5 Favorites: Rambling Paths and Uneven Pavers - Gardenista
Really good paths are made with love. If the best paths are handmade, then the best paths also are the most knobbly and uneven... ...their decorative qualities a higher priority than creating a smooth conduit from A to B. What happens, then, when your labor of love is handed over to somebody else? Photographs by Kendra Wilson for Gardenista. At Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, Nancy Tree (later Nancy Lancaster) called on her friend the garden designer Norah Lindsay to help her build a lavender garden. “It was delicious staying with the Trees,” wrote Norah Lindsay, who was more of a friend than an employee. She enjoyed staying in the big house and working side by side with the fabulously wealthy Nancy and Ronnie. David Verey built this cobbled path for his wife Rosemary. A plaque in a temple in the garden declares “David and Rosemary Verey made a garden here for their pleasure.” Now the garden is given over to other pleasures, being part of a luxury hotel, and people with high heels need to tread carefully or avoid the laburnum walk altogether. Local materials always work best. In Spain, the local stone used for ancient cobbles is also used for sinks and troughs. Crumbly steps made with local Cotswold stone. At an attraction like Sissinghurst, the rough surfaces and textures so beloved by Vita Sackville-West are allowed to thrive vertically but not horizontally. York stone is notoriously slippery and the English climate is notoriously wet. Fortunately, this is not the only way through this arts and crafts garden. Finally, learn how to successfully use pavers in a landscape or garden project with our Hardscaping 101: Pavers guide.