Try this on the Gardening with Stone forum.

BTW, I am sure if you search the forums for "upload photo" you will find lots of tips. Yep, I just did it and got pages of answers to that question.

- Brent

How nice to discover this stone walkway. Hmm, I'm not partial to gravel because it doesn't stay put. Also, it will not prevent grass from growing. It sounds like this area wasn't maintained previously. If you were to remove the grass, treat for weeds, and plant a shade-loving very small-scale groundcover, perhaps some type of moss, and give it some regular attention/maintenance, you might be successful.

There are also lots of books and Sunset and Ortho magazine/books on making paths. Your library probably has some useful ones.

Since you are in an area that gets a freeze in the winter you will need to make some preparations just to keep the stones from heaving. You do need to dig out the earth and compact it, level it, add fine sand, compact that then add fine gravel, then the stones on top. This will help somewhat with the weed/grass problem but you will still need to pull things by hand when they crop up.

I just don't get it, and from the varied responses I don't think anyone else does either. Are the stones currently uneven, or sunken relative to the grass? If the level of the stones is actually fine and you are just concerned about keeping the grass at bay, you can do this either by eging once or twice per year, or by installing an edging, say a 2x4 cedar board, along the edges of the stones.

If the stones are sunken relative to the grass and you do need to to raise them, then yes, a better base would be a good idea. If you're going stone by stone, just a little sand should do the trick (though sand adds up fast - if they're big stones, don't be surprised at a bag per stone). If you're ripping it all up at once and doing a major re-installation, then you can go with the proper material: not pea stone but crush gravel, compacted, and then sand, then the stones. Don't disturb the dirt that's under them now - that is nicely compacted!

If you are indeed wanting to COVER the stones with sand and gravel, as your original wording suggests, then I'm totally at a loss :-)

Well, here is the stone path...in progress. This was almost comepletely covered with grass. I decided to go ahead and dig out the dirt around the stones and fill it in with pea gravel that I already had. Now my next question. What shrubs would be good here? This area gets only 2 hours of sun from 2-4pm. I am leaning toward hydrangeas between the window wells with some hostas along the path. Any ideas?

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:19959}}

This is a beautiful stone path and I like the pea gravel.There are some great groundcovers that would also look great growing between the stones but sorry,I do not know the names.I do know Hydrangeas would look great in that area.Along with maybe some iris and Hosta.
moonphase

I am sure I am coming across as the grumpiest of posters on your threads, and I apologize, but I may simply be stuck back a step in the decision-making process. In this case, I'd first want to be sure shrubs are the right idea. Do you want to block light and views from those basement windows?

If so, then hydrangeas and hostas would probably look great, though I would tend to vary the plantings a bit. maybe some ferns and other shade plants. Given the regular spacing of the window wells, a repeated hardscape feature like matching pots on more flagstone might not look that bad either. With Hydrangeas and Hostas, keep in mind that for half the year the whole area will be bare dirt with sticks poking up.