Garden paths do so much more than take you to your destination. They influence your pace, dictate the number of people you can walk with and determine whether you can view your destination along the way. The following paths, featured in published Houzz Tours, show some of the routes you can take when designing this garden feature. Moger Mehrhof Architects 1. A mown strip through a grass and wildflower meadow links this vacation home in Massachusetts with the surrounding landscape and nearby beach. Architect Matthew Moger pulled inspiration from the land and its former use as a farm when designing the home, and the landscape architecture nods to its natural history as well.

Read more about this coastal New England property Jay Sifford Garden Design 2. Inspired by Noel Kingsbury’s book The New Perennial Garden and the naturalistic planting style of Wolfgang Oehme, James van Sweden and Piet Oudolf, homeowner James Golden created what he calls a New American garden on 1½ acres in Stockton, New Jersey. The garden mimics nature in an artistic way, with layers of native perennials planted in the garden’s heavy clay soil.

This meandering gravel path wraps around Golden’s property, with swaths of native plants, such as giant coneflower (Rudbeckia maxima) and Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra), spilling into the walkway. Sculpture, vistas and gathering spaces lie just out of a view, with a hidden discovery around every corner.

Read more about this New American garden in New Jersey Caela McKeever 3. A trip to Kyoto, Japan, several years ago inspired the design for Steven Mempa and Juliet Schwalbach’s home and garden in Seattle. Hidden from the street behind a bamboo fence, steppingstones in a sea of gravel wind around sculptural conifers and architectural boulders, many of which Mempa placed himself.

Read more about this garden and adjoining kitchen London Garden Designer 4. Garden designer Sara Jane Rothwell and landscape architect JoanMa Roig Ortiz created a garden of whimsy in this urban London backyard, incorporating constellations and Antoni Gaudí into its design. Rainbow-hued Moroccan tile, intended to resemble dragon skin, weaves through the space as an allusion to Gaudí’s first commission at Güell Pavilions in Barcelona, Spain, which features a wrought iron dragon gate.

Read more about this mystical London garden Dan Nelson, Designs Northwest Architects 5. A flagstone path meanders from the driveway through a courtyard and to the front door of a couple’s weekend home on Camano Island, Washington, north of Seattle.

Creeping thyme (Thymmus subulata) and Corsican mint (Mentha requenii) grow between the irregularly shaped pavers. Digiplexis, crocosmias, dahlias and nasturtiums line the pathway, adding bright contrast and seasonal color to the neutral-colored architecture.

Read more about this coastal Washington retreat Lake Flato Architects 6. The owners of this Central Texas property walk up this gravel path every day to pick vegetables and gather eggs from the chickens that live in the barn at the top of the hill. Native grasses border one side of the path and flow down to lower areas of the property, and a gabion wall runs along the other side, terracing the higher points in the landscape and picking up on the barn’s rustic industrial architecture.

Read more about this Texas Hill Country compound Robertson Design 7. Christopher Robertson and Viv Nguyen’s entry path prolongs the experience of getting from the street to the house. Concrete pavers from the driveway lead directly to this pivot gate, meeting the more circuitous route that wraps around the concrete wall in the foreground before arriving at the front door. Simple evergreens add life to the entry garden, with limestone gravel crunching underfoot.

Read more about this minimalist home in Texas 1 Man of the Cloth 8. Jim Peter’s love of color led to a color-filled custom home inside and out in Malibu, California. While most of the hillside landscape is hardscape, that didn’t prevent Peter from adding a whimsical and alluring garden path.

Artist Darlene Graeser designed a mosaic pathway that winds through the property, guiding visitors from the front gate to the pool. Brightly colored planters and patio furniture pick up the colors in the path, creating a balanced and colorful rhythm.

Read more about this colorful Malibu beach house Edwina Benites-LM 9. Sometimes the destination inspires the journey, as is the case with this garden path in Virginia. This intimate garden nook sits among 37 acres of farmland, where homeowner Dot Shetterly has lived all her life. Stone pavers lead to a baptismal font repurposed as a birdbath and an array of marble balls intended to be used as water filters.

Read more about this Virginia farmhouse Ian Pierce 10. Mondrian-inspired painted wood fencing sets off an eclectic garden path of wood planks and gravel in this vintage-inspired urban garden in London. Boxwoods sheared into perfect domes follow the path’s curve, complementing the ceramic orb on the deck.

Read more about this vintage-inspired home in London Rikki Snyder 11. Potter Lucy Fagella incorporated river rock and shards of broken pottery in the paths that wrap around the Massachusetts house she shares with partner Terri Kerner and her two sons.

Read more about this artful home and studio in Massachusetts Ike Kligerman Barkley 12. This picturesque garden in Nantucket, Massachusetts, only hints at a path, with stone pavers barely noticeable in the lawn. Flanked by robust hydrangeas and other flowering shrubs, this side garden and path catch a glimpse of the ocean through a break in the full-height hedge. The sea awaits just through the rustic wood gate.

