The TerraCotta Pathway: Part 1

We started a new pathway in the garden this weekend.  We have tried two different ideas here perviously and neither one worked out quite the way we had wanted.  First we had a bunch of large tree cookies as a pathway.  It looked great and worked out well until they started warping and breaking.  Then it no longer looked great and became a sprained ankle waiting to happen.  They got moved behind the shed and are now where the Garden Apprentice looks for snakes.  Our second try involved one of those concreate mold for stepping stones you get at the big box store.  This worked reasonably well, but some of them started cracking.  They got taken up and relaid around the greenhouse doors.

After some debate, we decided to make a broken terracotta pathway for this particular section of yard.  We had also recently received over 170 plant saucers and a ton of really small (and rather moldy) terracotta pots that had been sitting in storage and were slated for a dumpster.  Apparently someone's workplace had an ordering snafu that they never dealt with.

On a nice Sunday morning we set out to create the pathway.  First we cleared the the site and laid out our flags.  Then the Garden Apprentice same and moved all of the flags.  finally we were ready to start laying the steel edging.

It went reasonably well until we needed to sink it down into the ground.  This is when the Plant Geek started to remember why he hated steel edging and hadn't actually done it in about 20 years.  After some hammering, nasty words and thoughts directed towards the edging and a quick google search, a new plan was developed.  We dug a trench for the edging to sit in.  this went reasonably well except for the Magnolia roots.  At this point we improvised and managed to finish the trench and get the edging laid.

Next we started to layout the terracotta we had in the shed and garage waiting for the project.  There was a lot.  Tossing the dishes onto the ground was a lot of fun.

Then it was time for more fun...smashing it all up!  We used a mallet at first and it worked really well, but only over a small area.

Then the Plant Geek borrowed a tamper from work.  Now we are able to do lots of smashing all at once.

So that is where we are at right now...smashing terracotta for fun.  We have different plans for the part of the pathway near the pool, but that will be a surprise for later.