How to Use Stepping Stones for Edging & Decorative Painting

Plan your décor. Theme the art for the stepping stones or randomize it, but decide what to paint so you can lay out the stones to best advantage. Then buy paint and collect images to trace or copy on the stones.

Dig the edging path. Work from the garden border to the edge of the lawn or the adjacent flower or vegetable patch. Use the sharp blade of the shovel to break the lawn or ground, then remove the sod and dig 1 to 2 inches down to make a channel for the stepping stones.

Lay out the stones, measuring a distance of roughly 20 to 24 inches from the center of one stone to the next. This is a good average distance for walking on the path so you avoid leaping between stones. But try to leave a few inches between stones for groundcover to grow. You may need to vary stone size to work out the distances.

Remove one or two stones at a time for painting. As you pick up the stones, spread a thin layer of sand in the track -- just ½ inch to an inch is fine. This makes it easy to level the stones when you set them back in.

Paint individual stones. A natural look is a trail of small ladybugs crawling from one edge of a stone to another. One or two ladybugs can spill over to the next stone which may feature a center image of a small green frog or a bright golden sunflower. Pansies, ferns, butterflies, dragonflies, crickets, hummingbirds, tiny garden snakes and gerbera daisies are all great garden images for the stones.

Cover each painted stone with a clear protective coat of lacquer to preserve the painting. You can cover the entire stone or just the painted area. Weather and use will wear the finish over time but that can have its own charm.

Set the finished stones in their places, planting groundcover or moss or filling in between them with small pebbles or gravel. You will have a magical path to separate garden beds that also makes it easier to water and weed your vegetables and flowers.