Northeast Gardening: Looking for pathway suggestions, 0 by SongsofJoy

SongsofJoy wrote:
I am planning a longish pathway from my driveway to my backyard. I don't know what material to use. Here are some details:

Driveway is packed sand/gravel (someday when I have nothing better to spend my money on, I'd love to lay some sort of flagstone for the drive)

The path (from the driveway) will cut through the middle of a perennial/shrub bed then turn a corner along the side of the house...

This section of the pathway will be bordered on both sides by shrubs mostly - hydrangeas, azaleas, viburnums and two dogwood trees.

Finally, the path will end with a small patch of lawn that DH insisted we had to have.

On the opposite side of the lawn there are two other paths - both bluestone stepping stones. I also have a bluestone patio immediately to the left where the path ends and lawn begins. The grass will go right up to the edge of the bluestone patio there.

Here are the options I've considered - and the reasons why I am hesitating on each one of them:

1. make the pathway grass so it will seemlessly transition to the lawn - I think it might look funny on the driveway side since there will be no lawn on that end

2. make the path bluestone stepping stones with groundcover in between - I don't have enough leftover bluestone and considering the length of the path, it would be costly

3. make the path some type of mulch or gravel- tracks mulch/gravel into the lawn and how do I transition from gravel to lawn?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. For some reason, I always seem to get hung up on details like these.

Here's a picture of the section along the house. The hose marks the path (needs more shaping, but you get the general idea. The topsoil is where the lawn will be.