Roads

I nead a road for my garden railway. Have any ideas? Thanks![:D]

Here is one way. Mix up a batch of brick mortar with black colorant, pour it into a trench about 2 inches deep, with some hardware cloth (heavy wire mesh). If you want an old asphalt road look, add in some peat moss for texture. If you want it to look like a dirt (or “unimproved”) road use a brown color, and a whole bunch of the peat moss, take some wheels from an old toy car and make a few ruts. When adding the color, if you don’t completely mix it in you can get some variation in the color of the road (a desired effect.)

an easy way to build a road is to simply walk in a certain pathway so that your path becomes a dirt cowtrail. To speed it up, add roundup and preen.

I’ve built a concrete road using quickrete and while still wet added patching plaster for the top layer to hide the aggregates and to better seal out the gypsun.

GRR mag has run articles on dirt roads by mixing sand, Portland cement, and sifted (fine) Peat moss. GRR didn’t get the idea, however. It has been advocated by gardeners for building custom rock structures such as planting pots or rock facia over tubs.

I’ve been pretty happy using the rolled shingle material. It comes in sheets about 4 feet wide and 25 feet long. Strong enough to walk on; I’d just make sure it’s smooth underneath.

Are ‘roads’ those new-fangled flat tracks? We don’t get them out here so we rely on the railway and the old muddy tracks.

[bow]