to answer your question, absolutely NOT!! one of my garden areas is roughly 20x20 feet, a very poor "design" by a landscape designer about 14 years ago. it has never pleased me, mainly because it is chock-a-block with perennials -- and WEEDS nearly as tall as i am (just under 5 feet). it's the kind of place which flummoxes me utterly as to how to deal with it and get it whipped into shape. paths?? hah, that would be a fine thing!

i am getting too old to deal with this on such a scale (we haven't mentioned my 20+ other beds, have we?...) so this year i have a helper, who is a dynamo at weeding. she gets more done in 4 hours than i could do in a week. so far she has discovered clematis babies, several hosta and some hidden daylilies, among other nice things, all of which i had forgotten about. there is actually clear ground where she has finished! next will be applying Preen and lots of mulch. hurrah!

your photo is enviable -- wish my gardens looked so good. i definitely subscribe to your "law of nature" which means (for me) a lack of organization and overall design. le sigh.

I like your garden! I tend towards a cottage style though, so my point is not to have paths unless I mean to. So, a garden bed that's 10' deep shouldn't have a path to the back to me, that's space weeds can grow in! I hate seeing ground between plants (my husband likes that better, but since their "my" beds, I plant them how I like them, lol). I try to "layer" my beds so taller plants are at the back and lower are at the front, except for things like lilies that send up tall scapes. The only beds with space between the plants are the hosta beds, and really that's just because they are mostly young plants that haven't grown in yet.

That's a nice-looking planting rouge! What's growing on the fence? A green backdrop to the garden shows things off nicely.

Paths are definitely a must-have in my garden. I like being IN the garden when I'm in the garden :-) Paths make maintenance so much easier too. But, since I'm also a 'no bare ground' style gardener, the paths are not very wide. And there is one area of the front bed that I can't access easily because there isn't a path through it! And to 'retro-fit' a path there now would be too difficult because of estableshed shrubs, so I just live with that situation....

Paths are great for drawing you into the garden. There's something about paths that just seduce you into wanting to follow them to see where they lead.... I'm lucky that our garden is big enough to have room for paths without feeling we've lost too much space for plants. The paths I see when I look out the window by the computer often entice me to get off my butt and go out there to see what's happening in the garden!
{{gwi:240999}}

I did take the "walking situation" into consideration when I laid out my main garden many years ago. It's divided into sections by a simple, meandering stone pathway, so I can easily reach most sections with a minimum of stepping on soil or dirt. Sounds good right?

However, because my property and garden are so small by most peoples standards I just couldn't do the proper width pathway. Isn't something like 3 feet the recommended width? Well mine is more like 1 foot wide.

It actually looks correct when you consider the scale of the garden, but it sure doesn't work for outsiders taking a stroll through my garden. I'm use to it, so I could probably walk it blindfolded, but other people are always stepping off the pathway into the garden and children are a complete nightmare. Because they don't walk - they run - they're always tipping over right into the garden and onto some favorite plant.

Nope. I don't allow others to wander through my garden any longer. They can stand on the grass and admire from there, but that's it.

Kevin

Me too. It's kind of like playing twister in the garden when weeding time comes. I see that giant weed in the back and reach over to get it with the weed knife in one hand, the other on the rock of the pathway for stability while one foot is on the ground the other is poised in the air so not to crush that seedling on the right, LOL.

I tried to do something about it a couple years back by adding randomly spaced stepping stones, so I would at least have an idea of a "safe" place to stand- particularly in the early spring when tiny shoots were in danger of being stepped on. It has worked okay. It takes all my might not to replace some of them with plants though, LOL.
CMK

"by adding randomly spaced stepping stones,"

Me too. I do that in a few places and it does work well until - like you said - you realize the space they occupy and what plant you could put there instead.

Sometimes I'll carry a couple of short boards with me when I'm working in the garden and I don't want to step directly on the soil. I lay down the boards and only step on them. Easier said than done however, but it's better than nothing.

Kevin

What's a path, LOL? Actually, I accidentally stumbled (pun intended) on something that has been working great for me and I think I will incorporate as much as possible into other gardens as well. I put a line of Icee Blue Junipers in and they tend to really stand up to being walked on (obviously not all the time, but I don't need to get in there all the time). I'm talking about the edges, not the middle of the plant, of course! I think I will start putting strategically placed plants that can take some abuse like that so that I can gain access where I need it and don't have empty space.

rouge, that is beautiful. Your path is the grass and the view from that area is just perfect.

My garden style is like eclecticcottage, I prefer a more cottage style garden. I do not like specimen planting with lots of mulch between each plant. If there is space it is covered with a ground cover plant. I like green as my weed blocker so I use ground cover plants.

I like the stepping stone idea CMK. I have some huge beds, so even though there are 3' wide paths delineating them, I still need to tiptoe around to weed and deadhead. When the ground is wet or the bulbs are emerging, I stick to the paths and just weed what I can reach.

But last night, dammit, there was an unreachable patch of weeds that's been bugging me for 2 weeks. So I work my way into the thick of it, where there is one accent rock I can stand on. I lost my balance and very nearly wiped out into a big patch of plants. I recovered by grabbing onto a tree branch but it was a close one. I was thinking what a great story that would have been!

I do the stepping stone thing too, until I realize that the stone is occupying space that could have a plant. Sigh!

When I think about the "trail" I take, and the wall I balance upon, to prune the spiny-section of the garden (roses & Erythrina/coral tree), I can relate to other gardeners with their lack of true access paths completely...

