Making Garden Walks That Fit the Place— By Werner Boecklin, ?~ k 



THIS ARTICLE TELLS HOW TO USE TO THE BEST PURPOSE THE VARIOUS MATERIALS 

 COMMONLY EMPLOYED — SOME IDEAS OF THE PROPER METHODS IN RELATION TO COST 



HOW wide? Where? Of what ma- 

 terial? These are the three pri- 

 mary questions to be decided in 

 making the permanent walk in the 

 garden. And every garden must have some 

 sort of walk. A simple earth walk may do 

 for the vegetable garden but not for the 

 main approach from the street; and a grass 

 walk will not stand hard usage. Indeed 

 the walk must be "made" if it is to last 

 and a well made walk adds greatly to the 

 character and general appearance of the 

 garden. 



The width will vary according to location 

 and purpose. Appearances suggest a mini- 

 mum of thirty inches and a maximum of 

 sixty inches. Four or five feet is usually 

 correct for the main walk, and three may be 

 laid on a narrow piece of ground or in a 

 secondary location. 



The direction for the walk is largely a 

 matter of personal judgment, but remember 

 above all that a path must be rational, must 

 have a reason for its location, and to twist 

 just for the sake of twisting is poor design. 

 A straight line may be as beautiful as a 

 curve. The walk should go to its destina- 

 tion interestingly. 



In materials there is a large choice. Dur- 

 ability and appearance have to be consid- 

 ered, not to speak of the matter of first cost 

 which varies greatly. 



The fact that a material may not be 

 adapted to the house architecture or to the 

 character of the ground is rarely considered, 

 or we should not see the colonial house with 

 smooth finish cement walks! 



The gravel walk is associated in our minds 

 with colonial houses, English and Dutch 

 cottage homes and old fashioned gardens. 

 Gravel is not the sole ingredient in a suc- 

 cessfully built walk of this type. In some 

 a sub-base of broken stones, from two to 

 four inches thick, is placed and on this cin- 

 ders are spread sufficient to completely 

 fill the interstices and leave a depth of one 

 inch above the stone to be filled with gravel 

 mixed with clay or a clay loam. The cinder 

 layer must be rolled and given a uniform 

 surface before the gravel is added, and a 

 final rolling given the gravel to thoroughly 

 compact it. Or omit the stone base, put 

 in a two inch layer of cinders and compact 

 well, using plenty of water in the process. 

 On this place the gravel and roll as before. 

 If the gravel varies much in size, say from £ 

 inch in diameter to if inches, separate into 

 two piles by screening and place the coarse 

 for a bottom layer using the fine, which will 

 probably contain a percentage of sand, for 

 the top layer. Clay loam, or preferably 

 clay without any admixture of humus, is 

 essential as a "binder". Clean gravel, 

 when used without such a binder, is soon 

 scattered over the adjoining lawn. Clay 

 should be added, possibly 5 per cent, to act 

 as a binder. All paths built of loose ma- 

 terials must first be trenched to the required 

 depth and the edges trued before the ma- 

 terials are put in position. A gravel walk 



as above described will cost about eight 

 cents per square foot. 



Cinders alone are frequently used for 

 paths. Ashes from the house furnace are de- 

 cidedly inferior, being light and very dusty. 

 On grades where the wash of storms is 

 excessive, cinder paths are not satisfactory. 

 The washing out of material may in such a 

 case be checked by giving the path a heavy 

 crown at the centre and building gutters 

 of brick or cobbles. To excavate a walk 

 trench four inches deep, cast away the ex- 

 cavated material, and furnish, place and 

 roll the cinders, will cost about two cents 

 a square foot. 



Crushed trap rock makes a serviceable 

 path, but the stone lacks binding qualities 

 and makes rather unpleasant walking unless 

 screenings, the dust from the crusher, are 

 applied as a finishing coat. This results in 

 a dusty path which has its disadvantages. 

 The if inch stone for the bottom course 

 laid three inches thick with enough screen- 

 ings mixed in to bind when watered and 

 rolled, gives a substantial foundation for a 

 1 inch course of the f inch size, which may 

 be laid either with or without screenings. 



Superior to the trap, both structurally 

 and in appearance, is the path of crushed 

 limestone, sometimes called blue stone, for 

 when wet and rolled it cements together 

 and gives a smooth walking surface. Use 

 if inch size for the bottom course, mak- 

 ing it about three inches thick, and on this 

 spread a i-inch layer of the f inch size, 

 finishing with a sprinkling of fine stone 

 known as "grits", spread over the top. 

