New Paver Stone Path and Other Updates to the Backyard

Create a beautiful new look for your backyard by adding a simple diy paver stone path and new landscape edging.

We have this giant ash tree in one corner of our backyard. It’s so nice for several reasons; it provides a ton of shade and gives us a lot of privacy from our neighbors. Ever since we bought this house, I knew that corner needed something special. I had temporarily placed some old wood chairs there and it worked…but I knew they weren’t right. I wasn’t feeling it.  One day it just hit me, we should put a hammock there! So we got one last summer and it was exactly what that space needed. But there was one problem. Getting to the hammock required stepping on tons of hard, sometimes sharp, gravel rocks. So this lady got busy a few weeks ago and added a paver stone path!

Here’s what this corner of the yard looked like before…

And here’s the new and improved look…

So much better right! And no more hurt footsies!

Build A Paver Stone Path

The first step in creating my new path was to decide on the layout. I laid out my pavers and then started playing with their placement. This was the design I finally settled on.

I then asked Chris what he thought. He liked the path with a little curve on the end. He said it flowed well with the other curves in our edging and the garden. Cool! The path layout was a go and now I just needed to get them down into the gravel and grass.  

For the gravel area, I just dug around the edge of the paver where it was placed to create a border. I then removed the paver and cleared out all the gravel inside the square border area. Next, I poured a little paver base gravel into the newly cleared area (leftover from our garden build) to level it. Finally, I placed the paver back on top and checked for stability. 

The steps for the pavers in the grass area was pretty close to the same as the gravel. I took one of my son’s toy shovel and dragged a line around the pavers to create my border. Hey, no fancy tools required for this diy! 😉 

I then dug out the grass in the middle with a shovel. I only went down about two inches into the grass because I wanted the pavers to be level with the grass for easy mowing. If the area was not as level or stable as I liked, I added a little paver base gravel under it where needed. And that was it! I finished this paver stone path project in just a couple hours. 

Now this spot is the happenin’ place in the back yard. ‘Look mom…no more hurt feet!’

Lay the Landscape Edging

Another big change we made to our backyard was the landscape edging. We had to remove a big section of it when we built the garden. (You can see how we built our paver garden HERE.) I’ve never liked our edging because it was pushing up out of the ground throughout most of the yard like you see below…

So we pulled it all out. And then started replacing it, beginning with the area next to the patio deck. Here’s a picture of the deck from last summer before we built the garden and changed things up. 😉

This was a garden area the previous owners had set up. I never liked its location right next to the patio. So when we built our garden out by the fence, we dug out this area as much as possible and relocated the soil to the new garden. I had received a free blueberry tree this summer and Chris and I thought this area would be the perfect spot for it’s new home.

First things first though, we had to dig a hole and plant it before we could install the edging. All of the boys wanted to jump in on this diy – some even decided clothes were completely optional for the dig. 😉 

Once the tree was planted, it was time to remove the wood border and start laying the fabric cloth and edging. Initially I was going to do a stone edging all around our backyard to separate the gravel from the grass. But after investigating the cost and amount of work it would take to complete (digging the trench), I decide to go with an easier/less expensive option for now. I found some plastic no-dig landscape edging that worked great!

First, I laid down the landscape fabric cloth and then laid the edging right on top. To keep the edging in place, I grabbed my rubber mallet and hammered in the included spikes. Tip: lay the fabric landscape under the spike holes so when you hammer in the spikes, it will keep the fabric in place as well! 

From there, I simply worked my away around the deck. Once all the edging and fabric cloth was installed, it was time to fill the area with leftover gravel from our new garden. It was a smart idea to reuse our own gravel in the yard, but it required some muscle to make it happen!

I loaded the wheelbarrow with the gravel then rolled it over to here. Then I dumped it and leveled. I repeated that (what seems like) 100 times and this is the finished result….

Add A Touch of Seed

As you can see, I was left with a lot of yard that now needs to be filled in with grass. So I got busy sprinkling some grass seed on the bare areas around the edging.

I can’t wait to see what the yard looks like when the grass grows in! So as of now, about half of our backyard has been redesigned by a few simple changes that anyone can do. All it takes is one simple paver stone path and one day at a time! 🙂 

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