Recycling A Stone Walkway Into A Patio

Our old stone walkway in the front of the house was very cute but it wasn't at all functional.  Mark uncovered it after we moved into the house in 1998.  It had previously grown over with grass and dirt.  For the past few years we've planted impatiens and petunias beside it, but it took a lot to maintain it.  The stones, in many places, were broken, and we didn't really recommend that anybody walk on it.  Besides, most people enter our house from the side, through our kitchen.

Over the winter of 2002-2003, Mark decided he'd take up the stone walkway, fill it in with dirt, and cover it over with grass seed or sod.  But what to do with about 80 square feet of stone?  The space on the east side of our garage has always been awful.  How about 'recycling' the stone into a small patio so we can watch the kids play in the backyard?  There wouldn't be much expense involved, but it would be a lot of physical labor.

Below you can see that Mark has already removed almost 3/4 of the stone walkway and filled most of it in with dirt from the east side of the garage.  The sod was transplanted from the backyard since Ann decided to expand her veggie and perennial gardens.

Here's the east side of our garage.  The garage is as old as the house (1941) and leans a bit.  The bottom boards are a bit rotted due to dirt being pushed up against the garage over the years.  Mark dug out the dirt (and small pebbles) which sat next to the garage so that the stones could be below the grade.  Mark put in a buffer of small stones that go out several inches from the base of the garage.

Isabel has been helping out.  She helped Mark put together 'the puzzle'.  Tonight we are just filling in the cracks with pebbles and sand.

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