dig or no for a gravel path

n1st

Do I need to remove the sid and dig in order to lay a gravel garden path?

Alternatively can I lay weed control fabric grass and the lay 3 inches of gravel over that?

Obviously the latter is much less work short term

Reckless Abandonment

It Not necessary to dig. Weed membrane 3 in of hard-core (wacked down) then 1 in of decorative stone , with edging to keep it in.. personally digging the path in looks better. But Is hard work..

Manta400r

The weeds will still come up through the fabric.

I dug out an old hedge, removed stumps, sprayed with weedkiller and rolled out weed control fabric before spreading decorative stone over the area and I've had to weed it on my hands and knees numerous times. Absolute pain in the hole.

Put down slabs if ye can lol

Reckless Abandonment

Weed won't come up through the fabric but they will grow in gravel (I've plenty in mine) slabs will sort that, but personally love the look of a gravel path

looksee

Any gravel path or drive will gather a silt of growing medium (dust, decaying leaves, soil walked into it) in which weeds will grow. They are pretty easy to get out, though this is one situation where weedkiller is the hero, if you take lots of weeds out of gravel manually you stir up the gravel and make the situation worse. Whack down both the hardcore and the gravel then don't disturb it.

Unless its a very casual woodland walk type of arrangement I would definitely dig out first, hardcore, gravel and edging. Think how much of a liability all that gravel is going to be when you finally decide that it would look much better with a 'proper' path in. Its really down to how formal and how much of it. And whatever you do it will require some maintenance.

Pea gravel rolls around and travels, I suggest slightly (1") larger angular stone that will lock together into a firm surface.

ttnov77

That depends on amount of work you want to do and if you want to sink it or have it raised with edges.

In terms of weeds, simply put double layer of cardboard and thick gravel on top. If you do it now as we come into growing season all weeds and grass under will exhaust their reserves and die. No plant can survive extended period of time without sun lights.

I wouldn’t use weed membrane for simple reason that you will still get weeds growing on top and with weed membrane weeds root into that and it will be impossible to pull them out. Cardboard biodegrade in 3 months so no issue there and its more environmentally friendly.

The Continental Op

Without a membrane the soil the op isn't bothering to dig out will mix with the gravel. A proper non woven geotextile would be better than a woven black plastic weed membrane but the latter is much easier to get in small quantities.