greetings - i'm a newbie :)

howdy folks, just came across this group and looking to meet & share ideas with like minded landscaping folk.

i just moved from a condo out to the burbs and have a nice sized lot to cultivate. i work in an office all week and relish the oppertunity to get out in the yard and work.

the wife has no interest in the yard other than enjoying the fact i'm happy workign out there. maybe in time she will become interested.

basically i have a typical suburban yard that has been ignored for @

30+ years. a bunch of overgrown trees, shrubs and random patio pavers scattered about.

so far this year i have been removing shrubs and bushes and trying to create some areas to build some crushed limestone or pea gravel paths to get around.

i'm curious if anyone has built any paths like this and any tips/ reccmoendations before i get started.

Gravel migrates and gets picked up by power mowers and slung with amazing amounts of force, doing damage to both the lawnmower blades and the object or person into which the gravel gets slung. I'd strongly consider pavers, asphalt, concrete or wood chips long before I'd do gravel paths in a residential setting.

Don't know where you are, but everywhere I've lived, the crews that trim trees out of the powerlines are delighted to have a nearby place to dump stuff out of their chipper... all you need to do is ask. Makes great mulch and great pathways and even fairly decent driveway extensions when you need a new spot for turning around. Just don't let a big heap of it sit around in midsummer, wet. Get it spread fairly quickly so it doesn't heat. Still hurts to have it caught by the lawnmower blades, but it's not so lethal as gravel is.

Another thing you might want to consider... if you don't know what those shrubs you're pulling are, you might want to live with them a year or so before you do a major overhaul. There might be some real gems either in or under the shrubbery -- I've always underplanted deciduous shrubs with minor bulbs, for instance.

Kay