Monday, August 20, 2012

Project Side/Back Yard: Part 3

 

If you are a new reader or just missed the first two parts of project side/back yard, you can check out part one here and part two here.

Today we are talking about the concrete pathway. I knew we would need something to separate the grassy area from the garden and went back and forth between using some sort of curbing, a railroad tie, or a pathway of some sort. In the end the pathway won for a couple reasons. One, because I have been looking for an excuse to use Kasey’s parents concrete form for something (anything!), and two, I thought a pathway would add a little more visual interest to that side of the yard than just a boring old stretch of curbing. So, pathway it was!

Here’s the form that we used. I like that it is a little more organic looking than others I have seen.

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Since our soil is already pretty sandy in that area, we just leveled the dirt out and then laid the form right where we wanted the path to start. Easy peasy.

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We used the same bagged quikrete like we used here for the steps. It took about one and a half 80 pounds bags per form. It was pretty simple and straight forward. We just mixed the concrete with water in the wheelbarrow and then shoveled it into the form. Once we had it filled up, we used a small metal hand tool (something like a putty knife would work great) to push the concrete down into all the corners and then to smooth it out a bit on the top.

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After letting it sit for about five or ten minutes, it was time to take off the form. (You don’t want it to set up too much or it won’t come out!)

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After a few hours of Kasey and I working on it together and then a good 24 hours of dry time, this is the finished pathway. I LOVE it and couldn’t be happier with how things are turning out.

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Next we will be doing sod and then finishing touches like plants, flowers, and mulch. I can’t wait!

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