Desire Paths — Keys To Making Your Landscape Better For Everyone

Do you want a way to make your yard or business site more comfortable and practical for everyone? Then you may want to consider taking advantage of desire paths. What is a desire path? And how can you turn it from a nuisance into a way to improve your landscape? Here's what every home and business owner needs to know. 

What Is a Desire Path?

Desire paths are natural pathways that form not by intentional planning but by user habit. They usually represent the most direct and simplest way to get from one point to another. Everyone has probably seen or used a desire path at some point, such as the strip of well-worn dirt that cuts off the corner to school or the way employees cut across the grass to get from their car to your front door. 

Why Are Desire Paths Useful?

Most landscape planners and owners dislike desire paths and often try to discourage them with barriers and other planning tools because they don't follow the planned layout. But desire paths don't have to be your enemy, Instead, they are areas in your landscape users make to show you where you can improve.

If customers constantly walk through an empty spot in your bushes surrounding the parking lot, they're letting you know that this is the most convenient and fastest way for them to reach your business and buy services or goods. So why fight them? Give your customers the gift of that convenience by embracing the desire path and making it more permanent. 

How Can You Embrace Desire Paths?

If desire paths have formed in your landscape, how can you use them? First, you may need to be flexible and humble about your landscape design. It can be difficult to hear that what you want and what you think looks best isn't quite what others really want. The good news is that you can still develop an attractive landscape, even with these changes. 

Look around your space for existing desire paths. Some may be obvious and well-worn while others are less clear. Observe how people and pets travel. Outline these trails and make them a non-negotiable part of the landscape redesign. Make them appealing and safe instead of haphazard. 

Sometimes, it just takes a little rethinking. For instance, if your dog likes to patrol the perimeter fence, move the perimeter plantings inward by a foot or two. The dog is happy, and you may not notice much difference. 

Where Can You Get Help?

Changing your landscape plan may be difficult. If you need help turning desire paths into a permanent and intentional structure, start by meeting with a landscaping service in your area today. You'll soon have a space that everyone will love even more.