In your zone (Texas, for those who haven't checked your member page) this is a dead simple task requiring virtually no digging at all unless you need to drop the level of the pathway to be even with surrounding dirt. You don't need the fabric either; do a search of this forum for "fabric" to see all its disadvantages. You can lay your flagstones directly on the soil and plant or fill whatever you want in the cracks, or at worst put down a layer of sand under the stone. You just need to make sure each stone is fully supported with compacted soil or sand so you don't have the stones cracking. What I'm not clear about is whether you want to fit random shaped pieces of flagstone together, or whether you are using regular cut or paving stones of some uniform shape. If it is a real flagstone laying task, then you have the job of fitting the flagstone pieces together to make a nice shape, and nice joints. Depending on whether you want your path edges to be a certain shape or random, this can be tough or easy; in any event it is like doing a puzzle without using the picture on the box. We did a flagstone pathway; there is a photo of it in the thread linked below (finished product at the end of the thread). We actually laid down a bed of sand before the flagstone as we have drainage issues and that's a problem when it either turns to mud or freezes, which it does here more often perhaps than where you are. For the pattern, we mostly used the stone as is, cutting (with a chisel-thingy bought for the purpose) perhaps two or three pieces to fit. You "just" go out and flip (that's facetious, as they're heavy) the pieces around until you have combinations you like. Here is a link that might be useful: Thread with photo at end

Moving rocks. Amazing how I remembered simple physics from high school, many years ago. Think leverage and rollers. I move mine by rolling them over and over. If they are really heavy, I lay in my back with my knees to my chest and push with my feet. This is very amusing to see and results in lots of grass stains. I gathered up a bunch of old broom and mop handles that I had saved to use as tomato stakes and rolled the rock on them. A spud bar is a wonderful tool, that and another smaller rock and you can leverage the rock along. Sometimes I up-end them on the tall end and "walk" them from corner to corner to where I want them. I have an old Little Red Wagon. I would block the wheels, put a plank against the side and roll the rock into the wagon and then pull it around. If they are small enough to lift, I put them in a wheel barrow. If all else fails, I call the dh to come move the thing. I find this very strenuous, sweaty, swearing and dirty work and love every minute of it. One time I had really good sized rocks that it was just not feasible for me to move, I rented a baby bobcat and let the dh have fun with it. He was more than glad to help me when he had something fun to work with.

pakbrain - I've done quite a bit of this around my house using limestone that I brought up from the creek bed at the back of my property. It was a mix of sizes and thicknesses. The best solution I found is to compact a good 3 or 4 inch base of crushed gravel (#411 around here)then spread about an inch or two of the "screenings" or "fines" that the gravel quarry sifts out of crushed gravel when they are making drainage gravel. It is more stable than sand and is easy to work around and under the stones to level the tops. Stay away from just laying them on dirt. You'll end up reworking them all the time and the grass and weeds in bertween the stones will drive you nuts. Phil

Hi - I know this thread is 7 yrs old, but I have this problem as well with a patio I have just installed (Arizona flagstone, colors like buff, oak, peach) where part of it is under a large redwood tree. The redwood berries stain the flagstone and the stains cannot be removed (I have tried everything - power washing, various cleaners, strong solvents, etc). The only way to get rid of the stains is by scraping off a layer of the stone (which, though very laborious, actually works, using a utility knife as recommended by my stone mason). I am now sealing with Glaze-N-Seal impregnator stone sealant and plan to do 3 coats for the area under the redwood trees. But I am pretty worried about this so if anyone has any ideas, experience or solutions in this area, let me know. I am happy to update with my results after sealing, if anyone else out there cares... This post was edited by dave94010 on Wed, Jul 31, 13 at 17:32