Construction Notes.
The above image shows the Labyrinth being laid out into its present location using a simple wooden compass that is attached to an upright post located in the exact middle of the circle. As we knocked individual foot path sections loose from their hand made, one time use forms, we took the individual pieces and laid them out into the above pattern, as pictured.
Each piece of the walkway that you see above is constructed of hand cast concrete we poured into wooden forms that were constructed on an as-needed design basis. When the cement set up, we knocked the finished concrete slabs clear of their supporting plastic liner boards and trimmed the edges of each slab with a metal rasp, taking the rough edges into a smoother walking surface. Some slabs have leaf imprints in them, chihuahua, bird, cat or raccoon tracks in them! The sections had to lay out overnight to harden up and we welcomed mother nature to add her signature to the slabs.
Labyrinths come in many shapes and designs. Ours is a Seven Circuit (it has seven rings) and it's 28' in overall diameter. The center measures 7' across. It took 102 bags of concrete, each weighing 60 pounds, to make. We had to buy a concrete mixer. It took three months to complete working over weekends and if you stretched out the labyrinth, the path would be about 350' long. A round trip would be about 750' total.
The butterfly and Native plant gardens were not in place at the time this image was taken. The metal shed shown in the above image no longer sits at this location. The whole back yard has been changed dramatically since this photo was taken.
All images by Linda S. Jacobson.