How to Lay a Flagstone Path

Hello! In this post I’m going to show you how to lay a flagstone path whether you wanted to learn or not!

First off, it’s proper to imagine that you’re starting with a weedy back yard that needs some serious taming. For lesson purposes, let’s imagine your yard looking something like this:

The first thing to do is to wipe the slate clean. Those weeds will need to go away and stay away forever. The best way to do that is to rent a tilling tool from Home Depot to break up the soil and tear up those weeds. Once the weeds are out, they will need to be raked and thrown away. The next order of business is to make sure those weeds will never come back, so the best way to do that is let the sun “cook” the soil by killing any seeds. This is not a fast process and might sacrifice an entire summer. Get enough plastic to cover the entire lawn and let the sun be your baker:

Once the plastic is torn to shreds, the process in deemed complete. The next thing to do is dig out your path:

Then, fill the path with sand and lay down your flagstones (or any other hardscape of choice) in the pattern you desire. It will be necessary to dig out a little well in the sand below each piece of “tile” to keep it from shifting over time. This is an important step that shouldn’t be ignored.

(Hint on sourcing the materials: look at local classified ads. I found a guy giving away sand because he just bought a house that had a full-blown volleyball court in the back that he didn’t want. The flagstones I found because some rich guy was relandscaping his backyard and didn’t want those either. You never know what you’ll find once you actually look!)

Next, fill the path in with rocks or any other material of choice to keep the flagstones snug and secure:

And, voilà! You have yourself a path that will last for a very long time!

I created this path more than 10 years ago and it’s still going strong. No sinking, no shifting, and looks as good as new! Oh, and NO WEEDS either! The sun-cooking method sure did a good job!

Hey, you never know when you might use this information!

Happy gardening!

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