Slates for the Garden Path

My dad had several old slates from an old walkway stacked behind his shed. They were too nice and too heavy to get rid of, but he didn't have a use for them. We have two of them already on the side of the garage. We forgot he had more until we were planning our garden and path redo project and he offered them to us - we were thrilled. They are way nicer than anything we could afford.

Each slab weighs A TON so we could only take a couple over at a time in our cars (and even then they weighed down the back!). It took several trips to get them all over - 8 big rectangular slabs total, plus several pieces of broken slabs that were perfect for the curved end of the pathway.

Here's what the pathway looked like when we first created it, with curved lines. It hasn't changed much in since then.

We cleared the pathway of pea gravel first in wheel barrow loads. Then we pulled up the plastic weed blocking fabric, then the plastic line divider so we could re-level the path for the slates and change the layout from an organic curved path line to a straight one to better fit with the slate shape. Once the path was level and the line straight, we re-installed the divider line and started laying down the slates. They were placed 8" apart, starting at the front of the garage to the back where the future gate will go.

Once the slates were in and leveled so they wouldn't rock back and forth when we walked on them, we cut up the weed blocking fabric to go around the slates. We didn't have enough to cover the wider path, but going around the slates worked out perfectly - we had just enough fabric and it was fast and easy to do.

From there we added the gravel back in around the slates. Done!

 Morgan certainly likes the new path....

I'm thrilled with the results - isn't it dreamy? And with these large slabs, less path weeding! (Weed blocking fabric is great at blocking weeds from growing in from UNDER the path, but we get plenty of weeds growing on top of the fabric.) I can already see the future garden in my mind's eye with the white picket fencing, a charming little gate...