materials to do a walkway on the cheap?

5 gallon buckets with broken or busted bags of quikrete from home depot or lowes or your favorite home stuff store. Go in and ask them for any broken bags of concrete. They give them away here. 5 gallon buckets make a nice stepping stone if you fill them 2-3" with quikrete. then, plant dwarf mondo grass between them. that stuff doesn't spread nearly as bad as the big stuff and looks good too. and you won't have to mow it or trim it. Not labor free but almost cost free. the mondo grass will grow just about anywhere.

I have wood mulch with concrete stepping stones (12" $1.39 at PX) but our two dogs avoid the stones and wear a path into the dirt in the mulch, so I need to replace mulch where they run more often. I laid down cardboard when I first put in the mulch and have gotten rid of the stray grass over time. Just beware the dogs may plow through your plants if they don't like the stuff on the path.

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I know you said no rock....but......my neighbor has built beautiful stone walls and such without spending a penny. He just keeps his eyes open, especially when driving past construction site and such and picks them up. If he were to buy them all I bet it would have been over $3000, he spent nothing. Once you have the first few you could put them in like stepping stones, then just slowly fill it in as you find rocks.

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.............Whatever material you decide upon , I'd definitely use that metal edging too define the path , it comes with the metal stakes so it will stay in place . , fordy

3/4" Minus size crushed rock works very well for stabilizing and preventing erosion. It only takes an inch or two to make a big difference. Just spread it out and walk on it. Over time it will work it's way down into the soil until it's level. Any weeds that try to come up can be stepped on as you walk.

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a guy here is using left over shingles he gets for free....he has also used carpet cut to width.

Rotomill (ground up pavement) could be spread and rolled on the pathway. Cuts erosion and make a solid surface to walk on.

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I like the idea of using the mulch, but maybe stepping stones on top. It'd blend with your wood siding AND your cement patio.

This is an excellent idea!!!!

You could also make your own mold for pouring and shaping your stones. If I'm not mistaken, they also sell decorative molds too.

I have a walk way made from ferro cement that Old Bear made for many years ago. What he did was to put down wire and put quick crete cement over it and trouled it smooth. No forms and only about 3 inches tall. It will not last for a road but to be a foot path it is good to have.

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Oh! That's a good idea! I like that....it'd be more natural, not so round and smooth and all-the-same. You could shape them a bit more like stepping stones, etc. Do you NEED the wire on the back? What purpose does it have? What did he form them on that they didn't stick to it?

On what I described you need the wire to hold the cement together if it cracks. No formed just trouled to what you want it to be. It is high in the center and narrow on the outside. If you shovel out an inch or two and use that you will have enough concrete at the edges to hold up under foot traffic. Do not run a car over it or it will crack. You can make any pattern on top. What I wanted was a broom finish on mine so that it would not become slick.

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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

WOW! This is a great thread! Good question and great answers. AS a lady(?)in her dotage I found that my best bet was the method mentioned already. I have clay soil too and three or four dogs here that go out through the dog doors(winter time is the problem), get muddy feet and then tear in through the dog yard, the dog doors, across my kitchen and into the dining room. This route made a mud trail through my narrow kitchen. It was the pits!

So, I put down the landscape cloth(which I already had) right down the side of the house where it got so muddy, landscape clothed the dog yard too and called for a load of gravel. Once distributed that took care of my muddy kitchen and made things so much nicer around here.

If you pick the type of gravel carefully, it will pack nicely and the dogs will walk on it just fine unless they have tender feet like some breeds do who have pink feet.

I like this method as I could pretty much do most of it little by little by myself. Good luck with things.

LQ

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