Giving visual cues to discourage people from stepping into the garden

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One of the most irritating things for a gardener is to watch someone stepping into the planting area, maybe knocking things over, crushing small plants, etc. Of course gardeners know that they shouldn't ever step into that part of a garden, any more than they would stroll across some's dining room table, but many people don't know this. You could, of course, put up signs, but they look awful, and besides people will step anyway, if it looks like a place to step. And that's the design clue - don't make it look like a step!

I discovered a long time ago that you needed to make it visually clear where people should step, and if you don't, you really can't blame them. Any empty spot in the garden is an invitation to step, and of course if you never bothered to create places for people to step, they have no choice. My garden has plenty of room for people to step, including artificial turf, and a flagstone path which I've found for most people to be crystal clear. I prefer to relax with friends in my garden, not to be always reminding them to stay out of the planting areas. And my favorite trick is pointy rocks, and plastic lizards. I'll see if I can explain.

Most people will not step on pointy rocks. Of course if you have flat rocks they just look like stepping stones, but not pointy ones. So wherever I've found people are tempted to step I put in a pointy rock, which looks nice, and then I try to attach a plastic lizard. I can't imagine anyone, unless they were absolutely blind drunk, stepping on a pointy rock with a lizard on top of it.

I got the lizards at the Dollar Store, and although they start out bright, they fade in the sun, to look more natural. And they just seem to be at home in my Tropical Paradise!


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