.... ah I agree ... when I select my tools to prune ... if by my choice ... they are often not the ones that will get me done the fastest but the one that will let me feel the branches I saw ... so I can savor life in the garden.

Good Day ...

Â
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Â
Robert Frost 'The Road Not Taken' may in part be responsible for my current gardening philoshopy along with other roads less traveled. Or maybe the act of reading it showed the nature already existed.
Whatever, a path with options intriques.
We are building a flagstone Labyrinth as a walk to the main entrance of our home. It is a simple 3 circuit labyrinth, less a circle, more of an oval. The outer right curve will move from the stone steps in a slight curve to a landing in front of the entrance. Or one may continue to follow the labyrinth.
It will be interesting to watch the decision being made by friends and neighbors.
The link is a picture of the flagstone labyrinth that gave rise to the idea.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1354364}}

What is it about paths that evokes so much emotion? This most pedestrian of structures always garners quite strong opinions from numerous points of view. Over the years, on various GardenWeb threads, this topic has typically drawn more responses than the norm.

Espouse an opinion -- any opinion -- about garden paths and you are sure to get a rebuttal with substance that carefully outlines the reasons you are wrong.

What is it about paths that evokes so much emotion?

IronBelly

Perhaps I'm adding too much to this but it is not simply about paths in the garden but a way of life in the garden ... a way of life that is hard to find anymore except in the garden ...

That is what evokes the emotion.

Good Day ...

How lucky you were to have such a principal! I shall try to stand and stare more often.

I read recently that, Americans anyway, have more discretionary freetime now than at any point in the past. Not meant to be argumentative, but written in support of the point. The thrust of the article was that people simply are not taking the time to sit and stare, and don't even recognize the time they have.

Looking at my own situation, i wonder if i made the right choice by not making the path to the compost straight and efficient. I spend entirely too much time pushing a wheel barrow down the path.

IronBelly: I think i have to go back to my path posts to see if I had misbehaved. I do tend to be a bit sarcastic, and have suffered the lovingly quick kick under the table from my better half on more than one occasion. If i have done so again, i apologize, if only to avoid permanant scarring on my shins.

Poppa,

Of course, take care of your shins first. However, on my account, there is no foul. My comments about path opinions/emotions come from numerous old threads on the Landscape Design Forum from over 5+ years. It is a topic that many people have unexplainably (to me, anyway) strong feelings about. Most all of the varied points of view have considerable merit.

Why is such a mundane object as a path cradled in the mind with emotion?

IronBelly

"There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone"

Robert Hunter, "Ripple"

The path we laid has a gentle curve in it, and its steps are carpeted in thyme. Perhaps it is the scent of the thyme that urges us to slow down, sit on the steps and enjoy the view. This is the best-weeded section of the garden as we often sit and pull whatever weeds that dare to sprout within arm's reach of the thyme. It's a great spot to sit and watch the swallows, phoebes and butterflies. There's much work that is often undone in the garden, but more's the pleasure gained from enjoying the view.

My own path has been far from straight and I wouldn't even describe it as having gentle curves. The quiet but streetwise city girl of sixteen did not have enough imagination to put herself where she finds herself today.

But then again, the version of Ripple that she was enjoying then was far different from the Grateful Dead song she loves today...

V.

Why is such a mundane object as a path cradled in the mind with emotion

Is a path mundane? A path determines where a person goes and how he gets there. When someone tries to establish a "rule" about how a path flows, they are in essense attempting to dictate the choices that person can make. May as well try to retie the umbilical cord.

All roads lead to...

One thing that separates humans from animals is an ability to see ahead and go directly towards it, a browsing, directionless mammoth is no match for humans driving it over the edge. Apparently high flying anthropologist can recognize the presence of humans by the straight lines they make in the landscape. Why do gardeners fight this tendency by creating unnatural, winding paths?
We are often told that we should create an air of mystery by obscuring some part of the garden, a trick that is supposed to encourage curiosity. Then we walk straight towards that area to satisfy ourselves and we miss anything that might be enjoyable along the way. We can make this path completely redundant by laying out a hose pipe as if it had some juju to help us with the best wiggly line it can offer. Highway builders have been known to put a bend in a road to slow traffic but if there is one thing more fond of a straight line than man, it is man in motor car. After all where do accidents occur, mostly?
All roads and paths lead somewhere, so make them as direct as possible, if we donÃt like the destination we can always take another path to somewhere else: curvy lines are a distraction and serve no useful purpose in a garden. Nature may not like a straight line, she may even abhor them but man prefers the straight to the curvy.

