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How to Make a Gravel Path

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Garden paths and walkways add a lot to the look of your yard. Whether you want to make a gravel path leading to your front door or a walk way through your backyard garden, paths are awesome additions to your yard. Here’s how to make a gravel pathway.


 

How to make a gravel path in your yard.

 

 

Here’s the “before” picture of our yard. See that flower bed leading down to our barn?

I created a perennial flower bed and filled it with irises, Jacob’s Ladder, sedums other perennials.

We also planted a couple of apple trees there. Here’s how to plant fruit trees, if you want to add one to your yard.

 

How to make a gravel path for your yard. DIY garden walkway project. A path for the front yard or a garden path for the backyard. Landscaping DIY project for side yards. Step by step instructions. #path #garden #walkways #sideyards #landscaping

After that part of our DIY backyard project, we decided to add a gravel path that would take us down to the barn.

A path here would work to tie in all the landscaping elements of the Greenhouse, perennial flower beds and our main vegetable garden.

 

How to Make a Gravel Path

 

A machine removes the sod to a depth of about six inches.

 

 

Prepare the ground for gravel

Don’t let this photo scare you! You do NOT need a machine this big.

Heck you don’t even need a machine, you can do it by hand. Chances are your walkway won’t be as long and wide as ours.

Graham has an excavator, so he uses it a lot here for doing all kinds of work. He used it on this path way to dig out the grass.

He went down to a depth of about 10 inches.

You can likely get away with removing the sod and soil under the sod to a depth of 6 inches.

We went over board because we wanted to make sure the couch grass was totally destroyed on this path.

 

Raking the ground level to make a gravel path

 

 

After the sod has been dug out, you should level the ground as much as you possibly can. Even out any humps and dips using a rake.

Add soil to the low spots if needed. Taking your time on this step will pay off in the end.

A flat and level path way is what you want!

 

Edging the Garden Pathway

 

Plastic edging ready to be used for edging when you make a gravel path.

 

 

You will want something to edge your walk way with. If you don’t edge it, chances are the gravel will eventually spill over onto the lawn or into your flower beds.

We used landscape edging, but you could use concrete pavers or wood boards cut to length.

 

Landscape fabric cloth for under the gravel path

 

Landscape cloth being put down to keep weeds out from the gravel path.

 

 

Because we want this pathway to stay as weed free as possible, we first laid down landscape cloth. This cloth helps stop weeds from growing up through the gravel.

We actually used two layers of this cloth because we have such a problem here with couchgrass.

It is notorious for spreading and I can’t stand the stuff.

I would spend a LOT less time weeding if proper lawn seed had been sown here when our house was built.

If you want to literally save hours, I totally recommend using the landscape cloth.

 

What kind of Gravel to use for the walk way?

 

Gravel that has been crushed to build the gravel path.

 

 

We used what is called 1/2 inch clear crush for our walk way. At the gravel pit, rocks bounce along a screen.

In this case a 1/2 inch screen. Larger rocks get carried along and deposited elsewhere.

Any rock under 1/2 inch falls through the holes in the screen. This is basically how gravel pits separate the rock sizes.

 

One half inch crushed gravel being used to make the pathway

 

 

Just to give you a better idea as to the size of the gravel we used. This size is called 1/2 inch clear crush.

This means the rocks are under 1/2 inch in size. You can also get 3/4 inch clear crush.

The best thing would be for you to visit the gravel pit and look at the various sizes.

They will have them separated in bins and labelled so you can tell which is which.

 

Before adding gravel, lay down landscape fabric

 

 

You can see the size of the path way project in this photo. We not only made the walking path down to the barn, but decided also to branch off and add a gravel path to the Greenhouse we built (for under $200!).

After laying the landscape cloth down, we installed the path edging, then started adding the gravel crush to the path.

 

Our finished garden path project

 

The path after gravel is laid, with edging and perennial flowers along side

 

 

Doesn’t this walk way look better now? Especially with all the perennials blooming in the flower bed!

The white blooming flowers are perennial Baby’s Breath. The Irises have finished blooming and the Sedums are growing. They will bloom in the Fall.

 

How to make a gravel path for your front yard or back yard.

 

 

Another photo of the completed gravel walk way. All these years later, this garden path has stood up very well.

The odd weed now gets through those two layers of cloth, but they are much easier to pull because they are so weak.

 

Here's a DIY weekend landscape project. Build a garden pathway. Great for side yards and soggy wet yards too. Fix your yard with a path. #DIYgardenproject #gardenpaths #gardenwalkways #entrypath #frontyard #backyard

 

We are still delighted with this DIY backyard project!

Add value to your home and beauty to your backyard or front yard entry way and make a gravel path.

Want to read about how to make a new flower bed for the sun?

Here’s how to make a flower bed for the shade.

Have a bush or shrub that needs to be transplanted?

Need to prune shrubs but not sure how? Here’s what you need to know about pruning bushes and shrubs.

 

Want to find out which are The 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow?

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Filed Under: Flowers, How To

Comments

  1. Mindy Jollie says

    at

    I like how your gravel path turned out! My husband and I have been wanting to put a pathway in our yard. We’ve been torn between paver stones and gravel.

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