Know about the garden paths

A garden of your home is a place where you may enjoy some beautiful and memorable moments with your family and friends. A garden path is as important as the garden itself. All gardens possess paths. These paths may be of planned type or otherwise.  A well-designed path will help you keep your feet dry and will also provide safe as well as easy access to the house also. A garden provides a beautiful look to your garden and also helps in the protection of grass and other plants of your garden.  When there is no path in the garden, people have no other option but to walk on the grass. This walking on grass spoils it. A well planned and successful path also provides shape to a garden and it also defines garden areas because it connects unrelated parts for creating a coherent whole.   

 

In this article we will tell you about some important points related to garden paths like routing a path or determining its size, material for garden path and many other important things that should be kept in mind while working on the garden paths.  

 

The well working of a path depends on its routing. The most essential type of garden path is the primary path. The primary path connects the front and the back doors. It also connects with the street or sidewalk.

 

Many home designers advise that the garden path should be straight as it helps in providing an extended view of the architecture of any building. The other advantage of a straight garden path is that such path is quite easy to follow and predictable. It also gives an impressive and formal look. If you do not want a formal touch in the garden path then you may soften this formal touch by planting some interesting greenery along the edges of a path when it's completed.

 

The secondary path originates from a primary path. The secondary path actually extends inside the  landscape, say a vegetable garden or secluded bench. The secondary path does not have to experience a lot of foot traffic  in comparison of the primary path which sees a lot of foot traffic on a daily basis. That is why the secondary path can be constructed as a narrower and less obtrusive path. Sometimes, even some smooth and gentle curves can be added to the secondary paths. The adding of curves will give a more casual look to the path and will also help in a gentle climb. One fact that should be kept in mind is that the curves should appear natural and logical. The natural looking curves will not spoil the beauty of your garden whereas the non-natural looking curves will spoil the whole view of your garden. It is an obvious point that the natural place -  garden  should have many natural things or the ones which create an illusion of being natural.   

 

* Routing the garden path

 

It is a very interesting fact that various interesting visual illusions can be created with the routing of a garden path. Given below are few points which describe various illusions as well as routing of the garden path.

  

 

 

 

 

 

The straight and a narrow path is quite easy to maintain and construct. The best point of this garden path is that it makes your garden appear longer. The straight and narrow garden path gives a long look to your beautiful garden, especially if the end point is hidden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stepping stone path is really helpful when you want to break up or add some interest to the plants of your garden. This path is the best option when it comes to the protection of the grass. Such paths provide a natural protection to the grass of your garden through their special design.  

 

Before you take a decision on what kind of garden path you are going to build in your garden, it is necessary to have some knowledge about the various materials that are used in the making of garden paths. The stability, durability and the proper use of your garden path will depend on the kind of material that you choose for making a path. Remember that not only the design of the path is important but also the materials that are used in the garden path play a very important role. Also our choice does not only depend on material but it also depends on  the size of garden, price and durability.

  

Another important point related to the materials of garden path is that by mixing various materials you may definitely provide some interesting and innovative effects. Some of these fabulous material combinations include stone and brick, gravels and stone,  stone and pebbles, stone and tiles, timber and pebbles etc. All  these materials’ combinations provide an elegant and rich  look to the path only if they have the right colour. The surface should be decided once you are done with the selection of the material. The surfaces can be of two types, the soft surfaces and the hard surfaces. The soft surfaces possess different type of mulches and turf. On the other hand the hard surfaces include brick and stone pavers and they  offer variety as well as good looks.

 

* Points to remember while choosing material for garden paths

 

-  The safety, practicality, cost and the look should be kept in mind while choosing the material for any garden path.  

 

-  The material of the garden path should complement your house. The materials should blend well with the style, architecture and materials of the house and also its surrounding structures. But do not misunderstand this point because it does not mean that you are unable to mix contrast materials for making  up a path. The mixing of materials is good as it also lets you blend expensive materials. But do not use too many materials at the same time.

  

-  Again, as I mentioned earlier that as primary path sees heavy traffic so it should be made from a material which is set firmly  in place. The material used here should provide an even and  non-slip surface. The inappropriate materials like crushed stone or bark should not be used near the  entryway as people may take them inside the house. Such materials are also difficult to manage. Such materials can be used in tertiary path which passes through a woodland or vegetable garden.

  

Till now we have learnt that garden path should be attractive and useful. They can be made by mixing various materials like concrete with pebbles or tile with pebbles and wooden blocks etc. The path can be the straight, curved or edged shape depending on the amount of space available in the garden. Garden paths are a very important part of your house. The dull paths may spoil the look of the whole garden. The well chosen designs, the well chosen materials and of course the well chosen colours of the garden paths can provide a marvellous look to your garden. Various materials like  brick, stone, concrete, pebbled, tiles, timber blocks; colored stones etc can be used for making garden paths.

 

* Some interesting examples of garden paths