I am in the process of laying out paths in my garden. These posts have given me much to think about.

I enjoy watching my cats take circuitous routes - over the table, around the leg, under the chair. Not the most direct route, but the one they find most interesting. Should we do the same? Or is that inefficient?

Ink: You're just goading me right?

Browsing, directionless mammoths? Big leap of faith there. How did you substantiate that one? It may be a mistake, but i am assuming you are trying to make the stretch that animals have no sense of what's ahead, or can't choose where they want to be on some conscience level. Try this. let your dog out in the back yard, toss him a bone, then try to catch him and take it away. If your dog is anything like mine, he'll let you get just close enough and then tear out in a turn he knows you can't possibly maneuver. Whether migrating animals or those walking from grazing to a watering hole walk in a straight line or not, i couldn't make a definative statement, but most animal trails i have been on take the path of least resistance, usually not a straight line.

Why do gardeners fight this tendency by creating unnatural, winding paths? Aesthetics? Same reason i quit drawing stick people in kindergarten.

After all where do accidents occur, mostly? Not on curves if that was the implication, though i am not sure of what your point was in this paragraph. According to the statistics on the transporation website, one of the top places for traffic accients is on rural dead straight roads - head-on collisions no less. Something about oncoming headlights tending to cause people to drift out of their lanes into opposing traffic ( come to the light!).

curvy lines are a distraction and serve no useful purpose in a garden *sheesh* Such blanket statements really have me thinking you are just goading me. You're not serious, right?

Nature may not like a straight line, she may even abhor them LOL. I regreted making that statement as soon as i posted it. I was hoping that no one was going to challenge it, and even more, quote it. I quickly thought about crystaline structures and how straight those are.

Lastly, man prefers the straight to the curvy. C'mon Ink, THINK! Just how do you like YOUR woman?

"I am.. offering this up.... to solicit other scribblings about garden paths"
So far only V caught what I was attempting.
So animals and humans walk straight eh Poppa?
Put it into a piece of writing, like it was an article just for fun, oh! and I prefer my woman (singular) straight.

Notes from out of the nursery
We get all sorts in here, all kinds of queries and a lot of questions too. take today....please take today..away. A guy comes into the greenhouse and says he wants a path.
ÃI want a pathÃ, he said.
ÃTo where?Ã I said. ÃWhere do you want to go?Ã
ÃNo. a path a brick thing or a concrete thing what sort of paths do you sell?Ã
This was annoying because it seemed such an obvious question to him with a simple amswer. To him.
Me? I am a regular at the Garden Web.
ÃA path should not be straight but gently following the contour of the genius of the place.Ã I said.
ÃBollocksà he said Ãthat sounds way too expensive.Ã
ÃWe donÃt sell ità I said thinking about taste and aesthetics and garden hoses.
ÃWhat, what donÃt you sell?Ã
It was a good question.

Ink, are you sure that wasn't Poppa at the nursery?

Glad to know that I was the only one to "get it."

I was beginning to think just the opposite!

V.

Straight or curved
Efficient or inefficient
The traveled road or the road less traveled
Right or wrong
Either Or

Wy? There is something odd to me about a determination to limit oneself to 2 choices. Give me dimensionality that permits a full range of motion and direction and I'll dance. Or, if I want to, I'll take my garden debris directly to the compost, so I can dance elsewhere. .

what an odd intro to the "Garden Writers" forum. It reminds me of a story I heard about northern Ireland. An Irish / Anglican nun was describing the high tensions of the "troubles". She said that even the small community of Buddhists living in Belfast would be asked, "Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

I am just me. Unique in the universe, amazingly enough. today I like wiglly paths. Maybe tomorrow I'll want a highway to heaven.
Close your eyes. I can not see. I cannot appreciate the intrigue of a curve from a distance. This spring I built pathways in 2 large beds. They are straight because that's what works best on a small scale. Yet for any distance I need curves and landmarks, textures to brush past, fragrances, variation. Straight lines, pure "efficiency", a lack of complexity and variation and I become lost.

