heyday:

It was a beautiful feature, but one with drawbacks. Besides the constant weed wars and workload, I remember my mother-in-law refusing to walk on it. It was only in recent years that I have come to understand how disquieting (to put it mildly) an uneven walk becomes to an elderly person. It also is almost impossible to clear from snow due to its uneven surfaces.

I don’t hate this type of walk, it worked for me for many years, and there was something very charming about Dahlberg daisies coming up in the cracks or violets or the occasional Shirley poppy. From my photos, you can see that it was once a hardscape feature that added to the personality of my country garden.

It is not something I would now recommend for a main walk to the front door!

The Drawbacks of a Stone Crazy Paving Walk:

• First and foremost is the constant need for weeding upkeep. Any type of mortar for the cracks, whether sand or concrete based eventually leaves room for weed growth. I do not like herbicide control of such spaces (bad for the environment).
• Uneven surface of undressed stones. The uneven surface meant that the walk felt unsafe for elderly visitors.
• Difficult surface for snow removal in a Northern climate.

These are the main drawbacks, although there were other minor  ones.  I used this type of walk because it was economical, but for the long run, it was not a good choice.