Create an enticing garden path

It's curvy, fragrant and quick to build―and fringed with all the right plants|Jim McCausland

Two days is all you need to install the pretty little path shown above. (The plantings mature in about nine months.)

What makes the scene so inviting? The gently curving path, designed to invite you to stroll among the plants, leads to a small circular patio, and the color scheme for the plants on either side is both fresh and lively.

Drifts of chartreuse euphorbias repeat throughout the borders, while clusters of blue and white flowers add accents.

Soft grasses, aromatic herbs, and silvery foliage fill in between them, softening the path’s edges.

TIPS FOR CREATING A GREAT GARDEN PATH

Shape: Unless your path is in a formal garden, a curve will look more inviting.

Destination: Enlarge the path’s end to accommodate a chair and a small tea table, a bench, or even a birdbath.

Fringe: For a natural look, make the path 40 inches wide, and plant groundcovers densely (1 foot or less from benderboard) to cascade over its edges.

Fragrance: Plant aromatic herbs or perfumed flowers along the path to sweeten the journey.

THE PLANTINGS

Arrange potted plants to your liking, then dig holes and plant

Grasses

1. Sedge (Carex albula ‘Frosty Curls’) 

2. Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa)

3. New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) 

Next: plants for fillers and fringe

Fillers and fringe

4. Dwarf euphorbia

5. Hebe glaucophylla

6. Artemisia pycnocephala ‘David’s Choice’

7. Speedwell (Veronica spicata ‘Icicle’)

Fragrance

8. Garden sage (Salvia officinalis) ‘Icterina’

9. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) ‘Blue Spires’

10. Garden sage (Salvia officinalis‘Purpurascens’)

11. Catmint Nepeta x faassenii ‘Blue Wonder’

Background plants and tall flowers

12. White penstemon

13. Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha)

14. Salvia mexicana

15. Russian sage Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’

16. Roses Rosa

17. Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)

18. Gentian sage (Salvia patens)

19. Euphorbia characias ‘Humpty Dumpty’

More: 20 inspiring garden paths

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http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/create-enticing-garden-path-00400000029524/