Pathway Plantings That the Senses
A walkway that contrasts through grass will certainly get you from point A to point B. But that route becomes a delightful sensory experience when lined with beautiful plantings. Check out this gallery of pictures for various sidewalk garden ideas and planting suggestions that range from edibles to alpine perennials to fragrant shrubs.
Heidi’s Lifestyle Gardens
1. Edibles
Your first idea for pavement plantings likely does not contain vegetables and herbs, but there’s good reason to add them into the mix. Besides bettering your plant choices, they supply rich feel and an element of surprise. Twist in edible blossoms like nasturtiums and pansies for a pavement smorgasbord.
Jocelyn H. Chilvers
Generally overlooked as possible bedding plants, herbs deliver threefold with their curled, spiky or variegated foliage, delightful fragrance, and yummy leaves. Excellent candidates include rosemary, parsley, garden chives, purple or tricolor sage (shown), and much taller, much more wispy fennel and dill.
Jocelyn H. Chilvers
Likewise, veggies bring a feeling of intrigue. Use lettuces, cabbages and kale as cool-season leaves plants. Tuck in a couple of bell peppers or tomatoes for tasteful colour in summer.
Ann Kearsley Design
2. Spillers
Give a direct walkway stylish curves by placing perennials that gently tiptoe on the surface. Here, catmint sprawls to create a sense of rhythm and repeat.
Lankford Associates Landscape Architects
Creeping mother of thyme is a favorite spreader that is low and can withstand foot traffic. Other plants that gracefully sprawl include lamb’s ears, dianthus and cranesbill geranium.
Liquidscapes
To enhance the experience of walking vegetation, mingle spreaders with plants of different heights, growth habits, textures and colours. Do not overlook the possibility of small shrubs and ornamental grasses to emphasize the curves.
Exteriorscapes llc
3. Rock lovers
Plants can slip almost everywhere they have access to water and soil. Here, black mondo grass, coral bells, sedum and low-growing evergreens flourish between a rock and a hard location.
Jocelyn H. Chilvers
Soften stone measures and their surroundings with low alpine perennials such as candytuft (revealed). Other excellent choices include ajuga, creeping phlox, forget me nots, hens and chicks, Missouri primrose, snow in summertime, sweet alyssum, soapwort and bellfowers.
Here, sweet alyssum and santolina naturally charm a rugged setting with shades of white and silver.
Maria Hickey & Associates Landscapes
4. Fragrance givers
Add another dimension to a garden path with fragrant flowers. Visitors will adore brushing up from tobacco flower, old-fashioned petunias, lavender, spicy dianthus and heliotrope with its cherry or vanilla pie scent.
Powell Gardens, Kansas City’s Botanical Garden
Sweet-scented shrubs and tiny trees can also perfume the walkway. Excellent candidates consist of mock orange, lilac, gardenia and star magnolia (shown).
Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture
5. Arid options
A hot, dry location should not torch your enthusiasm for pathway plantings. Fortunately some specimens can defy the cool warmth radiating from a pavement even in arid regions.
The Plant Man Nursery
Among the most reliable choices are aloes, penstemons, yucca, agave, cactus and several of the perennial salvias and euphorbias. (Agave parryi and Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’ are revealed here.)
Browse great succulents for landscapes
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design LLC
6. Shade brighteners
Shady pathways might not possess as many planting choices as bright websites, yet classics such as astilbe, lady’s mantle, coral bells, foamflower and hostas will make sure you never feel deprived.
Barenz Builders
Alongside paths and measures on hard shady slopes, consider rocky groundcovers such as lily-of-the-valley, ginger, sweet woodruff, spotted lungwort and cinquefoil.
The Carter Rohrer Co..
Complement the casual, natural sense of a woodland path with old-fashioned choices like ferns and pachysandra, an evergreen groundcover that thrives beneath trees.
Ag-Trac Enterprises LC
7. All of a sort
Make a bold statement by sticking with a single plant up and down the walkway. Here, ‘Small Trudy’ catmint adds a semi-formal atmosphere and a swath of colour. For maximum impact, choose long-blooming plants such as lavender or daylilies. (In colder climates, make sure your perennial choice can defy snow shoveling and some other salt therapy tossed on a walkway in the winter.)
Stout Design-Build
Here, the uniform presence of lamb’s ear creates the feeling of a low hedge. Boxwoods, dwarf shrubs and short ornamental grasses could create a similar effect.