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.

Hi Digin, Without actually being in the space, this is what I would do. First, we need to change the hallway effect. It is uncomfortable to most people, makes them walk faster instead of leisurely enjoying the space. I would definitely bring the walkway up to the garage as well as the width of the porch. I probably would turn it towards the drive almost as is but would also have another section going a little down the drive. A walk for you and one for visitors. I would put a small, 4 seasons of interest tree to soften and connect human scale to the hard lines of the tall house. And I would under plant the tree with just one groundcover and carry that groundcover through out the entire area. I can't tell what it looks like under your large window but I do know if it needs hiding, putting 4 round or square shrubs that have to be trimmed is going to look like you are hiding something and does nothing to soften the hard lines of the structure. It is the same feeling that the shrubs along the garage gives. The purpose of foundation planting is to soften the hard lines of a building in an attempt to have it blend in with nature. Why some people plant things that are the same shape as the lines they are trying to soften has always baffled me. That type of designing, of course does have it place but it is dictated by the style of the house and for the most part doesnt work in most situations. I am not sure what exposure you have, nor what the rest of the space is like so again I am winging it. Will you be paving over the porch? If I could do what ever I wanted, I might try to make the step have a much wider tread and try to make it look like an half moon. I might also, not directly in the middle of the garage wall have an arched cutout small enough that it doesnÂt wreck the flow of 2 people walking side by side and possibly espalier or grow something on an interesting trellis with maybe an uplight shining on the wall. All these types of things should be consider in advance for placing PVC pipes under the walk for wires or drip irrigation. There are so many little things that can be done to make great changes. Simple things like, we painted some of our exposed foundation gray because it blended in with the siding better then concrete color. Another simple thing that lots of folks donÂt think about it putting shutters on their windows in the back of the house. It really dresses things up and doesnÂt break the bank. IMO, with your style home it is important to not use a bunch of different types plants, keep it simple and elegant. You want to create a comfortable, not busy approach to your house and that is how your guests will feel when you open the door. The backyard is the living area where you put al the fun, things that are you, like how you decorate the inside of the house. We inherited a builders concrete 2' wide walkway, also have brick and gray siding and pretty much removed all the round and square shrubs that lined poth sides of the walk. It was tough on our clothes when the shrubs were wet. One of my passions is gardening/design, so I plant for me and for what I see, consequently, starting a small bed at the street and adding alittle when ever I could on each side with the plan that the two sides would eventually meet. Good luck, more importantly have fun. My rule is that plants should bring me pleasure and if it is getting on my nerves it then becomes a weed and it is removed. Sorry this post is so long, as I said landscaping is one of my passions and if I can steal a moment to myself, I love to talk design. Ally

Decomposed granite is the most commonly available "fines" type of material here in northern California, and works perfectly well as a stable base for setting flagstone and also for use between flagstone. Depending on what types of plants, sun exposure of the walkway, and type of irrigation you have in mind, you might find it just as expedient to leave the gravel and fabric in place, and set flagstone directly on top of it if existing elevations allow this. If you are thinking of using drought tolerant ground cover plants between the flagstone, such as some sort of dwarf Thyme or succulents such as Sedum 'Angelina' or similar, these can even be planted directly into a DG/gravel substrate if planted out in the rainy season, though it might help to get them established if you also provided a drip irrigation system between the flagstone such as 1/4" diameter emitter line with emitters at 12" or 6" on center for summer watering. Either of the plants I mentioned would do well enough if you just slit the existing fabric occasionally between the flagstones so that the plants could ultimately also root into the existing soil below. There is really no need to remove it all and start over unless you are wanting to plant more water intensive plants in the joints. Personally, I would stick with what is best adapted for the least amount of effort. In any case, it would not be smart to put mulch below new flagstone, because the organic content will disappear over time and the elevation will drop accordingly. If you did want more water intensive plants between the flagstone, it would probably make more sense to remove the gravel/DG in the joints and add topsoil blended with the native clay loam at the joints only, and again, provide backup irrigation to keep it doing well in the dry season. If the space between the flagstone is wide enough that the decomposed granite can be tracked back into the house, I hope you don't have dogs or hardwood floors, because they will get scratched by the tracked in DG over time.

Some people use thyme between the stones in a path. I just posted a similar question in the herb forum asking if thyme would cover the rocks in a new part of my path. The rocks in my path are aobut 8-12 inches in diameter with about an inch in between. I was told by the herb folks that the thyme would cover my stones, but maybe your stones are larger and you don't mind them partially covered. I've been told that Elfin Thyme is the smallest. I used moss between the stones on the part of my path I built a couple years ago. I don't think that will work on the new part because a lot of it is in full sun. Here is a link that might be useful: New part of path