Even liriope is not going to be overly fond of growing in that amount of shade. Also I am not sure I would want to walk down a path of that next to a water conservation easement in Florida. I can see snakes resting in there. Follow your friends advise and do the river rock. It looks sloped in the picture, which you need for drainage but that will cause you to lose the rock over time. You may want to consider a short 3 to 4 inch border on top of the wall, brick or wood loosely attached to the wall, water can drain underneath, to help hold the rock on the path. Now add a few potted plants in decorative pots at the entry and along the walk to give it a little more appeal. Look for basic foliage type house plants that do well in shade. These can be replaced if they start looking ratty. Now you are done. ilima PS. You will get more responses if you post this on the discussion side of the forum.

We get this question all the time about sealing or enhancing decorative ground cover rock in order to bring out the vibrant colors and whatnot. While many people do have success, masonry and stone sealers (or whatever you use) will work best on larger profile stone and rock like boulders and flagstones. When it comes to the smaller ground cover rocks like beach pebble, it becomes a bit tedious to evenly cover all the rock. If you spray the area, you will only be covering one side of the stones. You will find that as time goes on, many stones will be kicked/pushed/swept/generally moved and the un-sealed side will show. Just something to consider if you are trying to cover a large area. Looking into polished pebbles might be a good route. Although significantly more expensive than unpolished stone, you would be eliminating the need to purchase, apply, and maintain sealers. Polished pebbles are already looking colorful and shiny. Hope this helps someone out there!

River rock of various sizes is attractive. I have used it in several situations, but never on a high traffic surface. If not cemented: Preparation is important. Placed on dirt, stones will gradually sink into the ground. Weeds will then grow into area. So need to prepare with heavy duty landscaping cloth as a minimum. Ideally, compressed sand/crushed granite bed similar to what is used for laying patio stones. Two downsides: 1) stones tend to move around. Smaller stones much more so than larger. But large stone make a difficult walking surface. 2) Leaves and debris tend to get between the stones and can be a pain to get out. More a problem with larger stones. For 6-8" stones, a leaf blower is a necessity if you have leaves, pine needles or other plant debris in the area. Smaller stones easier to keep clean, but more likely to blow around with leaf blower or just move with traffic. If topping cemented surface: Attractive look (very small stones only)--I have it on front steps. Hard to shovel if it snows due to uneven surface. Can clean with pressure washer or leaf blower otherwise.

I don't know the answer to your question, sorry. I have a similar path and also have similar problems walking the lawnmower across/along the path. One thing I have which makes things slightly easier for walking is that instead of 18"x18" concrete tiles, I use larger (wider) pieces of flagstone (about 30"x18"), and I find that I can easily walk along the path because the flagstone is wide enough and appropriately placed so that I end up stepping on it, and not the pea-stone. Yes, the pea-stone is difficult to walk on, but most of the time my feet end up landing on the flagstone. However, the lawnmower is still a bit of an issue for me. I would suggest that if you can't find a solution to increase stability , you could try replacing the stepping tiles that you have with something larger similar to what I have, or put a second line of stepping tiles alongside the existing tiles. This would at least help with the walking because the stable part of the path is wider. It may also help with the lawnmower a bit because both wheels will run along the tiles for part of the time. Not a great solution, I know, but if you are stuck. Also you may find that the pea-stone over time works its way into the garden and the garden dirt, mulch works its way into the pea-stone, and then weeds start to grow in the pea-stone - you might want to consider putting something else along the edge of the path to better contain each side.