Prairie Horticultural Series: Your Garden is Better with Paths
- Help in the Garden
- Apr 27
- 5 min read
Through this series, I share what I'm learning through the Prairie Horticulture Certificate program at the University of Saskatchewan. This article in particular is adapted from coursework I completed for "Soils for Horticulture" in Winter/Spring 2026.
Garden spaces provide numerous benefits to individuals, communities, and the environment but can be easily damaged by compacting influences. Paths can elegantly protect these spaces, shepherding visitors to areas designed for compaction-inducing traffic. If well-designed, paths can do more than protect. They can reduce mental fatigue, guide your experience, enhance beauty, and even support organic matter pools.
Soil is a POWERHOUSE of potential for supporting life.
Intricately arranged soil components - sand, silt, clay, living and non-living organics, and pore space - form a vital structural kaleidoscope in which life can thrive. While resilient, this structure can be overcome by compacting influences, especially in clay-dominant soils like those found in Winnipeg (1), where the tiny needle or plate shaped clay particles (2) can pack together tightly. This compaction can have far-reaching effects:
Reduced growth: Plant roots may not be able to physically penetrate the soil, limiting their ability to access water and nutrients while also decreasing their stability.
Soil Saturation: Reasonable irrigation may saturate compacted soil due to reduced pore space, thus decreasing oxygen availability and negatively affecting respiring soil organisms like plant roots, bacteria, and fungi.
Anaerobic Conditions: Growth of bacteria capable of anaerobic respiration can be favoured in compacted soils (3), and anaerobic respiration can decrease plant-available soil nitrogen by converting it to a gaseous form through the process of denitrification (4).
Slowed Decomposition: Slower organic matter decomposition in poorly aerated soils (5) and the reduced movement of water-soluble nutrients can further reduce nutrient availability.
You can see compaction at play in utilitarian paths created through consistent traffic – paths meant solely to get you from point A to point B – in their worn-down, uneven surface. While they can be charming when meandering through a forest glade, generally these barren stretches of eroded surface are not aesthetically pleasing, may cause unintended garden space damage, and can miss an opportunity to guide visitors to areas of interest.
Garden paths divert traffic, guide visitors and enhance beauty.
Commonly accessed buildings and outdoor features are prime candidates for paths, as are access points for garden bed maintenance. As notable vantage points can often be hidden in a garden, part of their beauty residing in needing to be sought out, paths can intrigue visitors to find them and increase the likelihood that the intent of the garden is fulfilled. The beauty of garden paths, irrespective of their materials, can be found in their contribution to restful negative space, a much-needed balance to the spaces filled with plants and focal points (6). However, woven through the garden or at the back of a border, and made with natural materials, they can also be nearly invisible.
A perhaps not-so-surprising benefit of well-designed paths is a reduction in mental fatigue. Accessing a garden, regardless of its size, can require numerous decisions to be made (such as “where is it safe to walk?”, “what is there to see?”, or “how can I get to where I’m going?”), even if not consciously noticed. If there are clear, well-designed paths, a garden can be a meditative journey requiring minimal decisions, allowing a place important for rejuvenation to be just that.
The most important feature of garden paths is that they EXIST.
Their main contribution to soil health is through diversion of compaction-inducing traffic. A well-designed path will be wide enough to accommodate whatever traffic needs to use it - keeping compacting forces away from the intersection of path and gardens, and reducing the potential for traffic overflow.
The simplest “choice” of path materials is whatever is currently there (ex. grass, bare soil).
A BIG step up is a path layered with loose material such as wood chips, which can protect soil, increase path longevity, potentially reduce compacting influences, (7) allow water infiltration, and enhance beauty. Wood chips have the added benefit of contributing to the organic matter pool through their decomposition, and can even be free through ChipDrop, a service which creates a direct line from arborist-generated wood chips to you. Wood chips can also minimally disrupt garden continuity and the sharing of resources between areas. Personally, wood chips are my choice for lower-cost, lower-effort paths.
As loose materials can drift through path use and weather-related events, they may not be ideal for formal garden spaces or for people with mobility concerns. High-traffic paths may benefit from solid hardscaping (such as wood planking, paving stones or concrete) as they provide a durable, consistent, and easily traversed surface and can be specifically constructed to allow water infiltration, reducing the potential for water pooling or run-off. While these types of paths have higher costs – more effort to install, more expensive, and an increased risk of damaging surrounding areas during installation - their contribution to a garden can be awe-inspiring.
Regardless of materials, constructing paths at a similar height to their surroundings with a slight slope towards the outside edges supports effective water handling but, like all infrastructure, should be regularly maintained.
Garden paths work best when they are CLEARLY defined.
In my experience maintaining established perennial gardens, memory is not a reliable tool for remembering where to walk, and where to place myself and my tools. It can be mentally taxing and is highly influenced by circumstances, like being tired or rushed. Without a clear path to guide you, it can be easy to drive a riding lawnmower through a bare greenspace in development or to accidentally compact soil around plants in a significantly planted area.
Humans evolved in nature and I believe our closeness to it helps us to thrive. When our very presence can damage it, paths can allow us to harmoniously co-exist. Through diverting compaction-inducing traffic, paths protect the soil and may chaperone it back towards its self-sustaining nature. If well-designed, paths can also reduce mental fatigue, meaningfully guide your experience, and enhance beauty.
Elaborate or simple, wide or narrow, formal or rustic, your garden is better with paths.
DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is intended to empower you to make informed decisions but does not constitute professional advice for your specific circumstances. If you are making changes to your garden spaces, be sure to have a discussion with a qualified individual who is able to visit your site and discuss your specific needs.
References:
City of Winnipeg. (2020, March 5). Natural History Perspective of Winnipeg. City of Winnipeg. https://legacy.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/parksopenspace/NaturalistServices/NaturalAreas/Background.stm
Reddi, L.N., Jain, A.K., Yun, H.-B. (2012). Soil materials for earth construction: properties, classification and suitability testing. Modern Earth Buildings. 155-171.
Hartmann, M., Niklaus, P.A., Zimmermann, S., Schmutz, S., Kremer, J., Abarenkov, K., Lüscher, P., Widmer, F., and Frey, B. (2014). Resistance and resilience of the forest soil microbiome to logging-associated compaction. International Society for Microbial Ecology. 8: 226–244.
Pell, M. and Wörman, A. (2011). Biological Wastewater Treatment Systems. Comprehensive Biotechnology (Second Edition). 6: 275-290.
Bot, A. and Benites, J. (2005). The importance of soil organic matter: Key to drought-resistant soil and sustained food and production. FAO Soils Bulletin 80.
Bowring, E. (2025, December 4). Less Planting, More Impact: Landscaping Experts Explain the Transformative Power of Negative Space in Beautiful Garden Design. Homes and Gardens. https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/negative-space-in-garden-design
Lichter, J.M. and Lindsey, P.A. (1994). The use of surface treatments for the prevention of soil compaction during site construction. Journal of Arboriculture. 20(4): 205-209.
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