6 Garden Path Ideas

To appreciate your lawn or garden up close, it’s always a good idea to create your own pathway. From stones and slate, to grass and gravel, here are six garden path ideas to get you inspired.

Sandstone Garden Path

These old and grey garden sandstone can be bought from resellers, mostly online. You can use them for your garden, and allow grass to grow between them. You’ll be able to create a bucolic trail you can enjoy in your garden.
Stones can pretty much be put in any way, shape or form, which allows a variety of original walkways to take place. You can add some grass in the path to soften it.

Prep & Installation

• After having disbursed the soil (height of the sandstone, and a couple of inches for the sand), you can fit them on lean concrete or compacted sand.
• In successive rows, the blocks are staggered, aligned with a chalk line. Use a mallet to lock them into place, and stabilize them in the sand.
• Once installed, they should be linked with sand, swept in to fill the holes.
• Rain is good to soak in the sand and seal in the stones. If there are any holes still leftover, fill them with soil.
• Let nature take its course, or sow some grass.

Brick Garden Path

With its timeless style, brick paths have geometric shapes and sizes that are perfect for creating neat pathways.
Brick ages gracefully. It is a traditional material with a color that doesn’t change with time.
Try using polymeric sand when creating your path. You’ll avoid weeds, and any chemical weeding.

Prep & Installation

There are two ways of installing a brick path:

• Seal the path with a screed. You’ll need some foundations.
• Place the bricks on a sand bed. In this case, stability is determined by preparing the terrain beforehand (surface-run, layers of compacted and leveled sand). Geotextile placed between these two layers will block any vegetation. Bricks have to be laid one by one.
  For the area between the bricks, polymeric sand can be used. Consisting of a mix of sand and a binder, it’s applied dry, and then watered with rain. The mix will harden and strengthen the structure, blocking weeds from the geotextile.

Winding Garden Path

A winding path is a great way to give an adventurous aspect to your garden. Its charm will often come from its impeccable edges, and defined width. But how do you achieve this?
Any graveled driveway used with slate chippings, pebbles, or other items must be lined properly to prevent any dispersal. Between exposed concrete (even decorative) and aluminium with barely-visible borders, you’ll need to pick. Without any visible borders, the edges are particularly interesting when the path is very narrow.
You may not need any tools to do the job, any no aluminium edges won’t allow gravel to wander around in vegetation.

Prep & Installation

• To view the curves of your path before tracing it, use a garden hose to set the dimensions and curves of your project.
• Remove about 6 inches of topsoil. Before setting the borders, place a geotextile.
• You can easily fix it to the ground with twisted steel anchors, dug into the ground, and interconnected.
• Finish your path by spreading the gravel.

Curvaceous Garden Path

This design will give to your pathway a “cut pebble” look reminiscent of lava flow. It usually consists of round modules of various sizes, that can be fitted together. The natural look of the path is created by these cut parts, which are adjusted to create irregular curves.
Try to mix the modules with actual decorative stones, to integrate them seamlessly with nature.

Prep & Installation

• Remove topsoil.
• Place a geotextile sheet. Cover it without about 4 inches of gravel.
• Stabilize the modules, then fill any holes with white decorative stones.
• These small stones will emphasize the edges of the pathway, and enhance the “cut pebble” look.

Slate Garden Path

Alternating slate and grass can be a perfect idea to give your garden pathway a simple and elegant characteristic.
Slate is a natural material that is resistant to weather, and doesn’t slip thanks to its textured surface. It comes in various shapes tones and forms.
The great thing is it doesn’t need any maintenance. It is resistant to frost, and adds a unique style to your garden.

Prep & Installation

• Thanks to their weight, they can stand directly on the ground, or a bed of sand a few inches thick.
• To create this path, try going about five inches deep.
• Add raked compacted sand, and then place the slate at regular intervals, corresponding to the length of a step.
• Between them, you can put grass to cover the sand.

Crosstie Garden Path

Are we using aged wood for this pathway? Actually, it’s all about material composition, and the spectacular illusion it creates. Concrete beams laid transversely across a walkway.
These indestructible elements, frost-resistant and non-slippery, have all the advantages of wood, without its problems. You can walk on them barefoot without worrying about splinters. Reconstituted stone is unalterable. Crossties are set between thicker beams, which makes them perfectly stable and consistent.

Prep & Installation

• The crossties are laid on a bed of compacted sand (about 2-3 inches thick)
• When it comes to the edges, you can block them with similar-looking beans. As they are thicker, you’ll need to disburse accordingly.
• Fill the joints with sand or fine gravel.
• As with all pathways, it is necessary to prep the soil and sand by creating a very slight lateral slope, for runoffs and avoid puddles.

What are some of your favorite garden paths?