How important is your garden path?

I visited a beautifully planted garden last year, but it was let down by its garden path.

The garden owner clearly didn’t care about her garden paths. She poured all her time and money into creating beautiful borders.

But they were fringed by harsh and modern red brick or concrete paths, of the cheapest kind.

Of course, she’s entitled to spend her time and money where she chooses. And she was open for the NGS, so clearly many people think it is a wonderful garden (I shan’t tell you which garden it is).

But I wasn’t the only one to walk away, murmuring the words ‘disappointing.’  And it took us a bit of discussion to work out what we didn’t like.

Finally, we worked it out. It was, indeed, the garish garden paths and the lack of attention to the other hard landscaping elements. (The walls were in the same cheap, modern brick).

Affordable garden paths

Yet you don’t need to spend a lot of money on your garden path. Mulch, gravel or mown paths are relatively cheap – or even free.

Mulch garden pathways in horticulturalist & TV presenter Steven Ryan’s Australian garden

If you’re handy, you can plant a stepping stone garden path yourself – see instructions on doing it here from Gardeners World

Our front garden path was laid around two hundred years ago. It’s beginning to look a bit battered but it must have been very well laid to start with.

And if you’re obscenely handy, then you can even lay a stone path yourself. I googled DIY garden paths. There’s an excellent video on how to lay garden paving by Monty Don, involving string and spirit levels. I couldn’t possibly manage it.

Kylie O’Brien lays beautiful old brick pavers in criss-cross paths across some of her beds. She laid them herself, but they’re not main walkways, so there’s less need for them to be absolutely level.

Main paths in Kylie’s garden (open by appointment via the NGS) are simply mown. All the paths in this garden are DIY.

A gravel garden path

If you’re getting a path laid professionally, gravel is one of the cheapest. Choose fine gravel as it settles better. Don’t run it too close to the front door, or it will get trodden into the house. And have some kind of edging or border to prevent little stones getting onto the lawn, too. Also, if you have automatic gates, you’ll need to use stone or brick under where they go.

A gravel path at Rosemary Alexander’s home Sandhill. it’s bordered by plants, so she doesn’t need to worry about gravel and the lawn-mower. It’s a relaxed, shady planting.

Gravel looks just as good in a town garden. Here Anna Oates has a smart gravel path almost up to the front door. The lavender edging protects the lawn, and there is stone leading up to the front door.

A rather smart white gravel path in an RHS Hampton Court Show garden. Friends who have had very smart white gravel report that you do have to spend alot of time picking leaves off it, and other maintenance issues.

A garden path that works with your environment

It’s also worth thinking about the wider environment when choosing a garden path. I don’t think we would have disliked the ugly red brick path so much if we’d seen it in a town context with red brick buildings. It struck a wrong note because it was in an otherwise very country-style garden.

Anna’s front garden, seen from the front door. Although it’s a town garden, it also overlooks the pebbly beach, which makes gravel a very harmonious choice.

And in a row of terraced yellow London brick Victorian houses, Posy Gentles has used the same kind of brick for her front path (it looks grey because dirt is always being trodden into it. But it essentially matches the house.)

A gravel path in the Rock Garden at Doddington Place Gardens. Gravel and rock go well together.

S shaped paths

The general rule, when creating a garden path, is to follow a straight line between two places. Otherwise you risk bald patches in the lawn, as people take short cuts across your garden.

However, the S shaped path is an important design tool, especially for long, thin town gardens.

This gentle S curve in Mel and Emma’s long, thin town garden adds shape and interest to the garden, but isn’t curved enough to encourage short cuts. Read more about Mel and Emma’s delightful garden here.

Posy has a path with a short curve in her back garden. It ends in a small patch of lawn. It means she has one big abundant bed on one side, which makes the garden feel less long and thin.

Garden path edges

I’ve seen some beautifully simple garden path edging. My absolute favourite is at Rosemary Alexander’s Sandhill home.

This fern edging at Rosemary Alexander’s Sandhill is simple but dramatic. Sandhill is open to visit several days a year.

Lavender is a classic choice for edging a path. My neighbour’s path is much admired.

If you have more than one path…

If you have more than one garden path, think about whether you want them to be different or to match. The garden we disliked (at the beginning of this post) had a number of  different ugly paths – some were cheap concrete pavers and others were harsh red brick.

In contrast, the Salutation in Sandwich is a garden of a similar size. Its garden paths are harmonious.

The Salutation uses the same attractive brick for several paths throughout the garden. Read more about The Salutation here.

I have to admit that our own garden paths are a mix of gravel, stone, and even concrete pavers. But then you will notice that I am not featuring them in this post! Except the front garden, and (below) the mistake I think I made with the grouting.

This path in my garden is Indian sandstone (cheaper than York stone etc). After nine years, the grouting has finally started to look more natural, and it looks much better than it did.

I’d certainly advise you to think about the grouting if you’re using brick or stone pavers. I thoughtlessly decided on concrete grouting for our stone paving because I thought it would be nice not to weed it. I have since regretted it – a more natural sand grouting would have looked better, I think.

So am I being very unfair in criticising a fellow gardener for their choice of garden path? What do you think?

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