Hmm, where to start when landscaping the yard—the plants or the paths? Do you lay the groundwork first, mapping out the space with your network of walkways? Or, do you first think about where you want stunning stands of plants, then add a way into the space?
Whichever comes first, plants or path, no landscape is ever really complete without a soulful marriage between the two. Plants need paths for navigation and structure; Paths need plants for softness and impact. Whether you're all about a seamless transition from the look of your house. Or, you want to explore more dramatic contrast in your design. Knowing how to get the most bang from a planted pathway is mostly understanding how style meets function.
We asked several designers to show us how they go about creating spectacular paths and plant pairings. Here's what they told us....
This wide gravel path is one of a series of walkways. One that connects the various rooms in this hillside Southern California garden. The soft-grey color provides a soothing foil to the colorful and textured plants.
Adding Soft Texture to Walkways
Overview: This billowing, beautiful garden is on a property located in the canyons above Los Angeles. Here the need for low-water usage plants is central to any landscape design. Designer Judy Kameon created a series of paths that lead to linked patios throughout the landscape. The informal pea gravel path (seen above) leads to raised beds beyond. She added a screen of dwarf olives to conceal those raised beds. In doing so, she created visual and spatial separation while maintaining open sight lines.
This curvy stunner of a path (left) just above the road is on the same property. Although it has a totally different mood. Concrete pavers wind through a slope-side setting edged in an informal arrangement. Full of a fluffy cloud of grasses with colorful shrubs and purple-leafed agaves completing the picture. See more of this seductive garden here.
Design Advice:
Kameon puts a premium on designing situation. Appropriate sized paths that allow space for plants to overflow and soften the edges. Thus maintaining their natural organic forms. When designing a path, consider how it will be used. The gravel path (above) with its generous width is ideal for two people to walk side by side. The more narrow streetside path is perfect for one person out exploring.
Key Plants: This is a master class in combining easy-care, fuss-free plants that thrive in the low-water/high-heat environment. Here are the plants for the image at top:
Left: Desert Museum Palo Verde, Echeveria, Dusky Chief New Zealand Flax, Dwarf Japanese Garden Juniper, Powis Castle Artemesia, Stonecrop Sedum
Right:
Ascot Rainbow Spurge, Oriental Fountain Grass, Aloe, Blue Bush Acacia, Sunset Gold Breath of Heaven
Center:
Little Ollie® Dwarf Olive, Icee Blue® Yellow-Wood, Citrus ‘Eureka'
PHOTO: Photo by Erik Otsea; Courtesy of Elysian Landscapes
6 of Our Favorite Plants From This Garden
Karley Rose
Oriental Fountain Grass
Graceful smoky rose-purple flower spikes that nearly glow when back lit by the sun. Full sun. Zone: 5 - 10
Afterglow Echeveria
Big rosettes of powdery lavender-pink tinged leaves are almost luminescent. Orange-red flowers, too. Full sun. Zone: 9 - 11
Sunset Gold
Breath of Heaven
Low and spreading with golden heath-like leaves that are very fragrant when crushed. Full sun. Zone: 8 - 11
PHOTO: Country Farm & Garden
Icee Blue®
Yellow-Wood
First podocarpus tree with distinctive blue foliage! New growth emerges lime-gray-blue then matures to cool gray-blue-green. Full sun. Zone: 9 - 11
Little Ollie®
Dwarf Olive
Heat-, drought- and salt-tolerant dwarf, non-fruiting olive with graceful, multi-branching habit and green-silvery leaves. Full sun. Zone: 8 - 11
Dwarf Japanese Garden Juniper
Super tight foliage and lovely blue-green tint; ground-hugging mound spreading up to 6'. Full sun. Zone: 4 - 9
Planting a Romantic Woodland Path
Overview: A simple path of irregular flagstone pavers has an organic forest floor feel. This works perfectly with the lush part-to-full shade plantings in Ellen Lathi's zone 6B garden. In what looks like a hundred shades of green, Lathi combined a variety of forms and textures. For instance, ferns, large-leafed hostas, and strappy grasses. Then punctuated the soothing palette with that glorious red Japanese maple and plenty of seasonal flowering perennials and shrubs.
Design Advice: The trick to making a winning flagstone path is to first lay out all stones. This is to ensure a comfortable stride from middle to middle of each stone. Then dig out a few inches of soil below each stone to "seat" them securely.
(Love this garden? We do too, and dive into the whole garden in this post.)
Photo: Keller & Keller; Courtesy of Ellen Lathi
3 of Our Favorite Plants From This Garden
Red-Leaf
Japanese Maple
Well-suited as a small lawn tree or in woodland garden or urban setting. Up to 18' tall and wide. Full to partial sun. Zone: 5 - 8
Regal Splendor
Hosta
Creamy gold-edged version of 'Krossa Regal'; blue-green foliage and gold margins on upright, vase-shaped variety. Partial to full shade. Zone: 4 - 9
Red Sentinel
Astilbe
Perfectly content in shady woodland gardens, but equally happy in dappled light under moisture-loving shade trees. Partial to full shade. Zone: 4 - 9
Fuss-Free Plantings Between Pavers
Overview:
This coastal zone 10A garden would be one for Instagram no matter what. But, it's the thoughtful addition of a soft carpet of creeping thyme between pavers that adds that finishing touch. Natural flagstones make up the path which is surrounded by diverse and colorful drought-tolerant plantings and succulents. Mexican Snowball Echeveria (right) and Blue Glow Agave (middle left). These are just a few of the plants that designer Joni L. Janecki & Associates chose. They have bold textures, year-round interest, and dynamic movement.
