Neither color nor texture will add volume to garden paths. In the garden, where there are a lot of plants, this nuance does not spoil the picture, but the lawn, even dissected by winding paths, paths, alas, still looks flat.

Highlight the paths on the lawn or other flat space will help the height difference.

There are two ways here — in places to raise the relief or to frame the contours with living borders.

RELIEF CHANGE (GEOPLASTICS)

Earthen hills sprinkled around the bends of the path look very impressive. In the presented photo, they were planted with lawn grass.

But in practice, such a solution is very troublesome, because it is inconvenient to mow the slopes, and regular watering is required, because the soil on the tops quickly dries up.

In areas with a humid climate, a shady garden can be decorated not with a lawn, but with a moss.

LIVE BORDERS

Look flawless and stern volumetric lines along paths of plants of the same species. For such landings, perennials are suitable, which have a neat rounded shape of curtains, for example, lavender, hosta, alpine carnation.

This technique is more often used for winding paths in order to emphasize their smooth lines.

In a regular-style garden, uniform living borders are planted along the paths to emphasize strict geometry. Here, evergreen low-growing shrubs are more often used, suitable for the formation of hedges: boxwood, dwarf arborvitae.

The selection of certain areas works great for the effect of volume: steps, turns, bends, forks.

Naturally and harmoniously, the paths fit into the landscape with the blurring of contours, when plants crawl onto the borders and mask them. Ayuga, chistets, cuff, ground cover sedums, gravel, bergenia, yaskolka, etc., do an excellent job with this task.

WHAT TO MAKE A GREEN BORDER FROM

Theoretically, any plants can be planted along the paths. But they require quality care.

Therefore, it is better to immediately divide the site into zones according to the degree of illumination and soil moisture and, according to them, plant the most unpretentious species.

A living border in an open area with moderate moisture may contain the following plants:

• badan,
• peony,
• red-leaved varieties of geyhera,
• avens,
• variegated hostas,
• cuff,
• physiostegia,
• Fassin catnip,
• penstemon,
• garden geranium,
• allium as an adjunct to any of the above.

For open and dry places, such perennials are more suitable:

• cleaner,
• sage,
• sedums,
• perovsky,
• carnation,
• lavender
• decorative wormwood,
• tansy Garadyanov,
• agapanthus umbrella,
• gaillardia,
• aubrieta,
• edelweiss,
• rocky alissum (perennial),
• soapwort,
• arabis,
• iberis,
• gypsophila creeping,
• chernogolovka,
• nivyanik,
• medium-sized and undersized perennial asters,
• tansy maiden,
• santolina.

Most of them can be grown from seeds, in the video below I share my personal experience.

Plants for framing shady paths:

undersized shrubs save you the trouble of renovating living borders every four years.

For the design of the tracks are suitable:

TRACK FRAMING DESIGN

It often happens that you liked a picture from the Internet and really want to do something the same in your garden. But there is a problem — you don’t know what these or those plants are called.

I cannot boast that I know all types of plants, but I am ready to share what I understand.

In the photo on the right:

• on the left side of the path, thread-like veronica (foreground) is planted, then Japanese palm-shaped fan-shaped maple, then a silver carpet from Byzantine chistets, white feces grow behind the stone, then French lavender and hosta;
• on the right, a pachysandra carpet is laid out and a white-edged hosta flaunts against its background.

In the photo above: framing the path with curtains of English lavender (similar to the Munstead variety), the photo of the rest of the plants is blurry, so I won’t guess …

White xiphoid irises and pink armeria play a dominant role in this landscape composition.

On the left, blooming chives, followed by oak sage, Caradonna variety, on the right, it looks like basil, again sage, basil, peony blooms in the background.

The «fragrant path» is surrounded by bushes of sage, mint, rosemary.

Easily recognizable thick-leaved bergenia grows on the road.

On the left is a border of woolly chistets, on the right is Stehad lavender.

In the foreground, the path is framed by a curb of caryopteris, followed by a landing from perovski.

Hakonekhloya (photo above) grows slowly, so be prepared to wait for more than one year for the appearance of such beautiful curtains. Petunias are planted between them, marigolds are behind.

The alternating landing of catnip and soft cuff is complemented by roses and daylily (in the background).

This spring-blooming border is represented by forget-me-nots, behind it is a night violet (Hesperis), then (not yet bloomed) curtain anemones, one more and, again hesperis. Background — everyone’s favorite tulips.

The picture is blurry, therefore it is difficult to judge what plant was planted by the first line of the border, most likely, the obrietta starting to bloom, but then there is no doubt: the second line is the bearded iris, the third is poppies and daisies (nivyanik).

In the foreground of this composition, a bush has not yet bloomed Monardsbehind it rises a panicle of Chinese miscanthus, then a lilac curtain of catnip, yellow — soft cuffs, purple — large veronica, a bush of David’s budleia rises above Veronica (has not yet bloomed), behind it is a mountain ash, then, alas, you can’t make out …

The blue vase on this bulk path is a spectacular contrast to the golden panicles of dechampsia (soddy pike), lilac flowers of Bonar verbena, and low green clumps of milkweed.

This bulk path is decorated with golden panicles of the finest feather grass, silver curtains eringium (appears to be alpine), yellow cloud of soft cuff flowers, bright red-orange flowers of gelenium (Sahin’s Early Flowerer cultivar), shrubs boxwood and pink phlox.

On the sides of the path grow easily recognizable pink peonies, purple ornamental onions (allium, rather, the Purple Sensation variety), blue aquilegia and yellow bathing suits.

Agapanthus umbellata blooms in openwork balls from July to September. Tall flower with color variations…

Both lavender and santolina (photo above) are so good in the border that after trimming the withered inflorescences they will keep a neat appearance. These evergreen shrubs will grow in one place for about 15 years.

If your climate is moderately humid, you can afford to grow a heather border. It will take a lot of plants, but they will grow in one place without a transplant for up to 20 years.

Stonecrop border, prominent for lazy summer residents and arid climates. He does not need anything from you, except for a complete pruning in late autumn. The plant will need to be transplanted in five years. I recommend it, especially since the varieties and colors of this plant are quite enough even for a demanding gardener.

Spiraea of ​​the Little Princes variety blooms in the middle of summer for about a month and a half. The variety is dwarf, slow growing, will delight you for 15 years.

Luxurious inflorescences of red centranthus will decorate the paths protected from the wind, starting in June and for two months. If the inflorescences are cut off, the flowering will repeat.

What else to read on the site:

Flower garden by the bench — garden cinema

Any resting place in the garden, be it a patio, a bench or an arbor, is a small cinema hall, from which an overview of a certain part of the territory opens. Here you can spend a lot of time and explore the surroundings in detail. Therefore, this corner of the garden must be impeccable.

Bulk paths are more suitable for a garden, since a small stone not fixed by a lawn grate frame is mobile and the path does not withstand heavy mechanical loads. On the other hand, the stone scattering organically fits into the landscape of the landscape garden. As a filler, more often …

Porch design inside and out…

Hfinally that! The house is completed, the interior decoration is underway, it’s time to start making plans for the exterior design. And here it is very important not to get carried away and keep a balance, so that it does not turn out that the facade itself, and the porch lives a separate life. The design of the porch is selected in accordance with the style..

Design of the courtyard of a private house

The yard, whether it is large or small, is the first thing we see when opening the gate, which means that it is the visiting card of the house. Any owner of the estate, to one degree or another, but still wants to impress the guests, because the design theme …