Enjoying space & time-
BA

To "lead one down the garden path" is understood by many to mean mislead or disceive.
A garden path sentence although grammaticly correct confuses momentarily. This makes for back tracking, rereading the sentence to try and discover the correct parsing.
Where did this understanding come from?
Is it because paths may be used to draw or seduce one further into the garden?
Or is it from the creation of illusion used in garden design.
Maybe it did not come from the garden or the path; maybe the intent of rich, aristocatic garden owners of past generations, seen strolling their gardens with fine young quests far from the crowd, was in question.
So far I have been unsucessful in tracking the origins of these phrases, but garden paths certainly carry baggage.

Straight and narrow can be as much a state of mind as a physical description.

Franklinville Road runs for about three miles, as straight as an arrow. It's a country road with little traffic, and you can cover those three miles in about three minutes without even thinking about it.

Or you could slow down literally just a minute or two, and take advantage of the lack of traffic to turn your head from side to side. On either side of the road, the flat farmland stretches for a mile or so and then is enclosed by ridges to the west and east. This is northern Illinois so these are just ridges, not mountains or even hills, but this IS northern Illinois and a deviation from flat is remarkable. The sense of enclosure that you get from the ridges on either side is unusual for this area, and somewhat comforting.

After a heavy rain, the water pools in one farm field, and a white egret shows up rather reliably to see what delectables may be had in this large puddle. The hay field was mowed a couple of weeks ago, and a pair of sandhill cranes are there each morning to feast on what the hay baler left behind. But if your eyes are focused on the straight-ahead, you'd never see the cranes.

Franklinville itself has fewer houses than letters in its name. The sudden shade of the oaks clustered around the houses creates a tunnel-like effect as you drive through the "town" portion of the road. Barely enough time to contemplate how the old church has ended up as someone's auto junkyard.

Near the end of the road is my favorite study in contrasts. As the road passes over the river, which is inelegantly contained within a culvert under the road, you can look to the east and see a quietly curving river with wide banks and gently sloping banks. Sedges and other water plants grow within its shaded floodplain. Some mornings, the brown cows are grazing along the banks and on very special cool mornings, you can see mist rising from the cows as they graze. Every once in a while, a blue heron will join the cows. Overall the scene is quite pastoral and calming.

But if one should look to the west, the scene is starkly different. There, the river has been ditched by the farmer. A straight line with steep banks angles off to the west, with only one species of tall grass to hold the banks in place. If you've looked at this view once, you've seen all there is to see. I rarely look west at the river.

And now you're at the highway with a lot of traffic, and it's time to return to the more mundane issues of driving.

But the straight and narrow road has provided a lot of opportunites for the mind to wander through a few curves.

V.

To be led 'up' the garden path can certainly be deceptive, especially if you thought you were going 'down'. On level ground it is not difficult to discern which is up and which is down but if the grade is too steep then a step up, or is that down, is needed. A trip up is less serious than a trip down so this may help you decide if your leg is being pulled.

Some would say, it's zen to prune,
but not midsummer, Georgia noon.

Working soil may calm some nervous,
but me, I'll hire a good lawn service.

Sit on my porch, and sip sweet tea,
directing hired help with glee.

I've got my finest garden yet,
and didn't even break a sweat! :^)

Wasn't it Herman Hess who said the journey can be more important than the destination? (Sidhartha) Since life is a journey similar to a path, I'll take the path over the destination anytime. I want it to curve without wiggling and take it's time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall path in my garden

I suppose a garden can have short cuts ... for times when one does not feel so poetic ...

I like the poem Studpossum.

Good Day ...

Straight paths make me feel sad....I never want to come to the end of it.

