Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Landscape Design/Pedestrian Paths

[Deborah Mensch (deborahmensch]

I hear a lot of desire for pervious surfaces and a lot of concern about dirt
getting tracked in. At Pleasant Hill, when we got rid of the DG, we put in
pavestones, which I believe are set in a bed of sand. Thus, water still gets
down into the ground, and we don't track in mud.

Deborah
Pleasant Hill Cohousing


On 12/24/05, dahako [at] aol.com <dahako [at] aol.com> wrote:
>
> Hi -
>
> Your subsoil really matters for this type of path surface. As does the
> depth of the installation (don't skimp, and maybe even go for more than
> your landscape architect recommends).  Also, pay really close attention
> to how water moves across you site - will it cross the path or need to
> run along it?  Then you need to address drainage or use another surface
> material, or plan to do lots of maintenance.
>
> If you don't want it tracked into the houses at all, it helps to have
> at least 10 feet (about 6-8 footsteps) between the path and each front
> door, over grass, or hard pavers or rough finished concrete. And have a
> mat at each door for people to wipe their feet.
>
> A friend of mine who uses a wheelchair to get around hates this stuff.
> She says the smaller particles get ground into her wheels and her
> floors and generally make her wheelchair dusty and this is hard for her
> to clean.  This may be a consideration in your neighborhood and may not.
>
> I learned all this researching for the pedway at Eno Commons in North
> Carolina. The path is on a mix of soils, mostly clay.  Water moves
> across the path line in a couple of places and runs along it for most
> of its length.  Most of the front porches start 8 feet from the pedway.
>   Eno Commons eventually picked asphalt for the pedway and concrete for
> the sidewalks. It didn't have the pervious surface surface we'd hoped
> for, but it met the other criteria better.
>
> Jessie Handforth Kome
> Eastern Village Cohousing
> Silver Spring, Maryland
> "Where we had chocolate martinis, baked brie, and a warm fire at Happy
> Hour last night."
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