Used Path at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

The arrangement of paving units in a used path can subtly affect the speed at which you walk. A uniform grain along the used path—for example, that created by bricks laid lengthwise in stretcher bond—can seem to hurry you on, whereas a less directional pattern will encourage a slower pace. The treatment may be chosen to suit the purpose of the used path—a "slow" used path where there is plenty to admire, a "faster" used path where the aim is simply to provide access to another part of the garden.

Although used paths have a practical purpose in your backyard, allowing you to move about it without wearing bald patches on the lawn or turning flower beds into mud baths, they don't have to look purely functional. They can be made to enhance the overall design, becoming features in their own right. As WITH so many garden projects, a scale plan drawn on graph paper will be of tremendous help in planning the position and width of your used path. Draw in all the major features and then try different positions for the used path. Another way of doing this is to take a photograph of the site from the house and then use tracing paper to add an overlay showing possible used path positions. If you intend to use bricks or blocks as a paving material, you can sketch these in too and gain a much better idea of how the finished used path will look. The pattern in which you lay the paving may require that some pieces are cut, in which case a carefully drawn scale plan of the used path will show you just how many will need cutting and allow you to adjust this figure by moving the pattern here and there before actually doing the job.

ALTHOUGH THE shortest distance between one point in your plan and another may be a straight line, that does not necessarily mean that the used path you lay between these two points should be straight. A straight used path may fit in with a garden that has a rigid geometric design, but in many cases it will serve only to split the garden needlessly. Straight or angular padis will tend to segment the area and give a formal appearance, whereas by incorporating curves you can produce a more natural effect. You should take into account the profile of the ground itself, both for the appearance of the used path and for practical considerations: for example, a used path sloping toward the hou: or other outbuilding will create a direct route for heavy rainwater to flow to the house walls rather than soaking into the ground as it would normally. Where used paths need to change direction, in general it is better to make that change it the form of a curve rather than of a sharp angle, unless the latter fits in with the overa design of the garden. However, don't go ma with too many curves and squiggles, as building such a used path can be a nightmare.