The path leading from our front porch to our driveway.

Building a garden path isn’t as complicated as it seem.  For one thing, there are a LOT of different kinds of paths.  The most simple way is just to lay out (year after year) mulch where you’re going to be walking.  Something like tree bark works really well, but as long as you keep replenishing it, all sorts of things would work – like pine needles for instance.  Even gravel works this way, but you have to keep adding to it each year because it sinks into the dirt and things still grow up through it.  Personally, I like bark and pine needles done this way, but gravel seems to need containment (although I’ve seen it loose more than once).

Ours all have forms built around them.  The path in the photo above we did ourselves (we did all our paths ourselves).  It just involved laying out the design, digging it down, putting in the “walls”, placing a layer of garden fabric to keep the weeds out, filling it half full with paver run (sort of like sand or very finely crushed brick) and then setting in the bricks.  Yes, it’s a lot of work.  Yes, it takes a while. But it’s not complicated.  Just go to your library or bookstore to find books and magazines that tell you how to do it.  This path has held up remarkably well.  It’s several years old now and, although we have to add paver run once in a while between the cracks, it hasn’t moved an inch. 

A gravel path we did is under “Drainage in the Garden“.  It’s done the same way – dig, walls, fabric, add gravel.  Link HERE for photos of other garden path walkways.  And HERE’S a link to eHow on how to build them.

    Try it.  Beats walking in the dust or mud.  By the way, a good way to tell where you need a path is to see where you’re already creating one each time you walk through your grass.  After a while it wears its own path.  It might not be the most artisitic place, but it’s the most convenient.