Read more about this coastal Nantucket home Luci.D Interiors 13. Susan Buret and Faye Sampson’s garden in the Southern Highlands region of Australia is a softer, looser version of an English-style garden — exactly how the two artists like it.

The cypress archways go a little longer without trimming than would normally be observed in a more formal garden, as do the boxwood hedges running between the arches. Dogwoods tower behind the cypress archways, with white clematis growing on the garden gate. One of Sampson’s sculptures sits squarely in line with the path, inviting visitors in for a closer look.

Read more about these artists’ dream home in Australia The Office of Charles de Lisle 14. In the process of updating this home in the Southern California beach town of Carpinteria, interior designer Charles Delisle was also tasked with updating its landscape. A winding path of flagstone and gravel cuts through beach grasses, agave, juniper and other coast-tolerant shrubs to meet the Pacific Ocean.

Read more about this coastal home in California Katharine Webster Inc. 15. Not all inspiring garden paths are winding, as this modernist example by Katharine Webster proves. Poured-in-place concrete pavers set in a custom gravel mix edge a native no-mow grass species on their way to this Napa, California, home’s front porch. Round metal sculptures balance the void of the gravel and contrast with the otherwise linear front yard.

Read more about this California wine country landscape Brenda Olde 16. This vacation home for a family of four in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, was designed for easy weekend living, especially when it came to its landscape. In a mostly gravel yard surrounded by picturesque mature trees, designer Mike Baran of Gecko Landscape & Garden Center laid flagstones and brick edging in neutral colors that bring texture and dimension to the ground plane, leading visitors from the front yard to the back.

Read more about this Colorado cottage Douglas VanderHorn Architects 17. A walled garden in Connecticut holds a traditional kitchen garden, with brick paving in a running bond pattern bisecting it. The formality lends itself to the historic property, recreating a park-like experience at home.

Read more about this Connecticut garden and guest barn Hoi Ning Wong 18. Aislin and Tim Gibson’s modernist backyard garden in San Jose, California, complements its midcentury Eichler home with offset oversize concrete pavers moving from the house through the lawn, past a sweeping concrete planter, to the edible backyard garden.

Shades of Green Landscape Architecture used CalArc precast pavers from Stepstone Inc., packed on base rock and sand. The pavers closer to the house have a concrete mortar base that prevents weeds from poking through and minimizes shifting.

Read more about this edible backyard in the San Francisco Bay Area Dig Your Garden Landscape Design 19. Concrete pavers interplanted with ‘Elfin’ thyme (Thymus ‘Elfin’) lead through a backyard filled with California natives and other low-water plants down to a dock on this waterfront property in Novato, California. The pathway connects to lookout areas and nooks on its leisurely route to the front of the garden, passing through the primarily green, orange, yellow, burgundy and purple plant palette.

Read more about this Northern California waterfront garden Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting 20. Artist Suzanne Bracker connected her studio, home and various open areas in her Phoenix garden with poured-in-place concrete steppingstones in various sizes. The artistically placed rounds create a piece of art on the ground, with ‘New Gold’ lantana (Lantana ‘New Gold’) growing around them and an agave pointing the way to the next garden space.

Read more about this artist’s garden in Phoenix Pedersen Associates 21. A terraced hillside garden in Northern California moves from level to level with narrow stairways made from thick stone slabs. Pittosporum, Perez’s sea lavender (Limonium perezii) and ‘Waverly’ sage (Salvia ‘Waverly’) soften the edges, while echeveria (Echeveria imbricata) grows in cracks between the slabs.

Read more about this elegant hillside garden in the Bay Area Kimberley Bryan 22. Painter and horticulturist Amy Ockerlander may not have a garden path in the traditional sense, as her home abuts a busy sidewalk and intersection in Seattle, but that hasn’t stopped her from creating a garden path. Edible plants with medicinal and culinary uses line both sides of the sidewalk that runs next to her home, adding a barrier from passing cars as well as a layer of botanical beauty to all who use this public path.

Read more about this eye-catching Seattle home Bonnie McCarthy 23. Landscape designer and homeowner Michael McIver repurposed demoed concrete slabs to create this artistic pathway in the side yard of his Spanish-style bungalow in Long Beach, California. New wood entry gates, a potting bench, cafe furniture and Mediterranean plants round out this intimate pathway, garden and seating area.

Read more about this 1920s Spanish-style home and garden in Southern California Broadhurst + Associates 24. Well-adapted nonnative plants, such as this ‘Honorine Jobert’ Japanese anemone (Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’), mix with Pacific Northwest native grasses and perennials along one of the many winding paths in this lakefront garden in Kirkland, Washington. Paths lead from the house, at the top of the property, down through sitting areas to the water at the low point of the yard.

Landscape designer Paul Broadhurst transformed what had been an expansive lawn into a more naturalistic meadow and beach, creating a beautiful landscape that connects the homeowners to surrounding nature.

Read more about this waterfront landscape in Washington