[jenalden]

Hello -

I'm an interior designer who knows next to nothing about landscape design, but I've somehow found myself in the middle of a major DIY backyard renovation.

I wanted to mix up the textures on the ground, and I loved the idea of a contrast between dry laid flagstone and gravel path fines, so I included them both. You can see from the attached drawing that in lots of places, the two materials will "touch."

So what I need to know is, will this work? The current plan is to dig the bed for the flagstone to 6" deep (2" gravel, 2" sand, 2" pavers) but the gravel only needs to be 4" deep (2" gravel, 2" fines).

Should I do either one first? How do I keep one in place while I lay the other? Is this just a crazy idea?

How would you approach it? Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[jenalden]

Sorry for the lack of photo: I read the posting instructing but gave up after three times trying to upload a 156K file! Here's a Flickr link:

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1544078100&size=o

[TrickyDick]

If your flagstone path will have smooth edges then an edging material like steel or some kind of stone will help keep the seperation clean. If it will have natural contoured edges than you can't do that as easily. It will work but it will be harder to keep your gravel (not sure what you mean by fines...I assume you mean a small crushed stone) from bleeding into your flagstone. Do your excavation then the base then flagstone then the crushed stone. You may have dump the crsuhed stone in piles first so you don't have to drive a machine over the flagstone after it's done.

Also be very careful with your choice of bambo. A lot of that stuff is horribly, disasterously invasive.

Good luck. Looks like a nice plan.

[signguy]

I would use natural ledgestone(3"x6" 4" thick approx..) for a border around the flagstone pathway The width of the stone should give you enough seperation and the thickness of the stone should keep it stable You could use rocket pavers (type of direction paver) but real stone would look awsome, you will find if you use anything smaller than a 1/2 " crushed stone the average shoe will track it everywhere,