Paths are the bones of the garden. They define the space, open it up to exploration, enable access for the care required to tend the plants.
I prefer curved paths, as they guide the visitor and open up new vistas, generating new perspectives through the simple act of walking, encouraging a slower digestion of the senses by folding in on itself. My landscaper Oly is less keen on curves, as straight edges are easier! But he indulges my designs.
As you can see from the hero image, I’d taken a drone photo of the site and sketched out some ideas in CAD (using NURBS no less) on top of the photo. Oly and Emrys have done a magnificent job in translating these ideas IRL, walking the paths to see how they feel. Emrys said that they changed the angle slightly so that the path didn’t go back on itself, so you keep moving forwards.
These are the paths as they are now:
The paths as they are
And a blend of the two, so you can see the difference:
Spot the difference in the curves