This path functions as a more informal link between the nearby outdoor fireplace and pond. It allows visitors, including the client’s dog, to meander through the garden instead of ‘sticking’ to the main path. We love the addition of boulders that were sourced from a local quarry. See the entire garden here.
Design Advice: Planting between pavers is easy if you pay close attention to choosing a groundcover. One that grows well in your climate and with the site's soil type, level of moisture and sunlight. We love the effect of a low, nearly solid mat. Although consider popping a few taller plants near the edges for contrast.
A few more good choices for between pavers include mosses and groundcovers you can find at your local garden center. These three have color and texture:
Chocolate Chip Ajuga
John Creech Stonecrop
Dwarf Mondo Grass
Photo: Holly Lepere
Design: Joni L. Janecki & Associates
3 of Our Favorite Plants From This Garden
Blue Finger
Pencil-like, slightly curved leaves point upward and form dense, beautiful groundcover mat. Small white summer flowers. Full sun. Zone: 10 -11
Blue Sedge
A small clumping grass with slender, silver-blue blades. Plant en masse for a splendid effect as seen here. Partial to full sun. Zone: 5 - 9
Woolly Thyme
Durable herb with aromatic leaves, perfect for filling between stepping stones. Creates lush mat of soft green foliage. Full sun. Zone: 5 - 8
Planting to Brighten-Up A Shady Footpath
Overview: The crunchy sound and mixed colors of small-sized gravel. These add to the tactile experience of strolling through this textured shade-loving garden. Here are two views of this coastal oasis set in a busy city.
(Left) This zone 7 West Vancouver BC garden designed by Barbara Longe is all about layers. Layers from the tall viburnum in the back to the hardy begonias and hellebores toward the front. (That's Yellow Wax Bells in the foreground--we knew you'd ask!).
(Right) Cool and green and shady (with a pop of black in that hidden bench). This is a mix of hardy ferns, hostas, coral bells and rhododendrons repeated throughout this space. Located on the coast where fog is a way of life, these robust, rich greens are a smart choice. They become even more beautiful in that greyish light.
Design Advice: Plants that thrive in shade can be exuberant growers quickly overtaking a walkway. Lining the path in stones and excavating about two inches of soil before spreading gravel help keep things tidy.
Photos: Doreen Wynja
Design: Barbara Longe, West Vancouver BC (left)
Design: Ann & Stephen Zazzi, Seattle WA (right)
3 of Our Favorite Plants From This Garden
Eastern Snowball
Large shrub with masses of large, pure white, snowball-like flower clusters that make a showy display in late spring. Full sun. Zone: 3 - 8
Cascade™ Blush
Hellebore
Deep purple-pink blooms on mounds of deeply-lobed, leathery evergreen foliage. Partial to full shade. Zone: 4 - 9
Ghost Fern
Neat, formal, upright mound of silver-green fronds with deep purple midribs. Perfect as a backdrop to hostas. Partial to full shade. Zone: 4 - 9
Planting for Wet, Soggy Spots
Overview: The front yard of this urban Northwest zone 8B residence was transformed from bricks and lawn. Into one that's more waterwise using stormwater management techniques. This includes the landscape stone swale shown here that helps keep precious water on site. That attention to water conservation is already plenty cool. However, the raised boardwalk above the swale created to get you from the street into the yard is just genius.
To attract pollinators, designer Lisa Port added shrubs and perennials. These don't mind wet feet and that also provide a buffer from the street. Bees buzz over the bee balm (front right) and coneflowers, penstemons and salvias tucked into the space. The effect is one of happy plants that just naturally popped up in place.
Design Advice: Rather than fight conditions, use them to your advantage! Water was running off this site into the street. It is now captured in this swale and used to power the pollinator plants installed there. The boardwalk adds a modern contrast to this cottage garden. See more of this garden here.
Photo: Ken Gutmaker
Design: Lisa Port
3 of Our Favorite Plants From This Garden
Pacific Fire
Vine Maple
Creamy-yellow and coral-red stems make a striking winter specimen; green leaves through summer turn yellow in fall. Full to partial sun. Zone: 5 - 9
Thriller
Lady's Mantle
Ideal for moist soils; vivid golden-yellow flowers held on stems in open, airy sprays above shiny, gray-green leaves. Full to partial sun. Zone: 3 - 9
Caradonna
Meadow Sage
Spikes of violet-blue flowers on striking purple-black stems rise above the contrasting gray-green leaves. Pollinator favorite. Full sun. Zone: 4 - 9
Shaping Up a Formal Setting
Overview: We are impressed with how much impact designer Linda Dallas delivered with this pairing of shaped and sheared plants. This provides depth in a small space and the angled concrete paver and gravel path. Plants in this zone 8B garden were meticulously chosen for their adaptability to regular pruning. Sheared shrubs like boxwood, euonymus, and laurel along with narrow Tiny Tower cypress are ideal candidates.
(Colder zones try Castle Spire® Blue Holly, Variegated English Boxwood, and Spartan Juniper.)
Design Advice: Laying pavers at a 45 degree angle to the lines of your house. This has the effect of making the space feel more intimate. Pavers cut to mirror curves of the wall ups the cost, but add grace to the design.
Photo: Doreen Wynja
Design: Linda Dallas, Portland, OR
3 of Our Favorite Plants From This Garden
Otto Luyken
English Laurel
Dwarf and compact, offers year-round interest with glossy dark green leaves and showy flowers. Full to partial sun. Zone: 6 - 9
Candy Apple™
Hydrangea
Compact with long-lasting flowers that start lime and age to nearly pure white. Full to partial shade. Zone: 4 - 8
Green Velvet
Boxwood
Develops a vigorous, rounded form if not pruned. Provides year-round, cold-hardy color and structure in the garden. Full to partial sun. Zone: 4 - 9
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