October, 
19 2 2 
79 
PATHS AND PAVING IN THE GARDEN 
The Many Varieties of Paving Materials and the Many 
Possible Designs Make Paths a Fascinating Study 
C. H. BEDFORD 
T HE first use of paving is, of 
course, to provide a dry and 
firm footway in the garden. 
If it fails to do this at all times 
within reason, the garden is better 
off without it. Again, if it fails to 
add to the attractiveness of the gar¬ 
den, it is a sad superfluity. Thus, 
on the one hand, it should furnish 
stability and comfort, and on the 
other, beauty of color and texture 
and design and treatment. 
Paving may also provide an in¬ 
delible outline of the garden’s in¬ 
terior design. This it will do quite 
naturally, if it follows the paths 
and skirts the edges of the open 
spaces. The practical advantages 
that lie with this sort of a paving 
scheme must be obvious to the gar¬ 
den amateur. Such an arrangement 
does away with the necessity for 
trimming along the edges of the 
herbaceous beds and provides a dry ap¬ 
proach to all the perennials after showers 
and on dewy mornings. 
The artist in us sees in paving an op¬ 
portunity for such added beauty in the 
garden that the difficulty comes in not 
overdoing it. We must remember that, 
while the paving should have individuality, 
it should, at the same time, harmonize with 
the rest of the garden. If it is necessary 
that we use materials whose coloring makes 
the paving stand out too boldly in relief, 
such as some of the brighter colored tiles 
or bricks or flagstones, we should allow 
nature to cover them with mossy growths 
and not be too meticulous in our efforts to 
keep them clean. We should re¬ 
frain, also, from covering too much 
of the open surface of the garden 
with paving. If there are paths 
that are more than, say 5' or 6' in 
width, it would be better, in most 
cases, to run a strip of paving 
along the edges rather than attempt 
to cover them completely. The 
same rule should apply to any 
broad open areas in the garden, 
remembering that the color and 
texture of well-tended turf is finer 
than that of any paving, and that, 
as a matter of fact, paving is not 
necessary on a space so broad that 
travel, so to speak, is well distrib¬ 
uted over its surface, and on which 
it is not necessary to walk when the 
grass is wet. Thus, we will find 
that restraint both in the treatment 
and in the use of paving will make 
it all the more effective in the end. 
The choice of materials for paving, if 
economy is an object, will be determined 
for us by the sort that is the most readily 
available. If we long for the green, blue 
and purple slates or Vermont, but live in 
Maryland, where the only local slate is 
dull and colorless, and are unable to go to 
(Continued on page 116) 
When stone is obtainable in a standard 
size, it may be laid in such a fashion 
as this. The joints should be made tight 
to strengthen the pattern 
-■ - - ■ 4 
Bricks laid flat and 
±r- 
on edge are combined ] — F 
™ir 
li 
with tiles to get a p !1| 
r \ 
11 a 
pattern resembling a L_ 
ll 
woven mat 
IP 
Here stone and brick are used to get 
an interesting and elaborate surface 
texture. The bricks are laid in herring¬ 
bone and in ordinary bond 
When rough field- 
stones are used in 
paths it is necessary 
to lay them in a 
random pattern 
(Left) This pattern 
of rectangular flag¬ 
stones in various 
sizes is perhaps the 
most restful and 
satisfying of all 
( Right) A random 
arrangement of field- 
stones can be en¬ 
closed and given 
formality by rect- 
angidar flags 
