This past weekend I finally got to pour my new sidewalk. Over a month ago Sarah and I made the forms for each paver and we finally got to put them to use. It took about 4 hours to mix the concrete, pour and screed. Not so bad. After letting the concrete set for 24 hours I was able to take the forms off, put in the edging and fill in with gravel.
I was really hoping to used crushed oyster shells because that is the only truly native aggregate on the Mississippi gulf coast, but crushed oyster shell is hard to come by these days. This is due to the fact that the oyster shells have to go back into the waters for other oysters to attach themselves to grow on. Its kind of an artificial reef/oyster bed situation. They have to do this because all the silts from poor development practices up river(s) are washing into the gulf waters and covering the naturally occuring oyster beds.
Anyway, I went with a mixed aggregate - its called "Alabama Jubilee". How could I not use it with a name like that?
There is still some clean up to be done. I'm looking forward to this fall when I can pull out the over grown shrubs and replant with some of my favorite native species.
