WALKS AND PATHS

WALKS AND PATHS The driveway is closely related, in design, to the entrance walk leading to the front door. This and the drive together form the entrance circulation. On the narrow lot, where the house is near the street, it is often possible to do away with a front walk across the lawn to the street, and have just a short path from the door to the drive, if the latter cannot be conveniently brought to the door itself. By this method the front lawn is traversed by but one line of circulation instead of two, a consideration of vital importance when breadth and unity are the aim. On those occasions when there must be a front walk, let it be as inconspicuous as is possible in conformity with the dignity of the entrance facade.

Use brick, flagstone, or some other light-absorbing material of subdued color rather than glaring bluestone or concrete. Like the drive, this walk is best made straight unless obstacles such as knolls, trees, rocks, or the like have to be avoided. An aimlessly curving path is a silly affair, and the mere planting of a bush or two at the bend to give it an excuse is too transparent an artifice to deceive anyone. The front entrance walk should be at least 4 feet wide so that two persons can easily walk abreast and not have to go Indian file or tread on the grass. Other paths about the place will vary in width from 3 feet, the narrowest practicable dimension for a service path in the flower garden, to as much as 15 or 20 feet for mall effects. The proportions of the whole scheme govern these widths.

A long path, to look well, must be wider than a short one. A path between low beds or borders can be narrower than one running between high and overhanging shrubberies. There is a difference of opinion as regards planting along the entrance walk. Some people prefer borders of gay flowers; others want no planting at all. The choice depends, mainly, on the character of the house. If it be very dignified or monumental, detailed planting along the walk usually looks frivolous. Breadth and quietness are needed. But if the house be informal and unpretentious, a deal of quaintness may be found in a narrow border of old-fashioned sweet-scented flowers along the path.

In any event, the planting should be continuous or absent, not broken and spaced at regular intervals like buttons on a policeman's tunic. Often you see this sort of thing done with Catalpa bungei, Hydrangeas, Blue Spruce, or all three together. Such planting breaks the unity of the lawn, shortens the apparent distance from the street to the house, and tends to obscure the building it would embellish. on to PATH CONSTRUCTION 1...

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