Landscape Ideas for a Yard Walkway

Building Materials

• A common building material used for walkways is concrete: it's cheap, durable and fairly easy to install, but it can be visually unappealing. One alternative is bricks or paver stones, which you can set in a variety of eye-catching patterns. Paver stones are also available in many sizes, shapes and colors, and a brick walkway can accent your home if it's constructed of brick. You can also build a walkway by setting steppingstones into the ground and surrounding them with smaller stones, creating a natural look.

Layout

• While a walkway is designed to get you from point A to point B--usually from your driveway to your front door--that doesn't mean you need to make it a straight path. Building gentle curves into the walkway, especially in a longer walkway, can be eye-catching. It can also provide a more natural appearance, especially if the walkway follows the natural contours of your yard. If your yard is hilly, install steps as part of the walkway. If your home sits on top of a hill, placing steps at the bottom of a walkway that runs from the street to your home creates a grand entrance to your home.

Plants

• Placing plants or flower beds next to a walkway brightens the path with different colors and frames the walkway. Shrubs planted along the edges of a walkway provide a natural border around it. When choosing plants to place next to a walkway, use a mix of annuals and perennials so that there's more than just mulch in the winter. Avoid planting trees near the walkway, though, because a tree's root system can dislodge the walkway as the tree grows.

Lighting

• Installing lighting along your walkway not only provides visibility for yourself and others at night, it can add an attractive element to your yard, highlighting the walkway and the surrounding vegetation. Walkway lights are available in a wide range of fixtures, so you should be able to find lights that fit your landscaping style. Many homeowners use lighting systems that tap into their home's electrical system, but you can also purchase solar-powered walkway lights. While these don't use any electricity, they are dimmer than electrically powered lights and go dark once their batteries die.