A garden drive leads to the house and the garage besides paths or walks leading to different parts of the garden.
The main criterion of a good garden drive is to provide a flat, dry and pleasant passage for the persons or vehicles.
It should harmonize with the other garden features.
Paths should not be generally too high or too low from the adjoining ground except in a marsh or a rock garden.
A path with graceful and gentle curves will look much better than a staright path.
The type of construction for garden drives and paths depends upon the length and width, cost of material, amount of traffic, preference as to colour or character of surface and the amount of maintenance required.
While laying out paths and drives in a garden, due consideration should be given about their usefulness and artistic appeal.
After the determination of the location of drive, there is a need to prepare the profile according to the existing grades, and to work out a desired grade for the finished drive.
The ideal profile is one that rises steadily in a constant percentage.
The drainage of the drive should be carefully planned.
A drive or roadway is usually constructed in such a form that the centre line will be of a certain height above the outer edges which will allow the water falling on the drive to drain rapidly to the edges.
There are different types of drives depending on the materials used, e.g., sand-clay drive, gravel drive, macadam drive, concrete drive and brick-surfaced drive.
The width of the garden drive should be between 3 and 5 meters
Participants