It has been a bit of an "off year" for our labyrinth, in part because it is getting a bit overgrown and "tired." One of the problems with having grass paths is that years of growth and winter dormancy builds up a layer of "thatch" that gradually hides the brick markers.
Hard to tell this is even a labyrinth!
Due to general land settling and the ground shifting, some of the paths have become uneven and the circle of lavender surrounding the perimeter has started to sprawl rather messily.
After 13 years, that's probably not all that surprising... and even with regular maintenance, the time and effort needed keeps increasing.
Trimming back the lavender, which is mostly dormant at this time of the year.
So we decided that 2026 would be the year we undertake a major renovation and reconditioning of the labyrinth.
Last week, we took on the first stage, consisting of cutting the old lavender plants way back, with the hope that it will stimulate new growth from the bottom of the plants.
It looks a bit barren but a lot tidier.
It was a lot of work!
It looks rather bare now, but chances are that we will still have nice flowering lavender by the time summer comes around.
Once the trimming work was done, it was time to cover everything with thick black plastic to kill all the existing weeds and grass. About three months of getting baked should kill most things there.
It took almost enough entire 100-foot roll of black plastic to cover the labyrinth.
Then comes another big job in the form of removing the plastic and scraping the top layer of dead vegetation and soil off, bringing the surface down 2-3 inches to where it's level with the pathway bricks again.
From there, we will add a bit of extra height to the brick rows, and then fill in with the kind of dry "cinder" usually used on paths and running tracks in parks and such.
The labyrinth in better times!
The hope is that we'll be able to significantly reduce the amount of time we spend on maintenance while still having an attractive labyrinth in our back yard!
At the time we built this, we were pretty inexperienced labyrinth keepers, not realizing that we were creating something that would require a lot of upkeep. Now we know better!