Your very welcome.

Mariane

Our local stone is basalt from the Columbia River Basin in Oregon. I will probably settle on 3/4 river run. I am proud to say that, at age 71, I dug a 250-foot long x 4-inch deep x 6-foot wide path around my house using a 4-inch deep edger, essentially a blade on a stick. I used what I call the "cut a sheet cake technique." Cut the outline, cut across, cut into sections, flip them to the side, make a berm, cover berm with dark hemlock. Adds interesting heights to otherwise flat land, and I lost several pounds as well. Filling it is a one-time event - no mistakes. Looking for the right color of gray stone with flecks of color. Thank you for your quick answer. I didn't expect one, especially all the way from NY!!

Is this a walking path? If so I think you’ll hate 3/4 river. The round rock will “float” forever and will be a very unstable surface to walk on. Either a 3/4 or 5/8 crushed rock will pack together and stay in place much better.

Yes it is a pathway and terrace, we use crushed stone over pea gravel as we find it is easier to walk on and locks together but I know many people that like pea gravel it is a personal choice!

My wife and I are around the same age as sheilamead and something I’ve really noticed lately is our friends, as they have aged, have a very difficult time walking on pathways where footing isn’t ideal. When I recently added another section of path my daughter,who is a project manager for a large landscape installation company, recommended that we use 5/8 clean crushed Camas Grey basalt as that’s what they generally use. Aesthetics aside, pathways aren’t very useful if people are afraid to walk on them. I’m not saying that someone who’s dug a 6 ft wide 250 ft pathway isn’t capable of walking on a river rock path but I’ve come to realize what seemed reasonable when planning our forever home in our 50’s isn’t nearly as practical as I thought. Just saying.

Thank you for mentioning the type of gravel. I am placing bluestone 2x2-foot square "pavers" in the foot traffic areas, as well as in the new patio area under the arbor of two trees. One tree is a rhodi bush that has been growing for 100 years and is truly a magnificent "tree." I'm now on the hunt for Camas gray basalt.