Since we redesigned our what was once "all lawn and shrubs" back garden it is now full of points of interest - a rose garden, a pond with some bubbling water in stones, flagstones with creeping thyme, moneywort, chocolate chip ajuga, pink pussy toes, birdsfoot-something or other and lots more. There's a shady rhododendron garden at one end and a cosy little nook with a chimenea, and at the other end is a plot for vegetables: peppers and tomatoes, and some beans.

The garden is very wide but fairly short from the deck to the fence. I made sure when planning it that even though there is a path going from one end to the other, the general idea is to BE diverted to the focal points. There are circles and curves in the path mostly leading in an angular direction so that the eye is rarely led straight to the back fence, and even then it will lead to the peegees covering it. Everything I read kept saying to do this, so I followed it as much as possible.

I must admit even though it may not be the best garden in the world, and even quite messy at times, that when I go out and see the butterflies, bees and insects hovering above the flowers, or watch the squirrels, chipmunks and birds, or just relax in the hammock with a book and the cat for company, I truly am in another world....

Wasn't it Yogi Bear who said "If you come to a fork in the road - take it"?

~ Earth laughs in flowers ~
Emerson

About the time that BoTann was posting, I was discussing this very quote as several of us were journeying up a mountain trail to an 11,000 foot peak in the Rockies.

Now if you're a technical climber, there was nothing impressive about my feat. But for a lifelong flatlander like myself who had never hiked in higher elevations before, it was challenging task to summit the peak. As my more experienced friends pulled out ahead of me, I told them not to wait for me and sat down on a rock to relish a power bar. (Editor's note: The verb "relish" is never properly used in reference to the disgusting sawdust sold as a "power bar.")

I felt surprisingly good after a few minutes and decided to press on a little further on my own. I knew that staying on the right path was absolutely imperative, but as I looked ahead, the path faded away in the midst of a rock field. Again I thought about quitting, but some other hikers came along and pointed out the cairns that served as trail markers through the boulder field.

So I pressed on; "one rock pile at a time" became my mantra. Often, the trail turned sharply right or left, and I would stay in place for several minutes until I had located the cairns and was certain of where I was headed. I told myself I would go as far as the tree line and would wait for my friends there.

Before I could see the end of the trees, I heard a familiar voice and one of my firends cried out that I had made it. The huge rock summit that had looked so monolithic from down below was much less imposing when you were face to face with it. Scaling it was no different than scrambling up some of the large boulders we had passed earlier in our hike.

And so I had made it. The view from the top was incredible but the sense of accomplishment was even better. But maybe the best part was the lessons that came along the way. Yes, the journey is more important than the destination, and you need to take the time to stop and enjoy the sights along the way. You need to keep your eyes on the path so that you don't miss the unexpected turns. You can go at your own pace, for I arrived only ten minutes after my faster companions. What's ten minutes in the grand scheme of things?

Oh yeah - Cliff Bars are a LOT tastier than Power Bars...

V.

Do "straight paths" make anyone else feel sad?????????????????????

I think there are differences between "straight" paths and "boring" paths. I've not felt sad or bored walking my own garden paths:
{{gwi:1354366}}
{{gwi:1354368}}

There are many paths one can make towards garden happiness.

--Ron

Straight paths make me want to hurry. Twisting paths . . . make me want to rip down them astride a formula one motorcycle. People generally frown racebikes in the garden though. :^)

Straight path or twisting path, either can work, but it's usually best to make sure it doesn't give the perception of a "dead end".

Keep in mind there isn't a single gardening "rule of thumb" that can't be broken, with a pleasing result, with a bit of creativity. Just try to to break them all. It doesn't work, as a rule of thumb.

Wait a minute . . . I'm confusing myself again . . .

SP, hmmm... trying to figure out what you're saying in those two sentences after creativity. Seems like a word might be missing...

I dislike curved paths that are contrived. Turns and all should have some reason for the necessity, and then they can be quite enjoyable. Sometimes a straight path is what's right, sometimes it's not. And yes, deadends should be avoided, but destinations aren't the same thing as dead ends.

--Ron

" . . . bit of creativity. Just try not to break them all."
My apologies for the extra "to" and the omitted "not". Like I'd pointed out, I had confused myself!

