Category: Outdoor Garden
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24 Front Walkway Ideas That Make Your Entrance Look Twice as Expensive
For the first two years I lived in my house, guests walked straight across the lawn to reach the front door. Nobody ever told me the real path was the concrete strip off to the side that started at the driveway and meandered toward a side door. The actual front entrance had no path at…
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22 Cobblestone Walkway Ideas That Instantly Boost Curb Appeal (Plus What They Really Cost)
The first time I priced out a cobblestone walkway, I was standing in a stone yard holding a single granite cube and doing math on my phone calculator. I had budgeted $600. The quote for my 30-foot front path came back at nearly four times that. I put the cube back, went home, and spent…
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21 Mosaic Walkway Ideas That Turn a Plain Path Into a Work of Art
My first attempt at a mosaic path was a disaster of epic proportions. I spent a whole Saturday pressing smooth glazed tile pieces into a thin layer of mortar, stood back proud of myself, and then watched a light rain turn the whole thing into an ice rink. I almost went down the front step…
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23 Covered Walkway from Garage to House Ideas That Keep You Dry (and Boost Curb Appeal)
Last February I made the 40-foot dash from my detached garage to the back door with a toddler on one hip, a bag of groceries in the other hand, and sleet coming in sideways. I dropped a carton of eggs. I remember standing there in the slush thinking that whoever invented the covered walkway deserved…
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24 Stamped Concrete Walkway Ideas That Look Like Stone, Brick, or Wood (Without the Price Tag)
The first walkway I ever had poured was a plain gray slab, and within two winters it had a crack running straight through the middle like a lightning bolt. I stood there with my coffee one morning, looking at it and thinking, if it’s going to crack anyway, it might as well have been pretty.…
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24 Gravel Backyard Ideas That Make Your Lawn Look Like a Second Job
Last April I actually tracked how many hours I spent on my backyard in a month. The lawn took 11 of them, between mowing, edging, and dragging a hose around. The part of the yard I actually sat in took zero, and that math bothered me enough to start pulling grass out. If you’re searching…
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23 Gravel Garden Ideas That Look Designer (and Take Half the Work of a Lawn)
The summer I stopped watering my front lawn, my water bill dropped by about $40 a month and my neighbor asked me, very politely, if everything was okay. It was. I had just spent a Saturday hauling gravel in my sister-in-law’s pickup and I had never been happier to look at a yard. Here’s the…
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24 Pea Gravel Landscaping Ideas That Make a Yard Look Designed (Without a Designer’s Budget)
I once spent an entire Saturday spreading a cubic yard of pea gravel over a side yard strip that I’d decided to “just quickly fix.” By Sunday night there was gravel in the lawn, gravel in my shoes, and a small avalanche heading toward the downspout. The stone wasn’t the issue. I’d skipped the edging…
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21 Gravel Driveway Ideas That Look Great, Drain Well, and Cost Way Less Than Pavement
The first gravel driveway I ever dealt with was my parents’ rental house, and by the second spring it had two deep ruts, a pothole near the mailbox, and a pile of stone sitting out in the street where the rain had pushed it. I assumed gravel just wasn’t any good. It turns out the…