How to Make a Beautiful, Useful Garden Path

 

When setting up a garden or area of land with plants, many often forget to plan a walkway, or path. Or there is a path, but it is not beautiful or easy to use.

A well-designed path can do more than keep your feet dry. It can show you where to walk, and guide your eyes and imagination throughout the garden.

But what is at the end of the path?

Where does the path go?

When planning a path, ask yourself if it is both appealing and easy to use. Wide paths and paths with curves are for walking slowly. They are good if you want people to take a longer look at what is in the garden. Choose a straight path to go from the back door to the vegetable garden, or any other place where you may walk in a hurry.

How many people will walk together on a path? Two people, even two close friends, require a path one and a half meters wide. In any case, a path should never be less than 45 centimeters wide.

Is your garden orderly? If it is, you want a path with an orderly design of materials. Square or rectangular stones look good placed close together, for instance. Stones with many different shapes create a more natural look for an informal garden.

What is under your feet?

One of the easiest and least costly¹ paths to create is simple grass that you have cut short. Small pieces of wood are another choice. Bricks or stones make paths that are long-lasting. For stone paths, use stone cut into large, flat pieces, or "slabs²." These are called "flagstone." Or you can use concrete that is colored and made to look like flagstone.

A long-lasting path

To make a path of brick, stone or concrete slabs, you should give the solid material a well-drained base.

First, mark the sides of the path by dropping two lines of crushed white stone on the ground. For a straight path, guide yourself with sticks. You can get nice smooth rounded edges using two garden hoses as a guide.

Next, dig down about 10-centimeters in the soil where the path will be. Use the extra soil elsewhere in the garden.

Put drainage material such as sand or rock dust in the path area. Push down on it and smooth it as you work. This material provides a solid base beneath the surface, and prevents water from collecting there, freezing and pushing up the stones. Add enough material so that when stones or bricks are in place, their top sides are a little above ground level.

Make the surface slope to one side if the path is narrow or have the slope move to the sides from the center if the path is wide.

Put each stone or brick in place tightly against each other. Or, if you want plants to grow up in between each stone or brick, leave some space between them. Creeping thyme or chamomile look and smell nice as path plants.

Once paving is in place, put more stone dust or sand on top of the path, then sweep the material to fill the empty spaces. Add some water to further settle the material. Sweep and water a few days later again, after everything has settled.

Time and weather will give the path a softer look. Even so, the stones, bricks or slabs will give firm footing for many years to come.

Words in This Story

garden – n. an area of ground where plants (such as flowers or vegetables) are grown

rectangular – adj. having a four-sided shape that is made up of two pairs of parallel lines and that has four right angles; a shape in which one pair of lines is longer than the other pair

informal - adj. not orderly or planned carefully

concrete – n. a hard, strong material that is used for building and made by mixing cement, sand, and broken rocks with water

drain – v. to remove (liquid) from something by letting it flow away or out

hose – n. a long, usually rubber tube that liquids or gases can flow through

slope – v. having an upward or downward slant³

sweep – -v. to remove dust, dirt, etc., from (something) with a broom or brush

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

3 slant   

v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向

参考例句：

• The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
• The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。