A ‘How To’ Guide for Building a Beautiful Garden Path

A sprawling lawn can be an ideal way to navigate your yard at most times of the year. Although, once winter hits, it can quickly turn into a soggy, soppy mess. With that in mind, you might be toying with the idea of creating a garden path to protect your grass and still access the most-used areas of your property.

Garden paths can be both aesthetically-pleasing and practical, which is why you’re probably eager to jump straight into this project. However, before you do, you might see the value in finding out how to build a beautiful garden path you can be proud of. Follow these steps below, and it might be easier than you think.

Step 1: Plot Your Path

Plotting a garden path is not a five-minute process. Sometimes, it can take days of traipsing the same patch of grass to learn your regular walking patterns and know the best area to build a path.

Many people start by plotting out the primary path that connects to the street, house, or garage. You might follow this path to get from your home to the garage, or from the garage, to the house, and to the street.

From the development of this path, you might then look at less formal options that take you to a vegetable garden, the washing line, and other popular parts of your property. Be mindful of how you currently navigate your property so that you can confidently plot out where you’ll install your new path.

Step 2: Consider the Width

You might not think that the width of your path matters, but failure to consider dimensions might mean your newly created path stands out for all the right reasons. A primary path should be at least 1.2 metres to allow for two people to walk on it side by side. 

However, secondary paths, such as those that take you from your house to the washing line, might only need to accommodate one person at a time. Such a path could be much narrower at around 76-90 centimetres.

To help you make your decision, measure the exterior architectural elements of your home, such as your home’s entrance with its trim. Aligning with these elements can allow for a much more cohesive property design.

Step 3: Choose Materials

No two paths are the same. Some people prefer the contemporary elegance and cleanness of pure, square-edged concrete, while others like brick and stone pavers cleverly set into softer surfaces like turf.

You might even consider the style of your home so that you can choose materials that work in harmony with it. There can be a lot to think about before making your choice, including a few logistics-based decisions. For example, you wouldn’t place loose materials like bark near entrances, with a high risk of it being traipsed inside your home. 

Among the most common are concrete, gravel, bricks, and stones. Consider more robust materials for primary paths and softer, more aesthetically pleasing materials for those secondary paths that will be used less often.

Step 4: Prioritise the Base

A pathway can look like a picture of perfection when you first lay it down, but it won’t necessarily stay that way forever if you haven’t spent time laying the perfect foundation. Rather than simply scattering bark or gravel on a grassy surface, you might need to think about levelling, drainage, water run-off, and much more.

If you want your path to last for many years to come, you might need to lay a coarse crushed stone base down to around 10 centimetres into the ground. This can help your pathway stay level over the years of use.

If you have clay soil, drainage might be an issue, so installing drain pipes down the middle, surrounded by gravel, with drain holes facing down, might be crucial to prevent water-related problems.

You might also need to apply a levelling product, like sand, if you’re installing pavers to ensure all stones are neatly nestled in place. Some homeowners may even see the value in purchasing masonry edging to hold stones, pavers, and bricks in place.

Step 5: Future-proof It

You might not have any plans to illuminate your paths now, but that doesn’t mean you won’t in the future. Consider installing an electrical conduit above the base so you can effortlessly retrofit wires for a practical and eye-catching low-voltage lighting system to guide the way.

Step 6: Consult the Experts

We can’t all be experts in everything we try, and that’s okay. Building a beautiful garden path can be hard work, and there’s no reason why even the savviest DIYer can’t call professional path builders for advice and expertise. With their assistance, you can enjoy a well-made, long-lasting path that perfectly borders your lawn and enhances your landscape.