She Cut Up Old Milk Jugs to Make a Backyard Path That Looks Like Cobblestone
Stone garden paths can get expensive before the first paver goes down. Concrete molds cost less, but the same shapes repeat across the walkway, making the pattern hard to miss. Getting the uneven edges and different sizes of real cobblestone without paying for stone seems like a difficult compromise.
TikTok creator @krystleconfusesherself found her solution in empty milk jugs. She cut them into plastic rings and filled each one with sand and cement, creating a curved, 28-foot garden path for about $90 in supplies. The money saved came with a tradeoff: four weeks of work.
Milk Jugs Became Molds for Concrete Stones
She cut the tops, bottoms, and handles off empty milk jugs, then divided the remaining plastic into short rings. Each ring held enough cement mixture to form one paving stone.
Sections cut near the top and bottom retained more of their original shape, while the flexible middle sections could bend to fit gaps between larger pieces.
She started with gallon and half-gallon containers, then collected more to increase the number of stones she could make in each batch.
She Positioned the Plastic Rings Along a Curved Route
Before mixing cement, she leveled the ground and used spare garden edging to mark the walkway.
Larger rings formed the main sections, with smaller ones inserted into open spaces. She bent some of the plastic to change their outlines and used rocks to hold the molds in position.
The spacing left gaps between the concrete pieces rather than producing one continuous surface.
Sand and Cement Filled the Plastic Molds
Her mixture combined three parts sand with one part cement and water. She transferred it into the rings with a trowel, pressed it into the corners with gloved hands, and tapped the plastic sides to settle the material.
The translucent jugs helped her judge the height of each piece against the surrounding stones.
She Removed the Molds Before the Cement Hardened
Once the mixture could hold its shape, she removed the plastic rings while the cement was still soft enough for adjustments.
High spots could be scraped down, and edges could be changed before the pieces hardened. The same rings were then available for another section of the path.
Working in batches allowed her to extend the walkway without purchasing new molds for every stone.
Her 28-Foot Garden Path Took Four Weeks and Cost About $90
The finished path covers around 56 square feet. According to the creator, the project used two bags of cement, 11 bags of sand, and a five-gallon bucket mixer, with a reported cost of around $90.
The material weighed about 730 pounds, and the work stretched across four weeks. Cutting the molds saved the cost of manufactured paving forms, but filling and setting hundreds of separate stones demanded considerable labor.
After the concrete had set, she removed the temporary edging and brought the surrounding gravel up to the sides of the path.
The finished walkway curves through the yard, with different-sized pieces fitted together to resemble cobblestone. From the completed path, there is little indication that discarded plastic containers shaped every piece.
Would you spend four weeks making your own cobblestones to get a 28-foot garden path for about $90?
Image credits: TikTok @krystleconfusesherself