Walk my way

Southern Living, Sep 1997 by Thigpen, Charlie

If you want to get a visitor's attention, work on your front entry. It will give your yard instant appeal.

Last year I put in a new sidewalk and planted a few flowers and shrubs. Now everyone who pulls up to the house tells me the yard looks great. Well, truth be known, the rest of my yard belongs to my son and my dogs, but people tend to focus on the walk.

The landing at the end of the steps was a 5- x 5-foot brick pad, edged in rotten railroad ties. Wanting to do away with the small landing, I created a walk that extended along the driveway and made the front steps more accessible. I tore out the old pad and dug out the soil where the new sidewalk would go, then replaced the railroad ties with a low, stacked-stone wall. The stone was salvaged from a nearby construction site.

I purchased 1 yard of crushed stone for $17 at the local hardware store and used it as a base to level the pavers. Crushed stone is a good choice because it won't sift away like sand, and chipmunks and moles have a hard time burrowing through the sharp-edged stone, unlike the easily tunneled sand.

Then I set pavers on top of the crushed stone. Ten gray pavers, purchased from a local garden center for $50, create a diamond pattern in the center of the walk. I used old red pavers (discovered in the backyard where an old patio had been covered by ivy) to edge the diamonds. Next, I filled in the gap between the pavers and the driveway with gravel and added good topsoil along the stacked-stone wall.

Once the pavers were in place, I built a rustic arbor at the end of the walk to draw guests up the steps. The arbor cost me about $4 for a couple of long bolts. The rest of the materials (scrap lumber and rusted tin) came from a friend's farm.

For less than $100 I had completed the walk and arbor. Now it was time to dig a little further into my pockets and buy plants.

To minimize the cost, I transplanted a few shrubs, ferns, and perennials from around the yard and strategically planted them along the walk. Annuals weave through the plantings to add a blast of color. Red, orange, bronze, and white mums provide plenty of punch in the fall. To get a lengthy bloom, I planted the mums while they were tightly budded and before they showed any color.

When these photographs were taken, the walk and plantings were only five months old, but they had a very aged and loose look. This was achieved by using the rusted tin on the arbor and using tall perennials, such as swamp sunflower and Mexican bush sage, along the walk. Trailing plants spill over the low wall to soften the hard edge.

I really don't know how much the planting cost because it's ongoing. I'm constantly trying something new. Plants that can't find their way in the ground are quickly potted and placed in containers along the walk or on the steps. These potted plants seem to have feet because they're moved here and there to create different looks.

Even though the hardscape is complete, the planting will go on. Maybe one day I'll get around to working on the rest of my yard, but for now I've found a good way to fool my friends.

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