Walkway & Planter Ideas

Transform a boring walkway with planters of foliage and flowers.

A walkway is a canvas on which to paint the story of your house. Choice of pavers -- or no pavers -- plants lining the borders, country magic or coastal casual, all of it sets the scene to welcome guests and give your place some very original curb appeal. Choose whimsical or practical or something in-between that suits your climate and your setting.

Flip-Flop Front Walk

For a summer shack by the ocean, celebrate the dunes and grasses. Rip out old concrete, and replace the boring walkway with ankle-deep sand. Leave a nice, wide path for bare feet or flip-flops, and plant the perimeter in graduated heights of low dune grasses, tall flowering plants and taller trees for variety and shade. Use faded teak planters for gold and green grasses, a wood half-barrel for a clump of rosebushes and another for a mixed group of day lilies. Tuck a few arbutus trees along the walk and plant solar lights under the trees and along the path so it's easy to follow at night.

Cool Modern Makeover

When the garage becomes the studio and the car gets parked out front, change the back half of the driveway to a cobblestone curve to the studio doors. Set the stones close together and let trimmed grass or groundcover fill in any space between them. Keep the colors and plantings muted, with bushy hostas and mounded green foliage in front of and in back of a stained redwood gate. A narrow border of flowering annuals like pansies runs along the foundation of the house and squat terracotta planters on their own wheeled platforms hold succulents or more annuals that can be moved to catch the sun.

Fairytale Cottage Walk

A walkway to a clearing in the forest can spread out as it meets the sidewalk. Replace a typical narrow walk with a scattering of irregular pavers of shaped concrete or real stone in a wide curve from sidewalk to porch. Funnel the pavers closer together to draw people in as the path reaches the house. Plant a velvet emerald carpet of Irish moss all around the pavers instead of a lawn. Mix planters of ferns and wildflowers in among low boulders, groundcover and some lacy birch trees or mimosas. You can add more planters along the steps and small front porch.

The End of Asphalt

A dominant asphalt driveway gets trimmed down to size and then replaced by a stylish band of slate and salt-finished concrete. Next to the pale new skinnier driveway, mixed ceramic and concrete planters share a green strip with low foliage and lavender. Lollipop trees of Iceberg roses rise from the planters and hide the new walk to the house, separated from the driveway by the greenbelt. The look makes a driveway-dominated front yard into a garden- and house-focused entry that's softer, cooler and more welcoming.

References

• Sunset Magazine: Entry Facelift
• Sunset Magazine: Great Ideas for Garden Paths
• Sunset Magazine: Storybook Setting
• Sunset Magazie: Transform a Driveway