H. Walkway Completion Cleanup

Walkway completion cleanup is the closing section of this module. We want to ensure you have all the information you need to put on the finishing touches.

How does your project look? Did you remember to take lots of pictures? Hopefully you can share them with others in our picture gallery.

Now you have to complete areas around your walkway, and maybe do a bit of repair work. If you had tarps on your lawn, hopefully they weren't down for too long and grass will recover quickly.

If you are sodding up to the edge of your walkway, be sure to take a square nosed shovel and scrape out any sand or rocks along the edge. This prep work ensures you have a minimum of 4 inches of topsoil below your sod so it will thrive.

If you are putting in a buffer of decorative rock and/or shrubs make sure you put down a good industrial strength landscape fabric to keep the weeds limited. (You can never eliminate them completely, but you can deter them greatly by using fabric).

Make sure you use some kind of landscape edging between the rock and the lawn. This will keep the grass from migrating into the rocks and keep the rocks out of your lawn.

You don't need to excavate down very far to do this. You will only need about 3 to 4 inches of decorative rock. This is 2 inches to cover the fabric and another inch or two as a buffer.

Decorative rocks can be quite expensive, but the extra inch or two will save you from constantly having to move rocks around to cover the fabric. This fabric will surely become exposed as the rocks move or get kicked over time.

Now you are finished. It's time to clean up. Do you have any stones left over? If so then consider using them in the yard somewhere.

Maybe you have a few that just weren't quite walkway quality? They may make perfect stepping stones from the walkway, through the decorative rock, and into the lawn? It also doesn't hurt to keep a few extra pieces around in case a stone is damaged or cracked.

If you have quite a bit left over, you may want to take a few back to the stone yard if they have a return policy. Some people use them in and around the garden, or make other things like garden pots with the pieces.

There are also recycling opportunities if you can find a place that take aggregates. I have used places like this and the fees are usually pretty low. ($ 5 was the cost for me to dump a few hundred lbs.).

If you have any left over sand, gravel, or any other material that you can't use in your yard, see if you can find a neighbor or someone else to use it. Bargain finder magazines and classified web sites may be a good place to advertise cheap or free materials.

Make sure you thoroughly rake all the pieces or slivers of stone from your lawn. You don't want to cut your feet, or send them out from under a mower or whipper snipper into a window.

Congratulations, you are now finished your project. Kick back in a nice lawn chair and enjoy all your hard work. It's a great feeling of pride,  joy and accomplishment doing it yourself. Not to mention the fact that you have just added value to your property.

I really hope you found this information useful. If you did please feel free to tell us about it and don't forget to send pictures. If there is anything you feel we can improve on please let us know that as well. We can only improve with your feedback.

Thank you so much for visiting our site and come back any time if you wish to do any other landscaping projects. Also pass this on to others who may find it useful as well.

The Dream Yard Team.

Introduction: How to Build a Dry-laid Walkway

A. Flagstone Walkway Site

B. Tools for a Flagstone Walkway

C. Materials for a Flagstone Walkway

D. Preparing a Flagstone Walkway Site

E. Preparing the Base for a Flagstone Walkway

F. Laying and Packing Stones for a Flagstone Walkway

G. Flagstone Walkway Edging and Jointing

H. Walkway Completion and Clean-up

Return to the Dream-yard Home Page

Return to "The Yard": Landscaping How-to Modules