We live on the Oregon coast in the US. It is very beautiful here with many shades of green. Green trees, green bushes, and green grass. The reason it is so lush and green is because we get close to 100 inches (2 ½ meters) of rain every year. As you can imagine the ground gets saturated with the water and mud becomes quite a problem. I wanted a path through our back garden which would allow us to get from the house to the duck pen. (My daughters have pet ducks). This has always been a messy proposition so I decided it was time.
I started by marking out the path. Next I dug down a few inches to get rid of the top soil, this went into the vegetable plot. I had already decided on travertine pavers as the main stepping stones because I really liked the colors and textured. We used tumbled pavers which meant the surface had a good texture so it would not be slippery when wet.
The bottom layer was ¾”-minus gavel that I compacted down. This gives a good base and also allows for drainage. Next we set the travertine stepping stones. If you are going to have gaps between them be careful of the spacing. Make them close enough together that children can walk on them easily. This may mean an adult needs to adjust their gate but that is easier than a child with short legs.
The pavers are one and one half inches thick so they are very durable and stable. Each one was set in the gravel and then tamped down with a rubber hammer. To finish I added small round river rock between the pavers. I like the rounded rock as a finish and the natural reds went well with the travertine colors.
Making a path out of travertine pavers is really not a hard do-it-yourself project at all. It was hard work for a weekend but now we can enjoy dry, clean feet all winter long instead of tracking in mud in and upsetting my wife.
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