Plants for purpose: Plants for a garden path

First is a much loved and popular variety of lavender with deep blue, lavender flower spikes. It also has nicely domed shaped scented silver-grey colour leaves. This evergreen with its neat shape makes them an ideal choice to be planted close to the edge of a path – perfect for a formal or highly manicured planting scheme.

An upright grass with blue-green leaves which turn yellow-orange in autumn. They look fantastic lining a raised wood boardwalk to create a coastal garden theme and are very tactile to run fingers through when walking down the pathway.

Next is an evergreen plant which gets its common name from the fact that it has large heart shaped leaves, making it perfect for edging a path. I love that its leaves develop a warming red tinge over winter, then come spring sprays of deep pink flowers bloom on top of tall stems.

The fragranced foliage will without a doubt add something special to your pathway. It’s ideal for creating a cottage garden feel and looks wonderful planted alongside curving brick, gravel, or stone paths.

If you’re wanting some bright golden colour near your path, then this evergreen perennial will provide golden-yellow foliage and small yellow flowers in summer. Not only can you enjoy their brightness, but pollinators love them too. This vigorous growing plant is suitable for any soil type, even bog gardens.

A low growing lilac flowering, mat forming plant with deliciously fragrant lemon scented lemon green leaves. The beautiful fragrance is released when the foliage is crushed.

As they’re remarkably hard wearing, they make ideal plants for placing within the path itself so that a mood enhancing aroma is released as they’re walked over.

Trying to find plants that grow well in shade with coloured flowers can be difficult especially if you want them to line the edge of a path. So, this plant a total winner!

It has strap-like evergreen leaves and grows in clumps with an added bonus of the wands of deep violet colour flowers during the autumn months which turn to dark berries in the winter.

Another option for a shady pathway are ferns. This evergreen native develops a good shape that doesn’t grow too large and so will gently cover the edges of the path. With an ultimate width and height of 50cm, they would be complemented beautifully with Liriope for a mixed pathway edge planting scheme.

The lovely upright form and pretty light blue flowers in late spring are beautiful, not to mention their fragrance. If you want the pathway screened both sides at a height where you can run your fingers across the foliage as you walk along it, then this evergreen is one for you.

A hardy, reliable, and neat looking evergreen with oval leaves that are glossy green with an intriguing cream margin. It has small leaves that are a rich, deep green colour and is a very tough easy to grow plant. Whether you have a low maintenance garden or a formal courtyard, this plant is a perfect pick.