Want A Concrete Garden Path? Preparation Is Vital
If you want to make your garden beds more accessible, adding a concrete path is often a good idea. A smooth path makes it easy for those with mobility issues to move through the garden and see all the plants you've added and are caring for. But adding a concrete path isn't that easy. It's simple, but you need to prepare the area and have a good idea of what the soil is like, including how stable it tends to be.
The Contractors Will Need to Dig to Create a Base
Concrete contractors won't simply create a concrete slab and place it over the ground. They need to dig down and create a graded base of sand and gravel that the concrete will sit on. That means that wherever you want that path to go needs to be free of plants and rocks. Rocky soil can be dug up, but if you have decorative rock formations, they need to be out of the way of the planned path.
Shifting Soil Is a Problem
One issue you, your landscape planner, and the concrete contractor will have to address is shifting soil. Freezes can cause soil to shift as moisture turns to ice, and soil that's unstable in general doesn't provide a good underlayer for the base and concrete. You may need to have the soil amended to increase its stability before the concrete contractors can get to work. Sometimes, adding lime or redoing the grading in that section of land is enough to take care of the problem.
If the risk of freezing moisture is the only problem, concrete contractors can address that in their plans. The base may include a layer of insulating material or be dug a little deeper, below the frost line in the soil.
Ensure You Like the Garden Layout Enough to Keep It for Years
Once the concrete path is complete, you can consider it permanent. Obviously, it can be removed, but it's not modular or repositionable. Because of that, be sure you like the garden layout enough to live with it for years and years. If you have the money to change the layout often and have a new concrete path put in, great, but otherwise, you've got to stick with that design for a long time. The path will stay in good shape if you take proper care of it, which means it will last for a long time.
Speak with residential concrete construction services in your area about how long it would take to construct the garden path. It shouldn't take that long for a reasonably sized yard.
Share
