Lexington, KY - Come walk with me" - you might hear this from a friend, someone who considers a stroll with you to be time well spent. It is an offer of conversation and companionship. You take that first step together and time slows down. Just the two of you; nothing more is required.
A garden pathway also says, "Come walk with me." It is an offer to commune with the garden, to pause, to take a slow look.
Up front
The walkway to your front entrance is a primary path: the postal worker delivers your mail, you struggle along it with bags of groceries, a visitor strides up to knock on the door. Such a busy route needs to facilitate safe and efficient movement, so it should be wide and welcoming, smooth and continuous. Its formality can be softened by plantings along the edges.
How wide? The width of a path should relate to its use. A main walkway that is at least 4 feet wide allows two people to walk side by side. The width of your front walk should also correspond to the width of the front door and its trim, to ensure that your home and walkway make sense together.
My front walkway is too narrow, but I don't want to rip it out. If you're in the same situation, you can follow my plan to widen my existing walkway using either a couple of courses of brick on each side, or by laying some cut stone in a trench on either side, held in place by something like metal edging or cobblestone edgers.
A destination path
A secondary path is likely to be walked by one person at a time, so it can be narrower than a primary path. It leads you to a destination, to the side yard, the garage, or to a sitting area, for example. It may need to be wide enough to accommodate outdoor equipment, so measure the width of that lawn mower then add a few inches; it is best to err on the wide side for comfort and safety.
A slow stroll
And now, the narrowest and most special pathway of all, the one that invites you into the garden. "Come walk with meÖ."
So often, we stand in front of our gardens, or we look at them from our seat on the patio. This point of view is static, it doesn't change. It can be amazingly refreshing to enter into the garden, to amble along on stepping stones, or play chips, or to hear the crunch of crushed gravel under your shoes. These paths slow us down, they feel and maybe sound different, and this slower pace allows us to make friends with our gardens, to get to know each plant, to feel the change from sun to shade.
A seating place within the garden, affording you a new view of your house and gardens, is also such a pleasure. Create a large garden bed with a narrow, gently curving path meandering among the plants. Add some things for the path to curve around, such as a tree, a boulder with surrounding plantings or a shrub - giving the path a reason to curve makes those curves feel natural. Then choose the spot that feels just right for a bench or a couple of Adirondack chairs. You'll be amazed at the difference such a new vantage point makes.
On the surface
There are many suitable surface materials for a garden path: steppingstones, mulch, play chips, gravel, pine straw and more. While many have their landscaping professionally designed and installed, you may be a do-it-yourself type. For direction and ideas, you can consult with your supplier, visit a local garden center, search the Internet for instructions or find a good book. Experience your garden in a whole new way. Walk right in.