With the house on one side and the privacy fence on the other side of the strip, you may not be getting enough sun to grow a rose. But I might try something like flowering shrubs that are low maintenance. If it does get adequate sun, I'd say go for it and do a meandering path with alternating beds of roses, phlox, four o'clocks, hollyhocks or whatever you really like.

We've been doing paths from salvaged bricks recently and they're really nice once they're done. It's backbreaking work to build a path from brick though. One of my favorite path materials is small pine bark mulch. It's easy to walk on, and breaks down to luscious compost in about three years. You just shovel it into the garden beds and throw down fresh bark chips. Our next path project we plan to use some old salvaged roofing shingles as a base and top that with cedar mulch or pea-gravel. It will be edged with concrete edging stones. We're still fighting over gravel or mulch.

Oh, I should mention we got the shingles (and many of our salvaged bricks too) at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They are new shingles, but we got them at a fraction of retail for another project. And we have enough for the path. The reason for using roofing shingles is that they will stop all kinds of grass and weeds from growing in the path. Cheryl

I have a narrow side garden. I have a patch of grass down the middle in the part where I'm not permitted to dig due to underground cables. I would love to have a meandering pathway like you're describing.

I just get a bit of morning sun in the area and grow daisies, lilies, daylilies, irises, coneflowers, delphiniums, vines: honeysuckle, butternut, virginia creeper, grapes, jacob's ladder, poppies, monkshood, blanketflowers, dafodils and tulips, .... Everything grows fine but the plants do lean toward what sun they can find.

Here's some pictures. It can look quite different depending on what's in bloom:

I have mirrors hanging on the fence to open up the space, double the flowers, and make the garden visible from a window up high. You can see them on the right side in the first and second photos.

~Melissa in Canada
[my garden blog] [my garden art/junk]

We used to have a "ReStore" here, but it shut down a couple of years ago. I used to love going in there for different things. I like the idea of the roofing shingles, and may use it in the courtyard. I think I may plant between path stones, or something for this one. I'm not sure, yet.

The area gets plenty of morning sun, but the top part of the fence is full sun, so I thought a clematis and climbing rose in the back corner would do well. Maybe a pink rose/purple clematis combination.

Melissa- I love the mirror idea-but do you have birds run into it? Are they little mirrors? I couldn't access your site-I'd love to see it! I had thought about painting something on the fence, since the only one that will see it all the time is my dd, 11. I had thought about maybe the back part a nice bright medium blue. Has anybody painted anything on their wooden fences, just in a section?

Thanks for the ideas!

HW

I am sold on mulch paths. Pea gravel is awful, in my opinion. We did that early on and with kids it got nasty. I think one of mine thought he was a bird and needed gravel to digest his food. Then the pea gravel fills in with dirt and grows blown in weed seed like crazy. My side garden is wider than yours, but the battle for me is getting taller things in there. They are growing but it is taking a long time. I bought trellis this year to get more going vertically. A gal I know made a stepping stone path and put a bench and wall hanging fountain at the back of her very narrow side yard. Hers just has baby tears on the ground and a very few taller plants to break up the straight line of the path.

Ditto on the mulch paths! I love ours.

I really love the look, and as was mentioned earlier, when the mulch decomposes you can just shovel it into a bed. I also think mulch is softer and more comfortable to walk on, but that's just my opinion.

Melissa, your side garden is beautiful! Very creative. I think she has given you some good ideas, HW.

Marilyn

I have mulch paths in the courtyard and front garden. I was just thinking of doing something different back here. I can't have any grass, cause the mower won't fit between the arbor. Yet another reason DH hates this area! LOL!

Debbie-I went through a period a few years ago when dd was 3-pea gravel in his ears EVERY DAY!!! A lot of the time I could flush it out, but there were several times we had to go to the ER. He saw on cartoons where you could hold your nose and blow it out your ears-at least he didn't try the jumping off the roof with an umbrella! Only one busted ear drum and 3 infections, not too bad, all things considered!

Oh! guess what? I was driving my 11 yo DD and her friend up to the school, and saw this (almost) perfectly good antique garden bench at the curb, and left a note for the owners. The girls were MORTIFIED!!! They called me back, and I can have it!!! It needs a new coat of paint, and a few slats on the seat, but it's PERFECT for the garden! I think I'm going to paint it either red or green. I'm so excited! LOL! DH is going to die! It's going at the back of the Secret Garden. Maybe I should post this on Garden Junk! LOL! I love that forum!

You've got to post in Garden Junk!

I use those cobble stone path molds. I just love them.
We've mixed more concrete than we ever thought was possible!
But I love the cottage look. I want to keep adding, and hubby wants to kill me whenever I say " I was thinking we
could make another path......."hahaha

Haziemoon