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What to make garden paths in the country: 6 best options
Thanks to them, your site will not only become much more beautiful and well-groomed, but it will also become more convenient to tinker in the beds.
Usually the paths in the country house look extremely simple: these are paths between the beds. Sometimes plank sidewalks are laid, even less often paths are made of bricks or fragments of slate. But if the dacha for you is not just a piece of land where you grow potatoes, then the laying of paths should be approached more thoroughly: they will give the site nobility. The experts of the Leroy Merlin School of Repair shared with the readers of Wday.ru their advice on how to lay paths and not be mistaken with their color and material.
Preparatory work
First of all, you need to decide what purpose your tracks will have. Two types of paths can be distinguished: household and walking paths.
Household paths serve so that a person can walk from one place to another (for example, from a gate and to the door of a house or a barn), to move, drag or roll something. For utility paths, you need a strong, resistant coating in case something heavy is being carried along them. Of course, they should be wider than walking ones, without unnecessary turns or bends.
Walking paths play an aesthetic role. They are needed for beauty, so that you can slowly walk around the site using them and admire the flower beds, beds.
Before the main work, you need to outline a plan of how and where you want to lay the tracks. The easiest way would be to draw on a piece of paper an approximate diagram of your summer cottage and think about the most suitable arrangement of the tracks. At the same stage of preparation, take into account the peculiarities of the tracks that you are going to lay. Perhaps you have planned a road junction – connecting the tracks with a circle-track, so you need to think about how to harmoniously fit it into the design of your site. It is worth remembering that you cannot lay paths at a distance of less than one and a half meters from trees, so as not to harm their root system. Then you need to decide on the coverage of the tracks.
What are we going to trample on?
Gravel, crushed stone or stone chips will be an ideal option for covering the paths of the summer cottage, which is used in the warm season. It is also the easiest and fastest to install. The paths will dry quickly after rain and stay clean for a long time. The color of the coating can vary from dark and muted tones to white.
The process of laying such paths is extremely simple. First, along the entire length of the path, you need to dig the soil to a depth of 15-30 cm, and then tamp it. After preparing the base, cover it with geotextile so that grass does not try to germinate through the covering, and gravel does not trample into the ground. A small layer of gravel is poured onto the geotextile, and then a layer of sand – this is how a sand cushion is formed. The edges of the paths need to be decorated with a small border. Its function can be performed by bricks or concrete blocks. Then gravel or stone chips are poured onto the sand cushion. Remember that at least once a year you will have to sprinkle the covered areas with coating material. This type of coverage is suitable for walking paths – they will look neat and graceful, it will be pleasant to walk along the site in a measured manner.
If you live in a house all year round, you should take a closer look at the options for paths from natural stone, flagstone, rubber or concrete pavement… It will be easier to clean it of ice, snow and fallen leaves. Such coatings are suitable for both walking paths and household ones. But the process of laying these coatings is somewhat more complicated, so it makes sense to invite professional builders or at least carefully watch the training videos on the Internet.
Tracks from plitnyaka look very natural. They will easily fit into the natural landscape, and in general they will look very organic, European-style stylish. From limestone, you can create a wide variety of winding paths without limiting your imagination. With the correct laying of the path, the landscape of your site cannot be distinguished from the forest one – it looks as if nature itself has laid out a fancy stone pattern. The limestone from lemesite and sericite will look advantageous – their rich deep color will add aristocracy to the site.
Concrete – strong, durable material. It is advantageous in the sense that the negative impact of the environment practically does not harm the concrete, it does not wear out and is resistant to abrasion, and most importantly, it has a fairly low cost. If you decide to make a walkway with a concrete surface, you can diversify the look with a stencil for garden paths that mimics the shape of a stone. Dyes for concrete mixes will also be quite appropriate. This will add brightness to the track and accent colors to the area.
Rubber the coating is considered the safest: it does not slip when it rains and, importantly, softens falls. You can see similar coverage in playgrounds. The rubber coating has a wide range of shades for every taste – from classic black and white to blue, red, green. Manufacturers can also offer various options for patterns and textures of the coating.