After getting my mind set on re-designing my garden path – following the advice of a garden magazine – I am now halfway finished with this latest project.

What I was looking for was nice, individual step stones to lay out in intervalls on the ground, interspersed and sided with the following plants: Sagina Subulata and Chamae Mellum Nobile “Treneague” to walk on (I imagine green carpets) as well as Cymbalaria Muralis and Thymus Serpyllum on the fringes.

Since my DIY store of choice wasn’t fully stocked on building material yet (no wonder – every sensible gardener waits, until the frosty spells are over, but not so yours truly) and no website offered exactly, what I was looking for (although some of the stuff I saw, came pretty close), I turned to the all wise, collective intelligence of our green staff at work. And sure enough, someone knew of a store selling all kinds of stone nearby.

At the very next opportunity I went there to check it out and felt like walking on air. It was a fab store with everything I wanted and much more on site, to look at, feel, choose from. Rows and rows of different stones, slates, gravel, tiling, singular rocks and pillars and what not – you name it, they had it.

I found a type of stone I really liked. It was multi-coloured, with a  basically grey tinge, intertwined with beiges and reds to even some black, at the same time very natural looking. It reminded me very much of alpine scree on the mountainsides of my childhood. Plus the stones lay there in various sizes and forms, all looking as if wind and rain had just eroded them off said mountains,  randomly breaking them into pieces left to tumble down the slopes just to come to rest at my feet. Yet, every slab was flat enough for my purposes and very artfully angled, the edges and surfaces rugged just so.

Sure enough – with my luck, it turned out to be the most expensive stone of this type. The nice staff on site pointing out other, cheaper alternatives they had on offer. But hey, here the small size of my garden allows for extras. I only needed ten single slabs of stone for my purpose. And although the weight of what I had picked out came to roughly 120 kilograms, it still was affordable. A ton of this stone was sold for € 700, so my share wasn’t even a full € 100.

After unloading my acquisition at home, every time I had some spare time, my spade was put to use, to dig in the stones at their individual, stipulated spots. Which wasn’t all that easy on trampled down ground with much rootage running underfoot. Plus, it felt weird to dig in these beautiful stones, most of it going underground with just the surfaces left to be seen. I thought them so nice to look at, that I was tempted to just leave them lying atop the ground. But, of course, this would have been a dangerous tripping hazard. I could almost feel my toes being broken, so I put them underground.

Of course, while all this happened, I also had planned, how many plants I need to fill in my new garden path and have ordered and paid for roughly 100 specimen. Which – as the carrier informed me via email – are due at my doorstep either yesterday or today. Great timing – as I have a day off work today. Plenty of time to plant. Unless, of course, the delivery arrives late afternoon. Boy, oh boy, I do hope it comes early today. 06:45 in the morning might be a tad  too early for any haulier, but I am waiting already!