Paths are definitely a must-have in my garden. I like being IN the garden when I'm in the garden.

woodyoak - have to agree with that statement. Perhaps it was subconsciously done but when I first moved here I instinctively incorporated walkways into my garden plans, I'm guessing due to the landscape design books I studied early on & prior to actually drawing my beds on paper. I had a sort of 'look' in my head that I was aiming for and over the course of time just kept moving toward it. I kept digging up patio bricks wherever I tried to dig with a spade, plus I saw the granite stepping stones my son laid out near his own house & liked the look of them. Also had the advantages of a pick-up truck & a skilled migrant worker who laid the walkways for me.

For a number of years it was my daily custom to go 'walkabout' along my stone & brick paths and assess/enjoy my carefully-designed garden beds. I'm proud of what I accomplished and now enjoy viewing them as a whole more often than assessing individual plants.

"playing twister in the garden" - LOL! I love it! That's exactly what I do. I also try to use the strategically-place stepping stones as well.

Beautiful garden, rouge!

My gardens, as everything in my life, are a victim of my complete inability to make a decision about anything. I love cottage gardens... but formal gardens are oh-so-elegant. When starting out I followed some of the advice about making beds only as big as you can reach into them (average about 4 feet deep) but that looks puny and so I extended them. I want those wide, meandering, sophisticated, House Beautiful-type pea gravel walkways, but can't maintain them and don't want to give up that much space to gravel (or any kind of pathway material) instead of plants, and so even my rustic field-stone narrow footpaths are getting overgrown, and certainly are not conducive to strolls in the garden by others. (As someone above said I could walk through my gardens blindfolded and know where to step!)

I do think, however, that as I get older it will be easier to have pathways. I find that I don't have the time and energy (mostly time - if I had more time (which means less work!) I'd have more energy!) to put into maintenance of my perennial beds, and so I'm beginning to do more with shrubs and lower-maintenance plants. I think that having pathways ties into that. One, I won't mind as much giving up space to pathways, and two, having REAL pathways will work better for maintenance, especially since I'm not a kneeler and need to sit down for extended weeding & plantings sessions... and that seems to call for more and more space, lol. I don't remember squishing quite so many plants when I used to sit down in the past, lol. I like to blame in on the narrow walkways but I think the real culprit is my wide butt....

:)
Dee

Lovely bed, rouge :0)

My beds aren't too deep, maybe 6'-8' at the widest, and I can access them on both sides fairly easily with a few exceptions - the major exception being my sunken patio. It has benches, so I can't just reach up and tend to the plants - I have to step up/climb over the benches, and that is getting dangerous because the wood is rotting. Problem will be solved when the new patio is put in next month :oD

I do try to leave enough space between plants to step into the beds to tend to things in the middle - like the rugosa roses that need deadheading or hibiscus that need pinching, stuff like that. I don't want anyone *else* stepping around in the beds, but I know how to maneuver in there without much difficulty.

I tried the stepping stone solution to cut through the beds on I want to go around to the back or side of the house, but I'm not very good at installing things and they ended up at the same level as the ground and even lower in some cases, so for the most part they are covered by mulch. The large stepping stones that were already with the house were very well done (in other words - properly...) so that path connects my upper and lower patios - and acts to pull the eye toward the other patio with plants placed strategically. So, yea - if done well, paths serve a purpose, not only to walk on, but to visually draw the eye to features.

"by adding randomly spaced stepping stones,"

It is impressive the ideas and encouragement one gets from this forum as just yesterday I went out and bought some flagstones and on the same day made a 'path' through a relatively new shade garden. There really isnt enough room to easily negotiate the route but it is the thought that counts ;).

Nice solution! I like how natural and informal that looks - it does not draw attention to itself but it will give you just what you need to gain access.

Plus, I love that kitty sculpture! It has just the right posture. All you need is a catmint plant. :)

'karin' wrote: All you need is a catmint plant. :)

I do! He loves hangin' out near this "Walker's Low". Here they are in early June.

What lovely garden scenes Rouge and Woodyoak. Hope I can do as well as you both have.

Perfect! A catmint + kitty photo never fails to please. Thanks for indulging. I still love the metal kitty too though - he looks great strolling through your shade garden.

'karin' here is another "metal kitty" (+ a metal bird) that we acquired very recently:

Oh my! So cute. Where do you get those? We have an affinity for metal artwork around here, and a huge love for cats.

Rouge, you have the kind of garden I adore!

As far as paths - it depends. My newest garden is 30 feet long and ten feet wide at its widest point. Every ten feet I put in a straight path consisting simply of very heavy cardboard covered deeply with cedar mulch dyed black, I use black on the paths as a reminder to not plant there!
That said, since I'm only 5 feet tall, I can't reach into the middle of the garden even with the paths. Right now it doesn't matter - I lost a lot of plants this past winter so plenty of empty space for me to stand in. The future will be a lot more interesting...

You are very kind a2zmom, 'patty' and mxk3.

The garden whose picture I posted in the first post received its first plant in 2008.

I know it is too stuffed but I don't have the heart to remove anything.

Someone accurately described it as a "mess of colour".

Our new shade bed with the recent addition of stepping stones is looking kind of sparse this year, its first year but I am resisting putting in more plants to fill in that space when I know/hope there is enough new additions to do that if I am a bit more patient.

'karin', I am a sucker for such cat "nick nacks" for the garden. It has got to the point, having bought too many that I now quickly put them in the garden thinking my partner won't notice them until it is too late ;).

Oh that's funny. I can definitely relate. Perhaps you need to just camouflage your cat art, like this piece, which, you know, you'd need a sharp eye to notice. :)