Today I’m going to show you how I lay simple gravel paths in our garden between our vegetable beds. This is so easy to do, these instructions are going to be very short!
THE PLAN
I recently built a few deep beds for planting vegetables in and I needed some sort of a walkway between them. If I left just dirt, this would very quickly start to grow weeds and I do not need another area to weed!
I decided on gravel because it’s easy, relatively cheap and can be moved easily if needed. Gravel doesn’t look as lovely as pavers or cobbles do but for me, other benefits far outweigh this issue. And to be fair, it still does look tidy.
At the moment I only have one row of vegetable planting beds so for now I only created paths to go in between them. Eventually, when I finally finish redoing all of the garden redecorating, there will be a few more gravel paths weaving around connecting everything.
MATERIALS & TOOLS REQUIRED
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Materials
Tools
- Shovel
- Rake
- Tamper tool (optional)
STEP 1: DIG OFF THE AREA
When laying a gravel path, it will need to be around 10cm thick to restrict weed growth. To achieve this, the area needs to be dug off 10cm deep. I used the soil out of my paths in my veg beds but you can of course relocate it where you need it.
When I dig, the result never ends up being even so for this reason I always use a rake and rake the area flat before measuring the make sure the 10cm has been reached.
STEP 2: FLATTEN THE AREA
After raking the soil even, if you’re happy with the depth, it’s time to flatten everything down. If you have a tamper tool, this is helpful to stomp the ground down. To use it you just lift it and bring it down fast – it’s very heavy so this is quite hard work but also strangely satisfying. If you don’t have a tamper tool, just use your feet and stomp all over to flatten the soil. The goal of doing this is to end up with a level surface that the weeds will find difficult to grow through.
STEP 3: LAY DOWN WEED FABRIC
Now is the time to lay down some weed-proof fabric. At first, I used 2 layers of it but when I tested the drainage, it was not draining at all so I reduced it to a single layer.
When laying the fabric, if you are laying a path like me, make sure that not only does it cover the bottom, but it also covers the sides. Weeds can and will grow out of the sides and up through your gravel if you show any weakness there.
STEP 4: ADD THE GRAVEL
Now it is time to add the gravel. To do this, just tip the gravel into the dug area and use your rake to rake it out level. Tip on this, you will probably need more gravel than you think. Make sure you price up individual gravel packs vs bulk bags because if you need a lot, the bulk bag will be much more economical (watch out for those hefty delivery charges though). Another tip is that the nice gravel can be quite expensive. To fill a depth of 10cm you don’t need to use just the nice stuff. You could fill the first 5cm with the cheapest type of gravel – the multicoloured type used for building. Then you could cover that with the nice stuff.
THE RESULT
That’s it – very simple indeed. I used white gravel and I like the colour and final look. At the moment, it sort of abruptly stops short of the grass but I think long term, all the gravel will connect to other gravel paths or other veg beds. Around grassy areas, I’m hoping to add some paving which would then connect to the gravel. I think the gravel to grass look is a little strange but it’s very functional for now and serves its purpose perfectly.
