How to DIY the Perfect Pathway

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Wow this pathway was a doozy! Something that turned into a weekend project turned into a whole two week investment, but it was DEFINITELY worth it! I’ve gotten SO many compliments from friends and neighbors and it has made my house pop! (Can we talk about the ROI when it comes time to sell my house?) Scroll below on how two amateur landscapers made this possible!

Here is the best “before” photo I can find showing before the path. We had two trees that were planted way too close to each other, to where one was doing okay and the other one’s growth was severely stunted. I hate chopping trees down and wanted to save both of them, but they were also too big at this point to replant unless we hired professionals. I will say that since chopping down the tree on the right, so that we could lay down the pathway, has let the other tree thrive! It’s now doing amazing and is taller than my house!

Here’s what you need to buy to build the pathway:

As you can imagine, all of the materials can get expensive! I believe we spent around $350 total on the whole project (but you’re saving THOUSANDS by not hiring landscapers!)

The first step to get started on the pathway is to determine how wide you’d like to make the pathway. We originally wanted to make it about 5 feet wide, but as we were digging, we found there were some irrigation boxes in the way. I highly recommend checking for any boxes or potential barriers as you’re measuring this out. Definitely check underneath your grass! We ultimately made ours about 4 feet wide due to this.

You’re then going to tear up the grass and dig about 4 inches or so deep into the ground. If you have 2+ people working on the path, we found it’s great that one person breaks up the roots of the grass and digs while the other hoes out the grass remnants and levels out the dirt. This job isn’t easy and depending on the length of your pathway, it can take days to complete this! I recommend bringing out a giant garbage can to shovel the dirt into, but just make sure you’re able to still lug it around (dirt can get super heavy when it’s piled up). Our garbage can got so heavy the first time, the garbage men couldn’t take it since they couldn’t pick it up! My work around solution for this was to use the clippings bags and fill them up with dirt, but also make sure you can lift them. I would store these in my garage and throw them away slowly, week after week, when the garbage men came.

Once your pathway is dug completely through, you’ll need to get a level and make sure the sides of the pathway are not bowing out or uneven. This is especially important because you’ll lay down the pavers next and you don’t want them to not be in-line! This step is frustrating because it’s almost impossible to be perfect, but just do the best you can!

Along with this, we’ll also want to level the pathway. Our lawn is on a slight slope from the entrance of my house to the side walk and from the drive way to the rest of the lawn, so it was a bit tricky. We started by pouring the paver sand down and using the hoe to spread and compact it. You can continue to use the level on top to make sure the pathway is level consistently through the path. Once the sand is spread throughout the entire path, you’ll want to add a layer of topsoil to ensure the sand is compacted as much as possible and does not lose shape. You’ll need to use the level in this step as well to ensure the amount of dirt poured remains consistent.

To prep for laying down the pavers, you’ll next need to add the plastic paver edging. We had to re-do it several times and never got it completely perfect, but it was very helpful for one person to hold the edging down and the other would use the level to ensure it was laying out straight. The person laying it out would also hammer down the stakes with a mallet or hammer. As noted in the product list, you’re technically supposed to use anchoring stakes, but we ended up using fabric pegs since they were cheaper and you’re going to pour concrete over it anyway (which should keep everything in place). We also put pegs in every 4 holes of the edging since we found it to still be stable and save by using less pegs. At the end of each side, you’ll need some type of gardening shears or looper to cut the edging at the desired length.

Once the edging is down, you’ll then get the Quickrete and pour it into your 5 Gal bucket. This will make it so much easier to scoop the powder out and avoid spills! Get an old plastic cup you don’t care about and scoop the Quickrete powder out of the bucket. Pour about a 1/2 inch thick layer of Quickrete on top of the edging. You’ll want this to be consistent and level down the entire sides of the edging.

After the bottom layer of Quickrete is laid down, you can start placing the mini pavers along the edging. This will be tricky because you’ll want to space the pavers evenly to where the gaps are of similar size, but you want the pavers to be able to fit between both ends of the pathway so you don’t have to cut a paver. We had to adjust the pavers several times until we got them to be in the desired placement.

When the pavers are in the placement you’d like, then get the bucket of Quickrete and the plastic cup again and fill Quickrete in all of the gaps between the pavers. This will serve as the “grout” of the pavers. It can be tricky since the Quickrete will pour out the sides of the gaps, but try to fill the gaps up as much as you can! I went through and filled in all the gaps on both side of the pathway and then misted them all at once. Once this is done, you’ll want the pavers to set for at least 24 hours before continuing work so that you don’t mess them up!

The next day (or the next time you resume work!), you’ll want to lay out the fabric weed barrier to try to prevent weeds and grass growing through the path. Prior to laying it down though, you”ll want to spray weed & grass killer throughout the pathway. I actually did this every day while we worked on the path to ensure the grass and weeds wouldn’t come back. Make sure all the dirt is saturated with the weed killer and then proceed to lay out the weed barrier. This is also easier with two people since one person can roll out and hold the barrier while the other uses the rubber mallet to staple the fabric to the ground. Continue to do this until the entire path way is covered, from sidewalk to sidewalk and pavers to pavers.

This next part is where the work becomes much more fun! You’ll then get a gardening shovel and cut out a circle in the fabric barrier that is slightly bigger than the diameter of the plants you’d like to plant. Before doing this, you should plan out where you want each plant to go, in coordination with the pathway lights. I determined that every x inches, I would alternate with the lights or the plants. Just make sure you take into account that the plants will most likely take up way more space than the lights. When you cut out the circle of the fabric barrier, you’ll then need to shovel this dirt out. Once the hole is to the desired size and depth, place your plant in and fill any gaps with the garden soil for flowers. This will give the plant much more nutrients than the topsoil and sand will provide! Do this for each section you’d like to add plants to.

After the plants are spaced out, then fill in the other spaces with the solar powered pathway lights. If you already measured out where you want to place each of these, this step should be a piece of cake!

You’re almost done! The next step is to lay out the gravel in the pathway. We dumped all the bags throughout the pathway and then used the hoe to spread the gravel out. Since we already worried about the leveling earlier on, we just spread the gravel out to make sure there were no bare spaces. It’s also good to add a little extra gravel all over, just in case it gets kicked around later on.

Alright, the final finishing moments! Get the stepping stones and space them out evenly down the pathway. I spaced them out every 8 inches or so to match with your usual stepping distance. You’ll want to walk up and down the pathway to make sure they’re not too close together or not too far apart.

After this, you’re done! All the hard work will have definitely paid off and you get to enjoy your new beautiful lawn! Not to mention, you’ll get to admire your work for time to come. I’m not going to lie when I say I go outside every now and then just to go “wow, I did that!”. It’s a great feeling.

I hope you found this guide on how to build a pathway to be helpful and it inspires you to create some beautiful yard work!

Here’s a few bonus photos of the other work I did simultaneously on my lawn, with adding other plants and re-mulching the flower bed. We also added the stones to our flower bed last year using the same technique we used with the pavers in the pathway! 🙂