Ideas for making a path

gutties

Hi All,

Happy New Year all.

I have a good expanse of garden that I want to break up with a horseshoe shaped path; this is to allow me to have beds either side of the path.

I guess that the total length of the path would be approximately 40 metres.

I have previously created a path using timber for the two sides and barked the path, but was wondering what type of materials / constructs others have used to create paths through their gardens.

Obviously I will balance the amount of work and effort required with constructing the path with the aesthetics of it!

Pictures would be appreciated to give me a few ideas also please.

philippa smith2

Bark chippings are nice for a natural garden.  Gravel for a more formal feel.  Much depends on how much time you want to spend on keeping the path useable/looking good.  Also of course, what you use the path for - just wandering, trundling a wheelbarrow up and down, etc.
I would think there are plenty of ideas either on the Internet or a good basic garden book.
Try the RHS Encyclopaedia of Gardening and see if you can use any of the ideas. 

Busy-Lizzie

It also depends a lot on the price. I like paving stones but they can be expensive.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=garden+paths+ideas&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB1qDMz8rfAhUHHxoKHf46A6kQ_AUIDigB&biw=1188&bih=539 

gutties

I guess I was wondering about the edging as it would probably work out very expensive to buy about 80 metres of some sort of edging stone; even if I think they look better than a timber edge

Hampshire_Hog

You need to consider the practicality of the material your going to use we use to have bark paths until my wife had to go into a wheelchair permanently then they were totally impractical so now any new paths are resin bonded gravel smooth with no steps.

gutties

Bark works for us as a surface, as (thankfully) we are a young family and so have no access restrictions.

Busy-Lizzie

I think wood is what is most commonly used for bark path edging. I can't send a photo of my garden as I don't have bark paths, but this is a garden in Suffolk that we visited last April. There are wood edgings to bark paths.

Forester Pete

In my last garden I used small stone cobble like slabs. Looked great was hard wearing but caused a lot of work once the weeds started to break through the very many joints. 

Just moved and plan for new path currently are some wide narrow slabs that I can bend by varying the joints. Should be easier to maintain and won't need any edging. Aim to be able to mow over them too.

Big requirement for me is and was access to the garden shed and greenhouse without having to change out of slippers.. 

Lizzie27

I'd probably go for bark with wood edgings as well on the grounds of ease and cost. It does break down though fairly quickly so we replenish the bark every one or two years. We have a shredder so sometimes make our own. Bark chippings is much softer for children to fall on but not so good for bikes. We have used pre-treated decking boards along some edges in the hope they'll last a bit longer. You could if you were a DIYer make your own concrete edging by constructing some wooden shuttering and pouring concrete in but I'm not sure how good that would look.

BenCotto

I like this path which runs to our brick shed. The bricks were lying around the place when the garden was landscaped so effectively they were free. Maybe you could incorporate something similar into your design.

gutties

That path is really nice @Picidae, but I think there would just be too much work (and cost) in doing something like this.

I stepped out my planned path yesterday and it's actually about 60 metres long