Garden question

A question about : Garden question

Morning - not sure if this is the correct place for this question but hope for some guidance.

Under my back lawn, along with sheets and sheets of black plastic bags, are some concrete slabs which are now covered in grass. There are also a couple of patches of exposed slabs. I find the exposed ones very slippery, suppose it's cos they've been left to grow algae etc, however they are pretty unsightly too.

I want to have some areas which are 'walkable' without being either up to my armpits in soggy mud (as at present) or navigating slippery slabs. I will be having the whole area lifted, cleared out and then relaid at some point when the torrential rain stops.

What kind of material can I use to create and maintain a safe walkway? Is there any use for that plastic/metal mesh stuff which grass can grow through? There is an ample and free supply of slate slabs available to me, however I suspect they are too thin and will crack and break though there are some which are much thicker which I may use to connect the back door of the house to the woodshed door ( a matter of about four steps, all very muddy just now).

I'd be grateful for some advice here. Thanks.

Best answers:

• It sounds as if you only want a very temporary solution, ie something to bridge a few months gap.
  That being the case, then I am wondering whether the "top section" of some wooden pallets might suffice? (ie break off the sides and leave those "tops" as some, rather large, "stepping stones"). Wouldn't work for long...but might work for long enough just as a makeshift pro tem.
• The mesh stuff won't really help your current situation, as it needs securing, which is not a job you'll enjoy in current weather or ground conditions.
  A dumpy bag (or smaller bags) of thick bark chips would allow you to make a safe temporary path, but for a few steps distance outside the back door, I'd just choose a pair of slightly oversize wellies that I could get on and off easily.
  Some of us live in places where there's no hope of making permanent paths, where the mud can be up to 30cm deep. In those situations it's just wellies that cope. I'm off to one of those now to let the chickens out....
• Just a thought, but if you can get loads of free slate slabs that will break easily, can you therefore (effectively) get loads of free slate gravel? If so, perhaps putting a layer of that down might be a cheap option.
• Or a big bag of gravel - not one of the fancy coloured shingles just "ordinary"
• We use scaffold planks as a bridge between paths at the back through winter, would get you to a shed easily if out door shoes are coping rather than boots.
  If you want a surface otherwise then if you bed your chickens on straw or shavings for centuries used bedding has been used in poached gate ways.....I'd ho with the wood chip temporary thing. Not least because when it comes to mow over that area in the spring / summer mowing over the grit/ gravel is going to send chip making stones everywhere.
• I wouldn't use pallets .. as they go slippy very quickly when they are wet...
  Davesnave has the best idea/solution bark chips or/plus the wellies...
  Wellies will be the cheaper option, and you can use them whenever
• Careful with slate slabs, they are slippery when wet. Smaller pieces are much better.
• Consider finding some chicken mesh and nailing that to the planks to make the surface rougher. Like rangers do on footbridges?
• Have bought a bag of bark chips and will put thst down when we get back home on Friday. It was a great suggestion, so thanks.
• Hopefully only a temporary solution as the lawn will be lifted next year and sorted out properly.
  No patio or patio glass so it may be that gravel is the permanent answer, especially as rain is ever present on the west coast. The steading will have storage shelving installed (as well as the wood store bit) and a small chest freezer) so access has to be mud free.
  Off home in about an hour so I'll take before and after pics.
  Thanks again.
• Have done it and it's worked perfectly.
  Unfortunately what's not working is my BT landline so I have no broadband to post up pics. Remote area so phone just on GPRS and slower than a slow tortoise. Three working days for BT repair so that's Wednesday!
  At least no more muddy feet, thanks again.
  😄
• Well Wednesday came and went without a repair. Phone line was eventually repair on Tuesday 06 January, as was broadband. On Wednesday 07 January a lightning strike fried the router. So here I am with my third router in a month.
  So, no pics yet. Bark is now also very soggy but as we've had almost continual rain, including four days of horrendous Storm conditions this week, it's not surprising. Still, it's done its job and helped keep a relatively mud free passage to the wood storage.
  I've taken to sprinkling a more than usual amount of bird feed on the ground lately. Whilst it's been entertaining watching the birds trying to land on and stay on the feeders a lot of them are flown off onto the ground or struggle to stop themselves being swept backwards. Now it seems that the larger birds, chaffinches and sparrows, are taking to ground feeding and the multiple tits and goldfinches have a clear run on the feeders. Fewer fights too.
  Put out currants and unwanted grapes and they get eaten too. Will spend a bit of time today smashing some peanuts up to scatter too.
  Roll on spring!
• [IMG][/IMG]
  At long last I have had the time, the phone line/broadband connection and electricity all together.
  This is the very short bark chip pathway from the back door to the outbuilding. Putting down the chips was the perfect answer to a very soggy problem.
  Thanks