Hey there gardeners,

My steps are made of locally sourced slate and a few flat pieces of granite laid cross wise. We used an ice chipper to cut the soil and followed a string line to gauge width. The first two are set at a 45 degree angle to each other, the rest are a straight run. These are enough to give us a purchase to haul the garbage out of the basement door and up to the street during the winter.
We didn't need wide steps.
We did use gravel fines between the small granite stones; totally stops weeds.