You mentioned that you might be entertaining the thought of flagstone surrounded by pebbles. If that's your desired direction then you might be served well by looking at the color of your house, the color of any existing tile or concrete outside and the color of any existing landscape rock so that you choose a flagstone that unites all of these units together. We are generally very lucky here in California that we have incredibly stocked landscape yards offering flagstone in a rainbow of colors and textures. From the midwest comes the mellow buff tones : From Hillside development From New England come the gray tones of Bluestone surrounded by our local California colored decomposed granite From Beach House Considered the least expensive $ flagstone in our area, the Arizona Flagstone have a color range from soft butter yellow , light brown, rose and deep rosey brown. It is extremeley easy to work with . It cuts like butter with a diamond saw and is splits dependably. From portfolioMay08.jpg From California Gardening Another possible consideration is 'urbanite', which is actually just broken up concrete pieces. From California Gardening Which ever medium you choose, a properly installed subbase is paramount.

Moss, thyme, etc. will be happy to grow in sand. You may consider topping up with polymeric sand.

Hi Treebeard, We are getting close to starting on a walkway. We have decided to go with square bluestone wet laid with a slight curve (like a half moon shape). we are talking about 260-285 square feet (about 46x4 and then about 8 1/2-10x8 1/2-10 front entrance) . One stone mason said it would take him about 7 days to rip old concrete walkway, prepare and lay the new walkway. The other said 2 days total. I asked the 2nd about the prep and he said a "rough" concrete base then the bluestone laid in concrete. I asked about drainage and pitch and both said don't worry we'll take care of it... is there anything special to be aware of here? I asked about cracking and any use of expansion joints. The 2nd guy mentioned he could cut with the saw tiny "expansion joints" every 8 feet. Will this help? I have seen the 2nd guy's bluestone walkway work and I like it. I just don't know how the 1st guy could spend 7-8 days and the other 2 days(BTW the 7-8 days guy is about 40% more costly). The 1st guy has a very good meticulous reputation in the area and we have seen his stone work .. although still like the look of the 2nd guy's walkway. We don't want to have problems down the road with any "corners" being cut? What is the recommended prep and installation process? and what is the recommended way to deal with "expansion" and/or prevent cracking? and drainage? and size if joints between the stones? Thanks.

Geez... don't know what to tell you but the truth, Zec. We put in a stone path using large Pamona Sandstone with stone dust between the pavers a year ago. The stone dust has not hardened. It has compacted, but that washes away somewhat when it rains.. also weeds do crop up from the stone dust. It's kind of like brown sugar when it compacts,but it's not a solid kind of substance at all. I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has experience with this material. Molie