Hi Laurie

Summer I use for cleaning the beds, arranging new plants and planning for the fall. The fruit trees are still producing and I only have to pick.
Visiting gardens is always a good idea for me and while keeping up with my shows on tv, I look over gardening magazines and in one of them I saw these garden paths for small gardens, maybe you can use and idea or two...

And you have seen my paths

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: garden paths

It's funny how we spend all winter waiting for things to warm up so we can work in the garden, but then summer hits and we wait for things to cool down so we can work in the garden! I'm waiting for things to cool down some so I can transplant three shrubs that are a bit too close to each other and the house.

My 'path' is rough and ugly so I won't bother uploading a picture of it. All I did really was cover the well-worn trail from my lanai door to the shed with pine straw. Simple. Easy. Cheap. And it gives my path that 'trail through the woods' look, especially with the weeds growing up through it! Now if I could just get the trees needed for the 'woods' part...

Hi
I removed all my "paths" lol since I grow almost everything in pots and are constantly rearranged depending on whats's growing ,flowering they were always in the wrong place anyway Save a bunch of work on weeding,edging not to mention all that wasted grow space lol There seems to be a "law" that whatever is planted closest to the path will grow the biggest,fastest and toward the path lol just yesterday had results from my genius lol
Needed to prune some dead fronds from a palm requiring a ladder All i had to do was move the pots gave me a chance to remove weeds without care and got to rearrange the entire bed !!! No more "paths" for me!!! gary

Actually, there's probably something to your "law". If a plant has an open space nearby (especially if the open space is sunny), plants will naturally reach toward this area. For many plants, "grow or be grown over" is a survival strategy. They want to be first to cover an area and prevent others from sprouting/competing. Apical dominance is one way plants do this. Others spread (think kudzu).

I love garden paths! They can add such a neat structural element to an in the ground garden. The only path I have that is in any shape to be shared is pretty short but here it is.

Thanks so much for sharing!

Sylvia - yes, your paths are great! Thank you for that link... lots of great ideas there too!

Karalynn & Wallisadi - Verrry nice!

I have a lot of thinking to do, but I also have a 9 hr. car ride coming up on Sunday and will be bringing a sketch pad in the car! LOL

I found some neat ideas on the GJ forum. I put a link below to one idea I especially love. I'll have to incorporate it somehow....

Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf casting

When I moved here, there was a large pea gravel circular driveway. I have all but eliminated it and used the gravel for paths.
Weeds are sometimes a nuisance but not so much.
Hester

The link below provides inspiration - none from my garden, however!

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden paths

I have this one by the greenhouse - less formal.

And this one in front. More formal.

Here is a path at my house. All the paths on this thread are very inviting. Thanks for the great pictures of the pathways!

Wallisadi - I like your stepping stones!

Shavedmonkey - Yes, these are ALL definitely great pictures. They all draw you in and you just want to stroll down them.

Gary - sometimes when I look at my beautiful bamboo raised beds all weathering and breaking down now, the thought of going to pots instead is VERY appealing! It would help win the battle over those nasty nematodes too! I posted a picture of what they looked like when my hubby first built them. Wish I had taken more pictures of them when they were new! Sad to see how they have broken down now. :(

Hi
after Jeanne Frances and Wilma by entire garden was destroyed . i did repair the aviary and the GH but decided not to replace the small shadehouse and the shed or raised beds Trying to simplify and organize and since i want a "Tropical understory " look went with the pots. Allows me to alter the form as well as waste no space and certainly eases maintenence . have reduced the number of species by about half but still many of my favs are cold sensitive so will have to be mobile anyway lol
I've always been a hopeless "collector"lol Pots are the only answer for us lol gary

All the paths are great. Wallis, what a good idea to use the lid of a garbage can to make your own stepping stones. I just saw on DIY channel that they poured the concrete in place and then formed it when it set up a little to make free formed ones. I liked that idea too.

Here are a couple of pictures of the paths in my garden. I've posted them before but some of the newer members may not have seen them before.

The first one is a "bottle path". It is rather labor intensive as it is created one bottle at a time and takes a whole lot of bottles. I think there are about 1000 bottles in the path shown. I enlisted a local pub to "donate" the empty bottles.

{{gwi:132225}}

The second path is created with leafcasting pavers. I use taro leaves and they measure about 3 ft by 4 ft. They are made with a sand and Portland cement mixture and reinforced with chicken wire.

E mail me for in depth instructions for either path.

Susan

This post was edited by nova on Sun, Jul 21, 13 at 9:17

Helen aka Micropot,
I got your e mail requesting additional instructions for the bottle path. However, you e mail is blocked so I can't respond. As far as where to get all the bottles, I spoke to the owner of a neighborhood pub and they saved empties for me. The whole bottles are installed one at a time by digging a trench almost as deep as the bottle is tall. Insert the bottle bottom up and tap into place with a rubber mallet. When you have the width of the path done, dig another trench next to the first row using the dirt to backfill the orginal row. Repeat placing bottles in the next row.

As I said, it is rather labor intensive but you do end up with an unique path that is remarkably tough. In the 5 or 6 years I have had mine, I think I have only broken 2 or 3 bottles.

Susan

Susan, I remember your original post on the bottle path. Are they still holdimg up good for you? Have you had many bottles break? By the wat, I love the elephant ear stepping stones! If I wasn't so alergic to elephant ear sap I'd love to make something like that for my self.

Hi Kara!
The path is still holding up well and I have only managed to break 2 or 3 bottles since it was installed. Usually what happens to break one of the bottles is I drop something, like pruners from the top of a ladder, onto the path.

I really like my taro pavers too and I know what you mean about the sap! Fortuantly the only time I have alot of contact with it is when you peel the leaves out of the cement. I always wear gloves for that part of the project!

Susan

Wow! That is impressive !! Can ' t do much but trim at the moment, maybe back to more pathways......lots of new ideas....thx! Good post!

Great pictures everyone, love those ear pavers Nova!

Too hot to do anything but shoot some pictures. Not the best picture but here's my boardwalk between the house and the bamboo...better pictures of the early days before things filled in, half-way down this post.

Tom

Susan, I too remember when you were making that bottle path...it is very unique!
I love the ear path and I would make one but I'm too freaking lazy!
Laura

thank you all for the inspiration! maybe this winter I will get a path too!

Susan, Thank you so much for the instruction! I agree the path is very unique. Does the âÂÂpubâ mean Publix?
Thank you again,
Helen

I think she means a bar/tavern.

Not exactly a path! This is my new arbor. Elaeagnus on either side of this entrance to the back yard decided to become Whomping Willows so to contain them I built this arbor out of white oak and old growth pine.

Papa Jim

Really beautiful and creative paths

Nice arbor. Excellent woodwork. You must have a nice shop! What kind of finish did you use?

Papa Jim, the arbor is beautiful, you are very skilled, good job!

Silvia

Thanks Silvia and shavedmonkey. The finish is Flood CWF-UV. I guess it's a kind of sunscreen for wood!

Papa Jim

It's been a week or so since I've logged in. Great ideas and inspiration! LOVE those leaf castings especially!!!!

If I didnt rent I'd invest in putting a pathway in on the side of my house. I can't find the pic online now but I saw one I loved that just had some simple star shaped pavers ( about 2 feet wide ) and painted a pretty blue. I'd also paint a clear glow in the dark paint over them ) I'd put solar lights along it too. maybe blue ones.

We've had some great threads over the years! This is an oldie-but-goodie I just enjoyed again.

Carol