24 Meander-Inspiring Garden Paths
Go your own way when it comes to designing your garden path, using these wistful walkways as your inspiration
Annie Thornton
21 June 2016
Houzz Editorial Staff
Garden paths do so much more than take you to your destination. They influence your pace, dictate the number of people you can walk with and determine whether you can view your destination along the way. The following paths show some of the routes you can take when designing this garden feature.
1. A mown strip through a grass and wildflower meadow links this holiday home with the surrounding landscape and nearby beach. Architect Matthew Moger pulled inspiration from the land and its former use as a farm when designing the home, and the landscape architecture nods to its natural history as well.
2. Inspired by Noel Kingsbury’s book The New Perennial Garden and the naturalistic planting style of Wolfgang Oehme, James van Sweden and Piet Oudolf, this garden mimics nature in an artistic way, with layers of perennials planted in the garden’s heavy clay soil.
This meandering gravel path wraps around the property, with swaths of native plants, such as giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) and Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra), spilling into the walkway. Sculpture, vistas and gathering spaces lie just out of view, with a hidden discovery around every corner.
This meandering gravel path wraps around the property, with swaths of native plants, such as giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) and Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra), spilling into the walkway. Sculpture, vistas and gathering spaces lie just out of view, with a hidden discovery around every corner.
3. A trip to Kyoto, Japan, several years ago inspired the design for this home and garden. Hidden from the street behind a bamboo fence, stepping stones in a sea of gravel wind around sculptural conifers and architectural boulders, many of which the homeowner placed himself.
4. Garden designer Sara Jane Rothwell and landscape architect JoanMa Roig Ortiz created a garden of whimsy in this urban backyard, incorporating constellations and Antoni Gaudí into its design. Rainbow-hued Moroccan tile, intended to resemble dragon skin, weaves through the space as an allusion to Gaudí’s first commission at Güell Pavilions in Barcelona, Spain, which features a wrought iron dragon gate.
5. A flagstone path meanders from the driveway through a courtyard and to the front door of this weekend home.
Creeping thyme (Thymus subulata) and Corsican mint (Mentha requenii) grow between the irregularly shaped pavers. Digiplexis, crocosmias, dahlias and nasturtiums line the pathway, adding bright contrast and seasonal colour to the neutral-coloured architecture.
Creeping thyme (Thymus subulata) and Corsican mint (Mentha requenii) grow between the irregularly shaped pavers. Digiplexis, crocosmias, dahlias and nasturtiums line the pathway, adding bright contrast and seasonal colour to the neutral-coloured architecture.
6. The owners of this property walk up this gravel path every day to pick vegetables and gather eggs from the chickens that live in the barn at the top of the hill. Native grasses border one side of the path and flow down to lower areas of the property, and a gabion wall runs along the other side, terracing the higher points in the landscape and picking up on the barn’s rustic industrial architecture.
7. Christopher Robertson and Viv Nguyen’s entry path prolongs the experience of getting from the street to the house. Concrete pavers from the driveway lead directly to this pivot gate, meeting the more circuitous route that wraps around the concrete wall in the foreground before arriving at the front door. Simple evergreens add life to the entry garden, with limestone gravel crunching underfoot.
8. The homeowner’s love of colour led to this colour-filled custom home inside and out. While most of the nearby hillside landscape is hardscape, that didn’t prevent him from adding a whimsical and alluring garden path.
Artist Darlene Graeser designed a mosaic pathway that winds through the property, guiding visitors from the front gate to the pool. Brightly coloured planters and patio furniture pick up the colours in the path, creating a balanced and bright rhythm.
Artist Darlene Graeser designed a mosaic pathway that winds through the property, guiding visitors from the front gate to the pool. Brightly coloured planters and patio furniture pick up the colours in the path, creating a balanced and bright rhythm.
9. Sometimes the destination inspires the journey, as is the case with this garden path. This intimate garden nook sits among 37 acres of farmland, where the homeowner has lived all her life. Stone pavers lead to a baptismal font repurposed as a birdbath, and an array of marble balls intended to be used as water filters.
10. Mondrian-inspired painted wood fencing sets off an eclectic garden path of wood planks and gravel in this vintage-inspired urban garden. Boxwoods sheared into perfect domes follow the path’s curve, complementing the ceramic orb on the deck.
11. Here, the homeowner – a potter – incorporated river rock and shards of broken pottery in the paths that wrap around the house she shares with partner and her two sons.
12. This picturesque garden only hints at a path, with stone pavers barely noticeable in the lawn. Flanked by robust hydrangeas and other flowering shrubs, this side garden and path catch a glimpse of the ocean through a break in the full-height hedge. The sea awaits just through the rustic wood gate.
13. This garden in the Southern Highlands region of NSW is a softer, looser version of an English-style garden – exactly how the two artists who live there like it.
The cypress archways go a little longer without trimming than would normally be observed in a more formal garden, as do the boxwood hedges running between the arches. Dogwoods tower behind the cypress archways, with white clematis growing on the garden gate. One of the homeowner’s sculptures sits squarely in line with the path, inviting visitors in for a closer look.
