Hi, I've been posting on the Hypertufa forum about a technique

I've finally tried out, doing garden edging using materials at hand:

Natural stones (from years of digging) set in a sand, pea gravel and portland

DRY mix. It's a lot easier and cleaner than wet concrete.

I hose it down gently with a wand when a section is finished.

When the edging is all done, I want to try a path, using the same technique,

but with two strips like the edging strips and about 3' of grass in between.

I prefer grass to walk on, but there are issues: I need to define the path

from surrounding grass (and future plantings) and bring an electric line

safely to the area the path is leading (a pond).

The strips would be wide enough to walk on to keep dryshod in wet weather,

they're about a foot wide, room for plants to flop and a mower wheel.

I'm going to rent a ditch witch for the two trenches. In one I'll put

the electric conduit and in the other I thought I'd lay some 1 1/2' black

pipe (also on hand) with a hose in it, and hose hook-ups either end

so I don't have to have hoses all over every time I need water out there.

I'm really excited about this and thought I'd share, in case anyone else

has this stone vs. grass indecision.

I've been struggling with it for two years.

I laid 54' of this edging in about 15 hours (3-4 hour sessions/day) alone,

which attests to the relative ease. This trench was dug last year

and I had some help deepening it to about 9'. The ditch witch

should make the next ones a lot easier.

Here's a picture of the strip, there are more pictures and posts on

the Hypertufa forum and gallery, with details of the technique.

If anyone has suggestions or questions, I'd love to hear about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: