Meanwhile, while Mike was doing the wall and had a cement mixer going, I tackled something that had bothered me all last winter. That was the path in this garden. I noticed in pictures how the path needed improvement. This garden has evolved over these years. There was nothing here at first but meadow grass. I put in bushes, perennials and a path. The path was made out of concrete slopped on the ground to look like steping stones. It was fine at first and suited the "cottage garden" look. Over time the perennials in this garden got too much shade and the thugs among them took over. This picture is from the early years.

1993

I really never succeded in getting groundcover to fill in around the steping stones and ended up with weeds. I also shifted my attention to hostas and the shade garden gradually letting this part take care of itself.

In 2005 this is what it looked like. There are only a couple hostas in here at this point. In 2006 I moved in more hostas and my attention followed them.

This shows the garden in 2006. The more I looked at it, the more I realized the path didn't set the garden off the way I wanted it to.

Here is a close up. These stones were made by my younger son and I in 1992. I didn't really want to get rid of them altogether.

The next pictures shows the garden through the seasons. The fall probably looks the best because by then the path isn't that visable. I really like the red in there and wonder why I didn't do that this year???

My solution was to do a path out of concrete with my steping stones as edges in some places. The height of this border to the concrete varies as the ground is different levels.

Working along, section by section.

I was quite pleased with the way it worked out.

Now I also had to build up planting areas inside the wall because the season was getting late for planting those waiting babies. This style of wood and rock probably defies the laws of physics but hey - I'm an Aries and don't care!

Kristen supervises.

One more step...