The cypress archways go a little longer without trimming than would normally be observed in a more formal garden, as do the boxwood hedges running between the arches. Dogwoods tower behind the cypress archways, with white clematis growing on the garden gate. One of the homeowner’s sculptures sits squarely in line with the path, inviting visitors in for a closer look.
14. In the process of updating this home in a US beach town, interior designer Charles Delisle was also tasked with updating its landscape. A winding path of flagstone and gravel cuts through beach grasses, agave, juniper and other coast-tolerant shrubs to meet the Pacific Ocean.
15. Not all inspiring garden paths are winding, as this modernist example by Katharine Webster proves. Poured in-situ concrete pavers set in a custom gravel mix edge a no-mow grass species on their way to this home’s front verandah. Round metal sculptures balance the void of the gravel and contrast with the otherwise linear front yard.
16. This holiday home for a family of four was designed for easy weekend living, especially when it came to its landscape. In a mostly gravel yard surrounded by picturesque mature trees, designer Mike Baran of Gecko Landscape & Design laid flagstones and brick edging in neutral colours that bring texture and dimension to the ground plane, leading visitors from the front yard to the back.
17. The walled garden seen here holds a traditional kitchen garden, with brick paving in a running bond pattern bisecting it. The formality lends itself to the historic property, recreating a park-like experience at home.
18. This modernist backyard garden complements its mid-century Eichler home with offset, oversized concrete pavers moving from the house through the lawn, past a sweeping concrete planter, to the edible backyard garden.
Shades of Green Landscape Architecture used CalArc precast pavers from Stepstone Inc., packed on base rock and sand. The pavers closer to the house have a concrete mortar base that prevents weeds from poking through and minimises shifting.
Shades of Green Landscape Architecture used CalArc precast pavers from Stepstone Inc., packed on base rock and sand. The pavers closer to the house have a concrete mortar base that prevents weeds from poking through and minimises shifting.
19. Concrete pavers interplanted with ‘Elfin’ thyme (Thymus ‘Elfin’) lead through a backyard filled with low-water plants down to a dock on this waterfront property. The pathway connects to lookout areas and nooks on its leisurely route to the front of the garden, passing through the primarily green, orange, yellow, burgundy and purple plant palette.
20. Artist Suzanne Bracker connected her studio, home and various open areas in her garden with in-situ concrete stepping stones in various sizes. The artistically placed rounds create a piece of art on the ground, with ‘New Gold’ lantana (Lantana ‘New Gold’) growing around them and an agave pointing the way to the next garden space.
21. A terraced hillside garden moves from level to level with narrow stairways made from thick stone slabs. Pittosporum, Perez’s sea lavender (Limonium perezii) and ‘Waverly’ sage (Salvia ‘Waverly’) soften the edges, while echeveria (Echeveria imbricata) grows in cracks between the slabs.
22. Painter and horticulturist Amy Ockerlander may not have a garden path in the traditional sense, as her home abuts a busy footpath and intersection, but that hasn’t stopped her from creating a garden path. Edible plants with medicinal and culinary uses line both sides of the path that runs next to her home, adding a barrier from passing cars as well as a layer of botanical beauty to all who use this public walkway.
23. Landscape designer and homeowner Michael McIver repurposed demoed concrete slabs to create this artistic pathway in the side yard of his bungalow. New timber entry gates, a potting bench, cafe furniture and Mediterranean plants round out this intimate pathway, garden and seating area.
24. Well-adapted non-native plants, such as this ‘Honorine Jobert’ Japanese anemone (Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’), mix with native grasses and perennials along one of the many winding paths in this lakefront garden. Paths lead from the house, at the top of the property, down through sitting areas to the water at the low point of the yard.
Landscape designer Paul Broadhurst transformed what had been an expansive lawn into a more naturalistic meadow and beach, creating a beautiful landscape that connects the homeowners to surrounding nature.
YOUR TURN
How do you lead visitors down your garden path? Show off photos of your standout designs in the Comments below.
MORE
11 Solid-as-a-Rock Garden Paving Ideas
Outdoor Surfacing Ideas With a Difference
Border Protection: What to Plant Along Pathways
Landscape designer Paul Broadhurst transformed what had been an expansive lawn into a more naturalistic meadow and beach, creating a beautiful landscape that connects the homeowners to surrounding nature.
YOUR TURN
How do you lead visitors down your garden path? Show off photos of your standout designs in the Comments below.
MORE
11 Solid-as-a-Rock Garden Paving Ideas
Outdoor Surfacing Ideas With a Difference
Border Protection: What to Plant Along Pathways
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When you are lucky enough to have a lava field in your garden !
Photos 12 and 13 are an absolute delight to my eye - I guess I just love how clipped hedges can be whatever you want. So much more calming than another type of fence, even the maintenance of hedges can be calming. Also 18, 19 and 21 are great designs.