Decorative Garden
Pathways
There are many ways to create an attractive and
decorative garden pathway, even when your garden seems a bit small.
Pathways have both practical and decorative functions: They
designate walking areas around your garden and this helps prevent
people from walking straight through your plants, plus they can be
designed with a variety of materials in any number of shapes, to
enhance the overall look of your yard and garden areas.
How you decide to create your own garden pathways will depend upon
your personal tastes and preference, and it's a good idea
to make sure you choose pathway materials which will compliment the
exterior design of your home. Here are some common materials
used in garden pathways:
River stones - These are generally smooth stones that come in
various sizes, but those used for garden pathways tend to be six
inches or more in width or length. They're buried into the ground
slightly and this causes your pathway to look like the bottom of a
river bed. This can be quite attractive, particularly when used to
create a winding pathway through your garden areas.
Concrete moldings - These are quite inexpensive, because you can buy
ready made stones, or simply buy a mold and create your own pathway
stones from it using concrete. You can usually find molds in
different sizes, and with different shapes and designs too. You
might decide to create your pathway stones in an octagonal shape for
instance, with a butterfly in the center of each.
If for instance, you like to
stencil or paint, you can paint your own designs on the stones once
the concrete has dried.
You can also put something into the bottom of the mold before
pouring your concrete, then once the stone is set you'll have an
unusual item at the top of each stone. What you use is of course up
to you, but some creative ideas include putting dried flowers into
the bottom of the mold, or putting pieces of colored glass or pretty
rocks into it instead.
Bricks - This is another popular material to use for creating garden
paths, and they tend to be used the most in more formal gardens or
with brick houses. Even though the shapes are somewhat too rigid for
some people, there are actually many different ways to design an
attractive garden path using bricks, without it seeming too stiff
and predictable.
You can get bricks of varying colors and create
patterns by the way you arrange them in the garden path layout. You
can also lay them out in unusual and creative shapes, and then put
fragrant herb plants or flowering ground covers between the spaces
that are created from your design.
Bark or Wood chips - This isn't used for creating garden pathways as
often as the other materials mentioned, because it has to be
refreshed regularly since wood will decompose over time. But it is a
wonderful way to create a naturalized, informal pathway through your
garden inexpensively.
