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Stepping stones

I mentioned in another thread how I couldn't bring myself to pay £8 for a dollop of cement.

Can anyone advise me how to make some stepping stones? They're more for practical use than show so I don't mind if they look a bit 'rustic'. I need about 6 and I don't fancy rectangles

In London. Keen but lazy.
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Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    B3, in a warm loving way, DON'T. 

    I hate them, they invariably look naff and hardly anyone ever keeps to them.If you need a path, make a path.

    You might ,however, prove me wrong. 

    Devon.
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904

    Did Geoff Hamilton use black bags and use hollows in the ground as a mould? I'm wading through the mists of time here. Muddle look up your book. I don't think it's in mine. Far as I know they're still in Barnsdale because his son was waving them about in an article I read recently.

  • PalaisglidePalaisglide Posts: 3,414

    B3, the puzzle is in the question, you object to paying for cement how else are you going to make stepping stones? You could raid a slate quarry and split your own though they would crack when you put weight on them. You could make them from old wood pallets they would eventually rot or you could forget cement and make ready made which come in many shapes and colours!! I just do not get the question?

    Frank.

    Last edited: 30 August 2016 09:46:50

  • treehugger80treehugger80 Posts: 1,923

    the Geoff Hamilton techniques for the making of fake rockery stones,

    stepping stones are usually a pain in the ar*e to look after (they get overgrown with grass so you have to edge them or the get slippy with algae, or dead grass, or leaves in autumn),

    if you need to cross lawn put a path in.

  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904

    I often wonder about wading through borders (not in the illegal immigrant way) and there was even a thread a while back on the very subject. It petered out with no definitive solution. It brought out the hidden gymnast in some but apart from that...no joy. image

    http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/problem-solving/how-do-you-get-into-your-borders/980025.html

    Last edited: 30 August 2016 10:07:57

  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489

    B3,  I use broken paving slabs as stepping stones in a couple of large beds so that I'm not flattening the plants.

    SW Scotland
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,473

    I have broken paving slabs but I fancied something less jagged. They'll be just for access along the middle of a wideish bed and I would hope that things will grow between them and flop over them. There ! I've answered my own question . If stuff grows over them , I won't see the edges.

    Don't mind paying for a bag of cement, it's paying £8 for a set dollop I resent. I'm sure I can dollopimage

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489

    Tetley - the broken face of the slab facing outwards gives an interesting finish to a dry stone wall. People ask how it was done. . . . easy.

    SW Scotland
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,012
    Palaisglide says:

    B3, the puzzle is in the question, you object to paying for cement how else are you going to make stepping stones?

    Frank.

    Last edited: 30 August 2016 09:46:50

    See original post

     From the way I read the OP, the objection is to the price of pre-made stepping stones, not to the use of cement.  At our local garden centre, natural stone stepping stones are actually cheaper than concrete ones.

  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489

    Similar.  Mine were really old slabs with small stones in the middle. Can't post pics. . . Ludditeimage

    SW Scotland
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