 Grits may be bought or obtained by hand 

 screening the f inch size with a f inch mesh 

 screen. During construction, the successive 

 layers are of course sprinkled by means of a 

 hose or watering can and well rolled. To 

 keep any of these loose material paths in 

 condition requires a periodical addition of 

 top dressing. Such walks should also be 

 rolled occasionally ; raking the surface every 

 Saturday afternoon with a wooden rake is 

 detrimental, since this loosens the bond 

 and helps the rains to carry off greater 

 quantities of the top dressing. 



On a path of this kind made of second 

 hand bottom stone at $2.00 a team load and 

 top stone at $6.00 a load, where the screen- 

 ings were separated from the bottom to be 

 spread and rolled, and the fine lime was 

 separated by hand screen and spread on top, 

 the cost came to 7f cents per square foot. 

 The trench was four inches deep. 



Before cement came so universally into 

 use as a sidewalk material, blue stone flag- 

 ging was used extensively. Such a walk 

 will outlast any garden and requires a mini- 

 mum amount of attention. A walk of this 

 kind should be laid by an expert as more or 

 less chipping of the edges is required to 

 secure as nearly closed joints as possible and 

 on curves the stones must be cut radially to 

 fit. Cement is sometimes used in the joints 

 but a good workman can set the stones so 

 closely that no cement is needed. To fur- 



296 



nish the stones and set in a shallow sand or 

 cinder bed will cost about thirty-five cents 

 per square foot of walk. 



A modification of this walk is that with 

 irregular flagging set with if inch spaces 

 between the edges of stone which spaces 

 are filled with soil and sown in grass. The 

 treatment is not adapted to every situation. 

 Stones of these irregular shapes are second 

 hand and can usually be bought at a low 

 figure. 



Cement is the material of all others most 

 extensively used in modern walks. But 

 little originality has been displayed in its 

 use however. Nearly everybody follows a 

 well established precedent and puts in the 

 conventional uninteresting smooth-finished- 

 colored-with-lamp-black walk. 



As usually built cement walks present a 

 stone like appearance smooth in finish, with 

 joints from three to five feet apart. The 

 best ones have a cinder foundation 18 inches 

 or 2 feet below the ground level, upon 

 which the concrete is placed. The object 

 of deep foundations is to get below the frost 

 action. Cheaper construction provides a 

 depth of cinders of 8 to 1 2 inches. Concrete 

 in the proportion of 1 cement, 3 sand, and 5 

 broken stone, termed 1:3:5, or a stronger 

 mixture, 1:2:4, is placed on the cinder base 

 and well rammed to a depth of three inches. 

 On this is placed a finishing coat in a semi- 

 fluid state one inch in thickness and consist- 

 ing of 1 part cement to 2 parts sand. This 

 is leveled off with a wooden straight edge 

 resting on the side forms, and after a proper 

 interval of time the surface is troweled. 

 By using a wooden "float" a rough finish is 

 given to the walk, more interesting in ap- 

 pearance, besides producing a surface safer 

 to walk on in wet and freezing weather. 

 Sand joints are made at varying distances 

 to prevent the walk from cracking as a re- 

 sult of uneven settlement. 



An interesting effect may be produced by 

 adding beach pebbles to the finishing coat. 

 By allowing the cement to set for about six 

 hours and then rubbing the surface first 

 with an ordinary building brick and then 

 with a steel brush at the same time flushing 

 with a stream of water, the cement is washed 

 from about the pebbles, exposing them 

 sufficiently to give the effect seen in a con- 

 glomerate stone. The cost of ordinary 

 cement walks varies according to the local- 

 ity and the specifications from 15 to 25 

 cents per square foot. 



Bricks, when hard burned and well laid, 

 make one of the most satisfactory of walks 

 for the private place. Here again I em- 

 phasize the need of expert labor in doing the 

 work. Because a man is a mason, it does 

 not follow that he knows how to lay a brick 

 walk. 



A very satisfactory brick walk may be 

 laid dry, that is, without the use of cement 

 mortar. Having provided a substantial 

 foundation of broken stone, cinders, or sand, 

 a bed at least one inch thick of sand is care- 

 fully leveled to the grade and form the walk 