What would be the fun of the Burma Road if it were straight?

I feel another 'soon to be zapped' political thread coming on. Burma Road fun? live oak? Do you know anyone who 'helped' build that road?

I apologize. The blood, sweat and toil that went into building it was horrendous.I used the wrong word -"fun". I was merely thinking of the curves and curves and curves of the road. Again, I humbly apologize.

It's gotta be a "male" thing! Someone before on this thread mentioned "a path must lead somewhere or what's the point of it"? That's exactly what my husband said - exactly the opposite of what I think! That's not really logical in a garden.

When you go back into your garden of tranquility, you're not exactly rushing into the office on Monday morning! You are actually wandering in there ... meandering in there, to be at peace with nature.... to marvel at the animals.... to smell your fragrant plants.... to breathe fresh oxygenated air from the trees.

So why do you have to have a straight path leading somewhere in particular?

The enjoyment is in the being, not in the going....being with the moment...the only moment that you have....the only moment that is important - NOW! So stop....relax.....and BE......the more times you can be taken off that god-forsaken straight path the better...all the better to force you to gaze at the bees and butterflies, and just exist at one with yourself and all creation!

Ron, your path in your garden is beautiful...there's so much to see....I wouldn't be sad in that garden. It's not exactly straight and narrow. I really meant straight boring paths are sad with nothing to see - paths that lead directly somewhere - like to the garbage bin or compost or some other insidious place. I think the sad part for me is the word "straight" - I've narrowed it down to that.

For instance, what is the connotation for you in the following phrases:

- "You go straight out that door and down to the office"
- "You go straight to bed"
- "He went straight out of jail to commit another crime"
- "She went straight out the door and never came back"
- "walking a straight line - to check if you're sober"
- "walking the straight and narrow"
- "she had the figure of a boy - straight up and down"
- straight rows of classroom desks and chairs
- straight halls in mental hospitals and other institutions
- straight-laced people

?????

I think men like straight more and rows of things, and women think in curves more and circles.

But that's just my opinion....

now it's mint tea and bed....

night!

Hotpink, it's true, it's not a straight a narrow path. One thing about the straight edges, you can take your time walking down them, without concentrating on where you're walking too much. Your feet know which way to walk while your head can enjoy the sights and sounds. One has to pay more attention where they walk on a curved path, especially in my garden as I tend to plant all the way to the edges and don't particularly care for people stepping on the plants!

--Ron

Sometimes I completely contradict myself when speaking about straight lines in the garden. Generally speaking I like curves and circles, especially if one is limited for space, which most gardens are these days with the newer lots. There is, for me, one exception however and it is as follows:

On a fairly decent sized lot, one thing I love to see are rows and rows of evergreens, living out their lives in a separate space, in different shapes and sizesÂlike globe cedars and Alberta spruce and some clipped yews, all in rows, as if they are being grown to sell but theyÂre not. ItÂs seems like an extravagant use of space and yet every inch is used to the maximum. A garden in our neighbourhood has this type of plot  a bit shady and mysterious, with mature trees also here and there, everything is grown for the sheer joy of the greenery and I absolutely love it. ItÂs quite different from the boring old herb gardens of times past with their ubiquitous box yews, as lovely as they are to some people fond of historic rigidity.

ItÂs the same inexplicable feeling I get when, on a drive through the country, I see a huge lot full to the brim of Christmas trees. I always imagine the owners growing them just because, and not because they have to cut them down and sell them or anything. I think if I had a huge plot of land I would plant Christmas treesÂ.thereÂs something pristinely extraordinary about seeing them all in rows  so environmentally conscious, so beautifully Germanic and disciplined Â.I crave that.

My neighbor had garden paths that were straight, yet wide enough for 2 people to walk side by side. The summer rains, the tremendous heat and humidity, and the lure of the fishing streams have caused the paths to go unattended for long stretches. The paths now vary from a width suitable for one person to a path where one needs to put one foot directly in front of the other, as the St. Augustine grass has taken over and the neighbor has edged it as fast as he can, just on the inside edges. I believe it feels like "the drunken path" to walk it.