Tumbled Bluestone Walkway

I have a nice rustic tumbled bluestone walkway that is dry set in about 2 inches of sand. Everything is great except the sand gets everywhere. The dogs track it onto the deck and into the house. It's a constant battle to keep the sand from ruining the deck and floors.

ANSWER

I am not sure how your stones are set.

1. It might be that they are set to low and the joint levels are too high.

2. More likely, the stones are set wide apart so that you have wide joints with lots of sand.

Laying blue stones on sand is a good way to go, but thought must be given to the joints. As you see, problems can occur. When I design a walkway such as this, i either place the stones very close together, place small stones in the joints, use mulch for the joints, etc.

A solution would be (although time consuming)would be to dig out the sand between the stones and replace with decorative stone. You could also add some drought tolerant plants here and there. Some of these plants take very little water but you would still have to add some soil to replace the sand in these areas.

I have a similar walkway at my own home (and a dog). I have mulch between the stones with quite a few plants too. You could use the following plants as I have used them and they are very tough.

• Low Sedums - there are so many different types, but you want to use the very low growing ones.



• Different varieties of low growing Thyme, such as Creeping Thyme. They are fragrant too and can be used in the kitchen!



• "Steppables" - these are plants that are very hardy, drought tolerant, and can be walked on!

Although this might be a pain to do for your tumbled bluestone walkway, it will solve your issue. Take a look at my page Stone Walkways to see some photos and get some ideas.

Of course the easiest way would be to just use the stones. There are many types of small decorative stones at stone yards and they are very inexpensive.