Necessary Utilities On Driveways And Walkways

Driveways and main walks to the front and other doors are necessary utilities. As such they may not be things of beauty. Therefore, they should be handled so as to attract the least possible amount of attention. To do this, devote as little area to them as you can, and that will also lower the total cost.

Avoid Curves

Remember that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If a driveway or walk is only 50 or 60 feet long, it is best to keep it straight if possible. One that is unnecessarily curved is not ordinarily successful artistically despite the many illustrations of such curves which we see in advertisements. The only time a short driveway should be curved is when it has to pass around some natural obstacle that cannot be removed, or when the planting around the house is so arranged that it will look natural for the walk or driveway to follow it.

Obviously a person approaching your house should not have to walk beyond a point opposite your front door in order to reach a curved walk that will lead them back across the most direct line of approach. If your planned foot paths are inconvenient, various people ( including members of your own household) are going to take short cuts across lawns unless you take distinct steps to prevent it.

Service Walk

It is often necessary to have a walk come in from one side of the public area to the front door and then continue across the area out to the sidewalk again to handle the foot traffic of the mailman, paperboy, etc. In such cases, one section of the walk could be of a permanent nature; a steppingstone path or landscaping bricks could serve for the rest. Although used but little, the stones would prevent a muddy path from being worn into your lawn.

First Principle

A good general rule is to place walks where people would naturally tend to walk whether there was a path there or not. In other words, walks and drives should be placed so as to follow the lines of least resistance. Fail to apply the natural principle and the result will be unnatural.