Every Path Begins With The First Stone

As I set to the job of digging my allotment it was not long before I came across a stone and then another and another. Before long a pile was starting to grow. The pile could grow and become a cairn but that not much use on an allotment. I decided that a path would be the proper use of the stones. I purchase some 1 1/2 inch square, foot long marking out pegs and 6x1inch by 12 foot boards an set up the classic two foot wide path down the centre of the plot. Next I dug out all the weed from the border area that was to be the path and tamped the ground down hard. That gave me an area 2 foot wide 4inches deep and eventually 90 feet long. Every time I found a stone it got lobbed into the path. 18 months on and I have a "gravel" path, free of charge. It really has tickled me. I have a path, I have got the materials free, it is nice and dry to walk on and I have not had to "loose" a ton of pebbles. Talk about a win win situation!

The stones are all sizes from ones I can just about pick up to smooth, river washed pebbles. None that I thought were special enough to go in my pocket. Then there are the lumps of coal, concrete and bricks shards. It is not as bad as it sounds but there are a lot. I have only a little area to dig over so I guess there will be a few more stones to be had. However this is not going to be enough to finish the path to an even depth along it's whole length. I think I will end up moving barrow loads from the deep end to fill out the thinner bits. It's going to be a labour of love. Have you ever tried to shovel up stones. It's near impossible. So on a day when I am looking for some Zen like thing to calm my mind I shall load stones one at a time into my barrow before carting them off to where I think they are needed. There will nothing Zen about tipping them. Out they will go and get kicked about until they approximate a flat surface.

The autumn digging and winter rains have brought a new flush of stones to the surface. More for the path but its not very many. I must have been very diligent in the first round of digging.

The path needs a little bit of mending. The force on one of the panels on one small section of the path border has been too much and pulled the nails out of the post. I will have to repair it this winter. I need to rake back the stones in the area dig out the soil so that board can come back into position to re-nail the board. This time with longer nails. Then it just case of putting the soil back and the stones. That will keep me out of mischief for an hour.