Trend Alert Beautiful Low Impact Pathways

Low impact pathways. A brief context to set expectations.

Low impact pathways: Quick notes

We all need to get from A to B, but paving—like a lawn—is best when it’s kept proportionate. Even better is a pathway that can aid water absorption, instead of an impermeable layer that puts pressure on drains during storms. And a path that uses locally-appropriate materials will add to a garden’s sense of place. Here are some ideas for ecologically seamless pathways, courtesy of designers and horticulturalists featured in our new book, Gardenista: The Low-Impact Garden.

Photography by Caitlin Atkinson.

Step lightly with level changes.

Above: A garden in Mount Washington, Los Angeles, designed by Danielle VonLehe of Terremoto.

At this Los Angeles property designed by Terremoto, risers in gravel, rather than an engineered flight of steps, minimize visual and environmental disruption. “These are six-by-six timbers that are green pressure treated, which is usually what we use,” says Dani VonLehe of design group Terremoto. “They are rebarred straight into the ground. The treads are graded soil with gravel on top.”

Mix it up.

Above: Three different gradients of pink aggregate were used by Terremoto in this Los Angeles garden.

Creeping Ceanothus ‘Yankee Point’ wanders across three gradients of gravel. This detail provides a loose yet effective definition as the pathway bleeds out to rougher ground. Here, pink is mixed with some black. A mixture keeps it more lively; a color that doesn’t relate to its surroundings can be jarring

Shop your property.

Above: A garden in Knox County, Maine, designed by horticulturalist James McCain.

In this Maine cottage garden, James McCain made paths that are just wide enough for necessary landscape management. James found some of the granite slabs on the property; they are “solid and timeless,” adding to this garden’s sense of place. Relaxed level changes make navigation easier on sloping ground, while generous steps like these act as small terraces, slowing storm water as it flows downhill.

Make it mossy.

Above: A woodland garden in St Helens, Oregon.

Tamara Paulat (who blogs as Chickadee Gardens) cultivates a moss path on compacted ground that is tangled with tree roots. Observing how well moss grew in patches, Tamara began to consolidate it, first scraping, and sometimes bulking up soil. Moss requires an absence of leaves and weeds, which for Tamara is easily done with a few minutes each week on a battery-operated leaf blower (the only reason to use one).

Choose ground cover over grout.

Above: Detail from the parking area of a property in Pasadena, designed by Terremoto.

A relaxed hardscaping mosaic of irregular pavers and gravel around the edges of a parking court is home to self-seeders that are easily thinned. Wild European thyme (Thymus serpyllum) thrives along hot rock edges, with daisy-like Erigeron karvinskianus, ambitious lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) and Gaura lindheimeri.

We reference Low impact pathways briefly to keep the thread coherent.

Upcycle dead trees.

Above: Edwina von Gal’s pathway made of sliced tree trunks, in East Hampton, New York.