Choosing the right path can be the most important part of a garden. They have many uses, such as getting you from your car to your house, being able to walk through your garden or even to create mystery.
The path also defines spaces or ties the yard and the garden together.
Paths may be straight, curved, or to create mystery by disappearing, begging the visitor to see what is hiding behind the next bend.
They can be made of flag stone, bricks, pavers, pea gravel, a combination of these, or even grass or mulch, just to name a few.
They can be serious, or they can be fun. Below you see a sunburst used to connect 4 paths. We used bricks which were cut in half and the center is filled with marbles that we have found when digging in our yard.
How to Determine What Type of Path and Material to Use.
What is the main use of the path? Will you be carrying in groceries, using it to take a wheelbarrow to the garden or to gain access to your vegetables so that you can harvest them without trampling other plants.
The answer to this will help to determine the width and material needed. You may have a wider main path with smaller ones to access other areas of the yard. Do you need to have a smooth surface for a safer walking path or to wheel trash cans from the house to the street, or can you get away with using stone. All these questions need to be considered.
Above, we have a main path of mixed material, brick and formed stone that meanders from the backdoor to the parking area. Smaller paths from it go to the greenhouse, side yard, kitchen garden and through the garden area mixed with vegetables, herbs, strawberries, and blueberries that need to be picked. These paths are either grass, pea gravel or mulch. So, mixing material can be very effective and interesting.
What is Your Garden Style?
Just knowing your style will help you to design your garden paths.
For me, it was easy. I knew that I wanted a casual cottage garden, interspersed with vegetables and herbs. Think controlled chaos with roses, lavender, peonies, vegetables, and fruit trees.
This type of garden usually has meandering paths of natural products such as stone, grass, mulch, pea gravel or bricks.
Maybe cottage gardens aren’t your style.
Do you like clean lines, paths intersecting at right angles, trimmed hedges, shrubs, and trees? Then you likely would love a contemporary or a formal garden harking back to chateaus surrounded by clipped hedges, topiaries, and water fountains.
Contemporary or formal gardens usually have wide straight paths made of large cut stone, bricks, pea gravel, grass, or cement.
How about a Japanese garden with meandering pea gravel, steppingstones or grass paths with clipped rounded shrubs and small trees along with large, lovely trees offering shade for a water feature below, such as a fountain or Koi pond
As you can see, any design type starts with a path that defines the space. Everything else follows.
How to Get Started.
For inspiration, I always start by going online and searching for garden designs and narrowing down my options based on the size of the garden, how much light or shade the space offers and budget.
Take your time and do your research. The path is usually not easy to change later, so once you have a plan in mind, you can start by drawing it out on paper or lay it out on the ground with hoses, string, or using powdered chalk (available at most large builder supply stores).
This is my preliminary drawing. It does NOT have to be this detailed. This was used for path and planting design.
Before starting to lay your path, also decide if you will be installing any utilities either now or later. It is not easy to dig up a path and get it back the same as it was before, (trust me!) so think about path lighting and irrigation before you begin.
If you want to start your path before you run your lines or pipes, because that may be years away, just make sure to install a pipe large enough to push either the electric lines or plumbing lines or both under the path where you might want to run these. Don’t forget to mark the spot and don’t plant any shrubs or trees nearby.
And, What About Your Budget?
Grass is usually the most affordable and easiest option. As you can see, all the above designs work well with a grass path.
Also, look to see where you can get bargains on material. I was lucky to have a brick patio which we had to dig up to remove all the invasive grass. I then used that area for my raised bed kitchen garden.
This allowed us to use these in our patio and a path. We also found poured concrete “stones” buried under more invasive grass which we mixed with bricks in a meandering garden path.
Try looking in your local Facebook or neighborhood sites for anyone looking to get rid of bricks. We found several people that wanted someone to take bricks away for free.
Designing Your Own Garden.
Designing your garden may seem intimidating. It requires lots of online research, visiting gardens or watching gardening shows on TV. What draws you in? I have found that designing the perfect garden is not just about the look of it, but it is more about the feel of it. Do you want it to be relaxing, a place to entertain, somewhere for children to enjoy, a formal place to display sculptures, or a hidden place to meditate. Or, like me, do you want to have a mix of options? Once you have decided on the spaces you want to include in your design, how will you connect them?
My Garden Design
I have a 50 ‘x 130’ corner lot in a small town. On that lot is a house, a small barn, a greenhouse, and a shed. I also have a Crepe Myrtle tree that has a canopy of 25’ which creates a large patch of shade.
We have created a formal style kitchen garden with raised beds, a pea gravel path, an arbor, and a fountain in the center.
I like to invite friends for a casual dinner, so it was important to us to have a place to entertain. Below we created a 10’ x 15’ patio, with a pergola. This area is spacious, versatile, and yet intimate with the barn on one side and flowers around it and overhead.
This brick path connects the kitchen steps to the kitchen garden on left
and the patio on the right.
This brick and stone path is leading away from the patio which you can see through the door, under the Lady Banks climbing rose.
But the big patio didn’t feel cozy for a small gathering, a glass of wine in the evening or cup of tea in the morning. So below, we created a smaller patio under the Crepe Myrtle and built a small shed around it out of salvaged barn doors and old corrugated metal roofing. This is reached by a grass path.
And below, a brick and stone path leads to the greenhouse nearby.
Here is a night picture of the brick and stone path on the left leading to the greenhouse, under our beautiful Crepe Myrtle, while the grass path off of it leads to the shed dining area on the right.
So, don’t be afraid to want it all. You can have it. Just take your time, gather pictures of what you like, consider how you would like to use your yard and then lay it out on paper. It is much easier to erase a tree than it is to move one.
I hope that this has given you some ideas. Designing your own garden is very satisfying. It is a true reflection of who you are. Think of it as a canvas and the plants are the paint.
For more information about designing a garden, check out the free Easy Garden Design Guide below!
