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The basics of laying a garden path
As much as one wouldl like a garden in their home compound, nobody exactly fancies getting muddy and wet every time they want to enjoy nature. Hence the need for a garden path.
But there is another reason besides vanity that keeps a makes a garden important. It keeps the flora intact, safe from the crushing power of the human foot, and the soil soft like a garden should be.
How does one create a garden path?
A garden path needs to get you to certain important places. Lead from a certain point to somewhere like a playing field, or a building, or a gazebo. According to Hajat Hadijah, a landscape specialist who has laid gardens for some of the major hotels says a garden path begins with the space you have in turn determined by the total garden size. Also the general lay of the land and design of the place. “If it is a residential or a hotel, you must make sure the garden path somehow work with the rest of the paths, say those leading to the entrance or gate,” she says.
A small garden may not allow one to make a convoluted path through it, but one can make a path that goes around it or a straight one through it. For a larger garden one can make interesting twists and even branch out to several paths that either converge or diverge.
Knowing the different ways to make use of the space helps one decide on the best type of path for their garden. Then there’s considering where the paths should pass. A garden may have areas, or plants you can easily pass a path right through but others especially the shrub and bush type, you would need to circumvent.
Other garden plants are so delicate and it would be wiser if your path passed at least a few metres away. It helps to make sure the path is the shortest point between frequented points in the garden and home just to reduce on the temptation of people taking shortcuts and walking over your garden plants.
Garden path types
Once you decide where a path will pass, you will need to decide what type of garden path your garden needs. Is it a cobbled path way, or paved. Are you just going to clear a path on the ground, and leave it or plant grass on the path. If you think those are many options then you haven’t heard what Hajat Hadijah said. You can make a covered garden path, or a bordered path.
The borders be can natural of low growing plants like geranium, that both appeal to the eye and make a sort of fence. Or they can be hedge like from shrubs that are often trimmed and shaped. There’s always the option to mark out the path are with a wooden fence, or just line the path with flowers.
Whether this will be of the same type or varied types is up to your discretion .A covered garden can also be either with manmade material or natural in the form of creepers raised on a wooden archs.
What you choose depends on what you can afford or preferences. If you are environmentally conscious, then the eco-friendly choices are clearing a path and lining it with natural plants, and or a stoned pathway. If you have no qualms about using artificial material then you can use the very popular option of concrete pavers.
Important features
However, even one has a choice there are some important features needed for a good garden path, like stepping area like stones or pavers, so it doesn’t get muddy and also to improve on drainage.
An ever muddy garden path can never be a joy to walk in and it will be harder for people to keep on the path thus creating other tracks in the garden. For the little fence, if your main intention is to keep people on the path and away from the plants or grass, Hadijah says you can always plant the shrubs or fence behind it, and then make a temporary wooden fence as the former grows.
The secret to a garden path is getting one that somehow merges with the surrounding, but as Hadijah says, you can’t expect it to merge with the surrounding overnight. “It takes time, but the grass between the pavers or stones will grow, and the natural lay of the soil will resume, then the path won’t look so stark in contrast to the surrounding,” she says.
