Path and Step Ideas

Garden tip from The Garden Source by Andrea Jones

Paperback, 320 pages, $39.95, Rizzoli International Publications

With hundreds of full-color images offering thousands of possible design solutions, The Garden Source includes gardens from all over the world and features projects by the likes of Topher Delaney, James van Sweden, Piet Oudolf, Rick Darke, Sean Hogan and others.

“Garden areas need to be connected by various means, not only by physically connecting one area to another, but also by bonding the outdoor life together using devices that make the garden more interesting and pleasurable.” Here are some ideas for paths and steps taken from photographs in The Garden Source:

• Use colored gravel chippings patterned by dark pebbles as an alternative way to decorate a path for a smaller space.
• Accentuate the curves in a pebble path with red bricks.
• Punctuate pebbles along a path with colored paving slabs.
• Create a walkway by contrasting tiled stone paving with a wooden boardwalk.
• Crisscross stone paths of different textured pebbles and rock over each other.
• Edge a gravel pathway with brick.
• Soften concrete paved steps with campanula and Alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantle).
• Dress up concrete steps by parading ceramic urns, terra-cotta pots or metal containers filled with plants of your choice such as succulents, Mexican fleabane, aloes and weigela. Flank planted ceramic urns along stone steps.
• Inlay concrete steps with pebbles and terra-cotta tiles and edge the steps with wood.
• Edge slate steps with metal and surround them with the contrasting textures of granite rock chippings.