Landscaping - Extreme Workout Weekend

Compacted Topsoil - Time to Landscape

The area in front of our house has never grown anything due to foot traffic and for years I have desired to replace the compacted topsoil with a paver path of some sort. My vision typically included paving the area with the light limestone common to this area. I had planned to drill more on the water well at Die Gruene Weide, but when my brother said he was unable to join me in water well drilling this weekend, I decided that now's the best time to finally tackle the landscaping chore of beautifying the front of our house.

First I chiseled an outline of the shape I wished to install, then started digging. Fortunately, it has rained enough lately that the soil wasn't too dry and tough to dig. It took about two hours of digging to excavate the area for the new flagstone walkaway. Up front I dug down to six inches deep. Along the side I dug between three and four inches deep because limestone boulders prevented digging deeper. Fortunately, the boulders were deep enough not to require removal. (From personal experience I know that breaking limestone boulders with a rock bar provides a significantly more intense workout than shoveling!)

Topsoil Shoveled Out. Two hours work. Crushed Granite added too.

 Although my primary vision consisted of light limestone, when Inge and I inspected our local stone and landscaping supplies company, we found a pallet of Oklahoma Fieldstone, most about one inch thick, that we thought would look great in front of the house. We bought our stone and crushed gravel from the folks at J & M Stone Supply on RR 620 in Austin just past the big HEB at Anderson Mill Rd. Their prices have always been reasonable, though the Oklahoma Fieldstone was the most expensive thing we've bought there. We bought 1.5 tons of stone, which may be a bit much, but we have lots of area around the house to apply the stone.

Oklahoma Flagstone initial placement.

 Notice the tarp covered pile to the right above. That's 1.5 tons of stone Inge and I moved from a pallet in my truck to a pallet on the ground yesterday afternoon. Then this morning I moved about a ton of the stone myself while searching for the pieces I wish to place in the new front path.

Oklahoma Flagstone from door looking out.

I underestimated how much crushed granite I needed to buy, with the result that we only finished this front segment today. I still need to tweak the height of the stones a bit and make sure they're level and sloped to allow rain to run off correctly. But after two days of hard work we're seeing the achievement of the vision of a prettier entryway to our house. Hopefully this pathway will reduce the amount of mud tracked in when it rains.

From an exercise standpoint, Saturday I shoveled 66 square feet between four and six inches deep which consumed two and a half hours.  Afterwards Inge and I bought and together we moved 1.5 tons of Oklahoma Fieldstone. Then we returned to the landscape supply to purchase one-third of a yard of crushed granite of which I shoveled a layer into the new pathway. Sunday I manually compressed the granite with a tampter, then shoveled and compressed several more layers of crushed granite to bring the level up to just under one inch depth below grade. I then moved about a ton of stone searching for pieces that fit the pathway jigsaw I built. So this weekend counts as an extreme workout. (And my sore, tired muscles concur!)