Great ideas for garden paths

Get ideas for your own welcoming walkway from some of the West's best garden designs 

A walk through color

Morro Bay, CA

Orange gaillardia brightens the flagstone path and marshlike plantings in this winner from Sunset's Garden Design Awards.

 

Make a park out of a path

This entry path feel more like a nature trail than a garden walk. Thyme grows between steps; boulders, cactus, and rosemary fringe the path’s edges.

Even before guests get to the house, wide steps (made of concrete aggregate) encourage them to slow down and enjoy the garden.

If your yard doesn’t have enough sun for thyme, tuck Corsican mint or Japanese sweet flag between your steps or pavers; both have scented foliage. Stagger your pavers to slow the “journey.”

See more of this Arizona garden
  

Rock border

When a gravel path and adjacent planting beds are new, the transition from bare soil to gravel can give the garden an unfinished look.

One solution: Define the path edges with larger stones. As plants grow, they'll tumble over and hide the rocks.

In this garden, lady's-mantle with chartreuse blooms surrounds the stone fountain in foreground, while cape fuchsia (Phygelius) with orange-pink flowers spills into the path.   

Classic kitchen garden paths

Brick paths help define this kitchen garden designed in the style of a classic potager. Crops grow in small rectangular, square, and circular beds separated by walkways.

The little plots and generous paths make weeding, watering, harvesting, and other chores accessible. And the geometric patterns add order.

See this old-world-style kitchen garden
   

Mediterranean style

A crunchy gravel entry is a clean casual foil for plant textures and colors.

Japanese silver grass billows over the basalt wall at right beside climbing hydrangea.

'Maori Sunrise' New Zealand flax in a container punctuates the small pond in the middle while 'Palace Purple' heuchera mugho pine and gunnera fill a bed near the house. Cotoneaster spills onto gravel.

More about landscaping with gravel
   

Patio entry

Decorative and functional, a dry-laid flagstone and mulch path leads the way to a patio retreat.

A border of ferns and red-flowered Cuphea ignea creates a leafy entry.

In the back planter, a tall mallow hedge screens a vegetable garden.
   

Storybook setting

Irish moss adds classic charm to an informal path flanked by river birches.

Creeping Jenny, yellow-green Japanese forest grass, campanula, and variegated boxwood mingle in the garden bed.
 

Easy-care front yard

Flagstone paths curve through a low-water front yard. A low berm of soil on either side of the walk adds interest, and weed cloth topped with permeable pea gravel allows excess water to soak into the earth rather than run off into the street.

More lessons from this front yard   

A magical space

Curving flagstones lead to a dining terrace tucked into a sloped garden.

The lush plantings include fullmoon maple (Acer japonicum), deciduous magnolias, native ferns (Adiantum aleuticum, Blechnum spicant, and Polystichum munitum), hellebores, rhododendrons, Siberian irises, smoke tree, and yew.

More about this garden
   

Keyhole vegetable garden

A central pathway wraps around this veggie patch, making working the beds a snap.

It's positioned so the opening faces south; the larger plants in back (beans, tomatoes, and sunflowers) won't shade smaller plants.

The gardener tilled the planting areas 8 to 12 inches deep, but didn't till the keyhole (path). As long as the ground there is packed, weeds will have a hard time sprouting.

Get the planting plan
     

Wooded escape

A flagstone path in Pasadena leads through a garden underplanted with New Zealand flax shrubs and grasses.

Blue-leafed groundcovers create a delicate tracery between pavers.
 

Path of grass

A narrow carpet of grass, all that’s left of a once-expansive (30- by 60-foot) lawn, meanders between curved planting beds. To make room for the beds, the homeowners removed sod around the turf’s edges bit by bit as they discovered new plants they wanted to try.

See more of this Northwest garden

 

Stamped concrete path

A curved path, high walls, soft greens, and a bubbling fountain make this Southern California garden a soothing escape.

The broad path connects the gate to the front door. The walkway is built of stamped concrete and has a dusting of multicolored sand for extra texture.

See more of this Southern California courtyard
  

Transform a driveway

Landscape designer Mary Baum transformed the unused back half of this Portland driveway into a curving path, making room for a lush garden bed to the side.

More: Reinvent your driveway
  

Garden paths: Inspring designs and ideas

Go barefoot in the sand

A 6-inch-deep ribbon of fluffy pink sand meanders through beachy grasses (including Sesleria and Muhlenbergia) in this Malibu garden. ­Arbutus ‘Marina’ trees add shade while pale yellow ‘Graham Thomas’ roses and kangaroo paws fleck the “dunes” with sunny color.

The best part? It's cheap and easy to create: Dig a channel 6 inches deep in the soil, then just pour in the sand. At a building-supply yard, you’ll pay $52 to $62 for a ton—enough to cover about 43 square feet.

Click ahead for more great garden path designs.
 
    From Sunset Magazine