This is the time of the year, summer, glorious summer to spend time outdoors. Renew, refresh, get inspired. Visit your favorite garden or park, or dream about making your garden a little more special. I love gardens with pathways that invite exploration. Gardens that make you want to meander, to spend time and to contemplate the finer things of life. I love all the different colors of green in gardens. You don't necessarily have to have color in flowers to make a garden pop. Try different textures, shapes, and colors of greens. A well placed statue or urn gives the eye a place to focus and center on. A water feature can add a cooling element, and a splashing fountain can be a calming and soothing to the soul. Well designed gardens with meandering pathways with well placed plantings and focal points are truly works of art using nature as the canvas.
Smell the lavender as you walk down the gravel path (right picture) to the fountain with
lily pads awaiting you. I imagine that this pool is filled with Koi and that there is a bench or comfortable seating on the other side to sit and contemplate.
What a feat of design this elliptical planting between the slate pavers is.
A well placed statue draws you to the end of this pathway.
Still there are moments when the shadows fall
And the low sea of flowers, wave on wave,
spreads to the pathway from the rosy wall
Saying in coloured silence, "Take our all;
You gave to us, and back to you we gave.
Vita Sackville-West
This beautiful arbor is supported by a brick wall. It reminds me of the gardens that English poet and novelist, Vita Sackville-West created at Sissinghurst Castle Garden. In April 1930 Vita Sackville-West and her son, Nigel, were looking for an old house where she could make a new garden. Vita fell in love with Sissinghurst Castle and bought it, along with 400 acres of farmland. She spent the next 30 years planting and designing the layout of the garden using the walls & buildings already in place. She was also the first to plant an "all-white garden" because she wanted the color of the flowers and foliage to act as an illuminating factor to prolong the daylight hours and hence to be able to extend the time she could spend in the garden. I spent a delightful summer, several years ago, reading her book: Garden. The gardens at Sissinghurst that Vita so lovingly created, are now part of the National trust and are open for public viewing.
Villa San Michele, Capri
The house was small, the rooms were few
but there were loggias, terraces, and pergolas
all around it to watch the sun, the sea
and the clouds -- the soul needs more space than the body.
Reading this poem just makes me sigh and relax. It is so true that "the soul needs more space than the body" and how wonderful to recharge by spending time strolling under this pergola and hearing the soft crunch of the pea gravel under your feet - A thing of beauty is a joy forever! Excerpt by Axel Munthe from La Strada della Dolce Vita
The best garden pathways can be the simplest, like this cut grass pathway (left).
I love the use of old brick for garden pathways. Old brick has a character and charm that is hard to duplicate with new materials.
Garden on Turtle Creek, Dallas TX, (photo above and below) was designed by renowned Landscape Architects, Michael van Valkenburgh.
The backbone of the garden is a continuous path of varied walking surfaces and garden pathways that flow from the house down the slope.
The meandering stainless steel planks are hollow underfoot altering the pace of the walk through the garden.
A brilliant juxtaposition of materials!
And who is not in love with the beautiful gardens at Versailles. The French really take their strolling in garden pathways seriously!
Some of my most memorable and refreshing times have been spent in gardens walking their beautiful pathways while taking
in the sights and smells around me.
What makes a perfect garden pathway for you?
Please leave a comment and let me know.
Patricia Gray writes about 'WHAT'S HOT 'in the world of Interior Design, new and emerging trends, modern design,
architecture, and travel, as well as how your surroundings can influence the world around you.
© Patricia Gray Interior Design Blog, 2009