Best Materials for Backyard Garden Paths

A backyard garden path is a wonderful summer project, and well within the ability of even the most timid do-it-yourselfer. A path draws the eye, and invites visitors to walk it. Paths can make spending time in your garden, whether for flowers or for vegetables, a delightful experience, and can significantly improve property values. Pavers or mulch, gravel or cobblestone, backyard pathways are as varied and unique as homeowners, but for relatively little time and effort, a path can quickly improve the look of your yard or garden.

When choosing materials for your path, step back and take a look at the space around your home. Are there lots of visible rocks? Is it a well-manicured lawn or is there a wild look about the space? How close are the neighbors, and how different is their property from yours? Look at existing landscaping - are you already using gravel, stone, sand, or mulch nearby? Your path should appear to "fit in" to the surrounding landscape. If you mulch in around your foliage and flowers, a similar mulch can bring unity of purpose to your design. If your property has a rock garden or water feature, stone pavers or cobblestone may be appropriate. A path can also be easily made of mixed media, perhaps wide-set stone pavers surrounded with mulch or gravel. A path of this sort would help to ease a transition from seemingly different areas of the property. Try to envision the path, and choose your material carefully. Finally, take a drive around the neighborhood, and see what others in your region are using - what appeals to you and what doesn't a mulched pathway might be more appropriate to forested areas than to an arid landscape.

When I purchased my property - a sprawling nine acres in central Vermont, I gave a lot of thought to the use of pathways. It is my intent to build a stone house and relatively ornate dry-stacked stone garden. The area I live in is known for its rustic and chunky stones. Vermonters are constantly pulling these beasts from the earth in order to farm or to garden. The region is literally covered in rugged stone walls, and I wanted my home and garden path to reflect the natural beauty and permanence of the stone.

I decided to put in a solid pathway of large flagstones. I could easily have purchased the flagstone for my I wanted my pathway to fit in even before it became an accent for a more-impressive house and garden, so I opted to allow the grass to grow up between the stones, rather than using landscape cloth or sand to retard growth. This means that my path will be harder to maintain - I can't run my mower over stone, so I'll have to trim it regularly, but the organic "grown-in" quality of this approach was important to me. You may arrive at a completely different place for your own path, but this one worked for me. I now have a breathtaking winding pathway that serves as a focal point for my property at this time. As I build, it will become a foundation for all of my future work.

Techniques for laying the path itself will vary widely depending on the medium you choose, and there are great articles and even whole books out there to help you with this. It's important to choose the best materials for your space, your taste, and your budget before you ever pick up a shovel or lay a single stone. A beautiful garden pathway is something that you will enjoy for many, many years, so take a little time deciding what material will best bring out the heart and soul of your space.