Hey all!

So my wife and I are contemplating laying down a stone path in our smallish backyard. To give an idea, it's roughly 30 feet long and 8-10 feet wide. The reason why we want a path is to sort of 'connect' our master bedroom deck to the main deck (accessible by the kitchen). The previous owners left a basic 'path' using round stones but it's not that well defined and the stones are definitely not fully set in place, so when it's rainy or wet, they could start shifting.

I went to Home Depot to get some ideas and found some nice-looking square 15'x15' patio stones. They also have matching 'curved' stones to create bends/corners in a path. I think they were all about 2" thick or so.

I have no prior experience laying pavers or patio stones but have been reading up and it seems many recommend excavating at least 2-3 inches into the ground after defining the path (using garden hoses, string, stakes, etc) and filling the base with crushed gravel and or sand. Then using a plate compactor to get everything as level as possible, lay the stones, and compact again.

My idea is to double up on the width of the path so that it's a 30' wide path. The stones would have little to no gaps between them - effectively they would be side-by-side. That should make a pretty decent walkway. But I'm also not sure on the curved pieces how those would double-up when trying to bend the path around a corner for instance. EDIT: I actually went back to Home Depot last night and tried doubling up the stones side-by-side and specifically where the curves are. I don't think it would work out unless I am willing to cut some of the stone to make the fit.

On the sides of the yard there are already lots of plants (Birds of Paradise, Rose bushes, a Holly, Jade plants, etc) and the yard was covered in wood chips. After having the wife's parents help do some work and help remove a 10ft tall palm tree, a lot of loose dirt and dried mud now cover the ground. We would probably leave the plants as they are, but would it be wise to lay out edging and/or edging strips?

Any special considerations to take or plan out for excavating? Especially considering that a lot of the ground is dried/packed mud mixed with sparse wood chips (less sparse in other areas)? Is the gravel below the sand recommended? I read that if it's a high traffic area, you probably want to make sure it's set and won't shift. However, this probably wouldn't be very high traffic at all, so I'm wondering if sand is sufficient enough.

Any specific tools that are recommended as well?

TIA!