Low Cost Recessed Stepping Stones

Seattle is known for it's rain. And with that rain comes muddy yards, so I needed stepping stones. But I didn't want to worry about my lawnmower hitting the stones, so I came up with a plan that worked perfectly! And all you need is cement or concrete, water and a shovel.

First of all, pick a day with no rain that's not very hot and cut your grass as short as you can in the area you want to place your stepping stones. Next (on the freshly cut grass) mark the exact outline of what you want each of your stepping stones to look like. (Most people use a marking paint made for marking underground power cables, but I used plain white cooking flour which I sprinkled on with my hand).

The design I used was of "amoeba-like" asymmetrical and slightly interlocking "stones". Next, dig down into the ground about 4 - 6 inches (on and inside the line) while following the line you drew with your shovel. Lastly mix your cement with water (I mixed one bag at a time in a 5 gal bucket) then fill each freshly dug hole to the top with the wet cement. (The ground is your "mold")

*Buy about 1 small bag of concrete per hole depending on the size and depth of the hole. You can press several interesting sticks and leaves into the wet cement, these will look like "fossils" in the "stone". You can also stain the cement with a cement colorant so it looks like stone, (many colors are available), but I left mine plain and they turned out wonderful.

I chose a wavy path for my stepping stones (as opposed to a straight line) with one zigzag in it. This looks great with the "organic" interlocking shape of the recessed cement "stones" and I put a fountain with plants around it in the center where the path "zigged".

The stepping stones look like slate for a fraction of the price, but my favorite thing about them is that we could mow right over them with no harm to our mower blades! That and the way my shoes no longer got wet on my way to the car! I was told that without adding re-bar my stepping stones might crack, but they've been there for nearly 20 years now and have held up fine. But, truthfully, if they do crack, it just adds to the slate-like rock look. No big deal!