How important is your garden path?
Your choice of garden path makes a huge difference to how your garden looks.
I visited a beautifully planted garden last year, but it was spoilt by its 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 red brick and modern 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 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. Ideal for stylish perfectionists.
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.)
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 (formerly a hotel and now closed) is a garden of a similar size. Its garden paths are harmonious. They’re in red brick, which reflects the red brick of the main house.
The Salutation, a former hotel in a Lutyens building, uses the same attractive brick for several paths throughout the garden.
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.
It’s worth spending as much as you can afford to get a better path, even if it means not spending much on plants for a few years. You can change your plants more easily than you can change your garden path.
So am I being very unfair in criticising a fellow gardener for their choice of garden path? What do you think?
Pin to remember garden path examples
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Very much like the gravel garden path examples above, thanks for posting, looking forward to checking out more of your content!
We have off-white gravel paths edged with Everedge steel that work well in the Spring/Summer. However in wetter months gravel can become attached to any remnants of our heavy clay soil on footwear, also like someone else said collecting leaves is an issue. I think it’s important to note not to go too small in your choice of gravel size or you could be susceptible to cats using it as a litter-tray. We are now considering clay pavers that match our 1930s red brick house as its easier to push a wheelbarrow down that surface and of course sweep leaves.
We also had a bit of a problem with cats using gravel as a litter tray when we had it in a courtyard in London. I’d forgotten that, thank you for mentioning it.
Thank you for finding out about the terracotta pots in your friend’s garden, what a clever idea. I’m glad that mystery is solved, it was an unscrtachable itch!
I don’t mind concrete or brick paths, but they do need a year or two to weather and mellow a bit (unless of course you’re going for an ultra-modern garden). My pet dislike is obviously non-local stone e.g. slate chippings in Kent, but I’m sure I’ll come across a local garden that makes me eat my words.
I know what you mean. Slate chippings is having rather a moment now, but I think it’ll pass.
Excellent article. Great to see it focusing on natural materials as opposed to concrete which is in my opinion an awful option for paving.
We import a stunning new material to the UK called Slatewood, its a highly textured ( deeply grained like an old timber sleeper ) with excellent grip under foot in our damp climate, a lovely slaty colour that gently weathers with time. please do visit our website for photos.
I had a look at your website, and it does look extremely nice.
In the photograph of Kylie’s grass path I see clay pots suspended from the trees, do you happen to know their purpose? This has been nagging at me since I first read your article last month and I’d love to know the answer.
Kylie says that the pots are to weight the branches down slightly so that they arch over the path with a nice, smooth curve. They’ll eventually thicken and grow into the curve, and then she’ll take the pots off.
Alexandra I really enjoyed reading your articles, what beautiful pictures. I think that putting paths to the gardens improves their aesthetics and makes them look more organized allowing us to appreciate each of the plants that we have there. I don’t have a very large garden but step by step I have been installing small routes to follow with brick. I would like to try with wooden boards, do you recommend it?
Boards can get mildewed or slippy, but there is a composite wooden board called Millboard that could be worth trying, as it looks natural but doesn’t have the same problems with rot, splintering or algae. Thank you for your compliments on the pictures!
What a wonderful selection you have shown us. I love gravel paths but do wonder just how practical they are…at least for everyday use. Tracking that gravel into the house is not something i would want. But lovely to look at, and walk on certainly. My one path is brick and was here when we moved in. Not terrribly creative looking, but it gets the job done!
I think gravel is fine in terms of tracking as long as it doesn’t go straight up to the door. We have a gravel path, but there is a stone terrace between the end of the path and the back door, so none of the gravel does ever get tracked in. I know our neighbours had problems with their automatic gates – the gravel really didn’t work with that at all. But brick sounds nice!
Thanks for another interesting post. I have a mix of paths in my garden; brick, gravel and some concrete slabs – these mainly in the working areas. Each has pros and cons however the aged brick looks best and the gravel is fine except in autumn when it’s difficult to clear of fallen leaves.
I don’t think you are being unfair to the anonymous gardener, you did leave them unnamed and so unembarrassed. We must surely still be allowed an opinion in these politically correct times.
I also know that this particular garden owner doesn’t read blogs, and doesn’t even often visit other gardens, so I think I will get away with it.
I do like a gravel path. They have the added bonus of being a free ‘seed bed’, I have p!ants grown from seedlings that have self seeded in the path. But also weeds seed very easily so you do need to keep them weed free or they don’t look nice at all. Also you can hear people approaching the house when you are in the garden.
ah, yes, you’ve reminded me – gravel is considered ‘good security’ especially for country houses as it’s not possible to approach a house surrounded by gravel quietly.
No I don’t think you are being unfair at all. Paths are a big decision and need a lot of thought. It’s a pity to get it wrong. They can be a think of beauty or just very useful and practical but do need a lot of thought. I agree that they need to fit the style of the garden, and they do need some maintenance. I am just popping out now to sweep our front path.
Thank you, and that’s reminded me, we must weed ours.