Tree-trimmed paths will decorate any site. This original and beautiful solution is easy to implement on your own, without the help of specialists. Let’s figure out what nuances should be taken into account when preparing and how to make wooden paths in the country with your own hands, so that they turn out beautiful and last a long time.

All about self-arrangement of the track from saw cuts

For and against the decision
detailed instructions
— Preparing the material
— We mark the building
— Preparing the base
— Installing a circle
Care Tips

Walkway made of round wood: pros and cons

In the photographs, the wooden paths look very advantageous. However, before you equip the same on your site, you need to know exactly all their strengths and weaknesses. Here are the arguments for and against.

pros

• Attractive look. Properly selected design will make the trail of saw cuts a real decoration of the garden. Between the round timber, you can plant low ground cover plants, pour colored stone, sand or gravel. Plant single plants or multi-tiered compositions along the path. There are a lot of options, you can always choose the best one for your site.
• Environmental Safety. Wood is completely natural, its use will not harm the environment.
• Wood is a strong and durable material. With proper and regular treatment, it will last a very long time.
• Work on the preparation of the material and the arrangement of the path can be carried out independently. It is not very difficult and accessible even to a novice master. Another plus is that you can use any wood, including old trees on your site.
• Maintainability of the building. If a fragment has deteriorated over time, it is easy to remove it and replace it with a new one. Therefore, when installing, it is advisable to leave a few wooden rounds in reserve in case of repair.

It would be a mistake to think that the solution has no flaws. They are, and quite significant.

Minuses

• Wood is sensitive to moisture. Water enters the fibers, accumulates in them and begins to destroy the material. In a humid environment, wood quickly rots and deteriorates.
• Carpenter beetles and similar insects settle in round timber and make it unusable.
• A wet wooden surface is very slippery, after rain you need to carefully walk on it. You can try to make the surface ribbed, as, for example, with some types of decking, but this will not be very beautiful, and the saw cuts will be difficult to clean.

All these shortcomings must be taken into account when designing and arranging garden paths made of wood. Then they will last a long time and will not cause any trouble.

How to make a walkway out of round timber

Consider all the subtleties of preparing the material and arranging the garden path.

1. We prepare the material

Any wood is suitable for the track. If there is a choice, it is better to give preference to hardwoods: larch, aspen, oak, ash, etc. Soft ones are also suitable, but they will last less. The easiest way is to buy ready-made round tiles. Sometimes they are sold already processed.

Those who want to save money will have to do their own cutting. Even dying or dried trees on the site can be put into action.

Cutting a log with your own hands is not very difficult. To begin with, cut lines are applied to it. Future rounds should be of the same height, not lower than 15 cm. Low elements will not be able to firmly fix themselves in the ground, they will rise when walking.

Finished cuts must be cleaned so that the surface is smooth. This is a laborious but necessary process. The round timber prepared in this way must be treated with hydrophobic and antiseptic compounds. They do it differently. You can use the «grandfather» method with boiling drying oil or bitumen. The liquid is heated to a boil and liberally lubricated with it all surfaces. The heated mixture effectively seals the pores, but it is not very convenient to work with it.

You can take any antiseptic and treat the wood with it. Some craftsmen recommend soaking wooden elements in an antiseptic for 2-24 hours. After that, dry for 2-3 days.

If you want to change the color of wood, it is covered with stain or blue vitriol. Do this before treatment with an antiseptic. After all the manipulations, the round timber must be dried well. Wet wood cracks, so this is necessary.

2. Mark the track

The next step is marking the path. First, it is marked on the ground with chalk or something similar. Then they take the pegs and hammer them on the marking lines. Be sure to check the accuracy of the lines and their direction. If any flaws are found, they are corrected immediately. Then cords are tied to the pegs and pulled tight. The resulting straight lines will be the boundaries of the future garden path.

3. We prepare the base

The quality of the future structure depends on the accuracy of this step. We offer instructions for making a base for a path from wood cuts with your own hands.

1. We dig a trench 25-30 cm deep. The exact figure depends on the height of the wooden round timber. The length of the pit should correspond to the markup, and the width should be made a little larger. It is desirable to make the walls even, without shedding. It will be easier to achieve this in dry weather, wet soil can slide to the bottom.
2. We check the plane of the bottom of the trench. It should be smooth, without significant differences. All irregularities must be removed, the bottom should be tamped a little.
3. We lay a layer of geotextile on the bottom to prevent the growth of weeds. Sometimes they put a film instead, but this is a mistake. Plastic does not allow moisture to pass through. It will accumulate in a sand and gravel cushion, the tree will absorb it, which will lead to its rapid deterioration. If the length of the canvas is not enough, we overlap the strips and glue the joints with adhesive tape. We control that the geofabric is intact.
4. We pour a drainage layer of gravel or crushed stone. Its height is 4-5 cm. We compact the material well, check the accuracy of the plane. We correct errors if necessary.
5. We expose the curb, if it was supposed to exist. It is made from a variety of materials: slate plates, metal sheets, timber, boards, bricks, etc. We put the border along the intended line of the trail, fix it in place.
6. We fall asleep a layer of sand. The height of the «cushion» is 5-10 cm. In the process of backfilling, we spill it with water and carefully ram it. Then the base will be even and dense.

4. Install round timber

Cuts are placed on the prepared pillow. You can do this in different ways: choose some kind of scheme or fill the space randomly. Masters advise first to install large circles, then fill the voids between them with medium and small ones.

When installing, each saw cut needs to be “sunk” a little into the sandy base and leveled in level with adjacent elements. Next, fill up the space between the round timber. Different materials are used for backfilling: small or large gravel, colored stone, sawdust, earth, etc.

If you fall asleep with soil mixture, you can add seeds of ground cover plants to it. When they grow, you get the original green path.

Usually wooden round timber is left unchanged. But there is also a non-standard landscape design that requires original solutions. Then the tree is painted: in one color, several similar or contrasting tones. Along the edge of the path, you can plant flowers, undersized bushes, or decorate it in some other way.

How to care for wood trim

Unfortunately, even a properly equipped wooden path without proper care will quickly become unusable. This is due to the hygroscopic nature of the natural material.

In unfavorable conditions, namely, such ones are formed on the street with constant changes in temperature and humidity, protective impregnations evaporate quickly enough. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out regular protective treatment. You need to do it once, and preferably twice a year.

The wooden surface is scraped, dirt and antiseptic residues are removed from it. Then it is abundantly impregnated with a fresh solution and allowed to dry. If necessary, the processed cuts are painted or varnished. This extends the life of the wooden trail at least twice.

If possible, you should not let the wood come into contact with moisture. A canopy over the path or some kind of temporary flooring can protect from precipitation, which is better to lay for the winter, when there is no one in the country. In winter, you should try to clear the rounds of freshly fallen snow as quickly as possible. In the warm season, water must be diverted from the path. To do this, a drainage is laid along it so that rainwater freely goes to the side.