Down the Garden Path

Idle hands are the devil's tools. Many times I heard my father say that when I was a child. Now I find that any garden activity has measurable health benefits for me. Here my day in the garden is nearly over and the final activity is a little path work.

The board separating the path and the garden bed will soon be removed. The bed and the path must stay unmixed. The stones next to the board are hand placed following the rules of stone wall building. They have a slight tip toward the path. Each stone rests on two stones beneath it. If this is done carefully the stones will not mix with the soil.

The source of this stone is the new planting bed under development. Here the glacier left more stone than dirt. A shovel and sifting screen are the tools of choice. This land was farmed for more than one hundred years. Many of the large stones I find have deep scratches across their surface from repeated plow strikes. The smaller stones have been broken with flat surfaces remaining. The six inch deep stone paths are filled with mixed waste then covered with selected flat stones. This creates a surface that is pleasing to both the eye and the foot. The only cost is my labor. The time invested quiets the mind and builds defined forearms.