I’ve always been enamored with bridges in the garden. Usually you see them built across a water feature, or from one level to another level in the garden. I asked my husband, Brian, to build me a couple of bridges to help people get from one side of the dry river bed to the other.
I spent quite a lot of time digging through the boulder pile at the rock yard looking for wide flat river stones to put in the river bed to act as stepping stones. I leveled the ground under the bed in these places set the stones and tucked the smaller stones up around the larger ones. viola! Easy passage from one side to the next.
(You can see the flatish stones I pulled out when we put the bridge in, sitting to the left end of the bridge in the picture above.)
But no, people still had a difficult time getting across the stones. I have learned that not everyone is as sure on their feet as I am, and a couple people stumbled trying to maneuver the stepping stones, and then another person was temporarily on crutches and the stepping stones were impossible for him, trying to place the crutch securely between the river stones.
So after we had spent time and money building the large vegetable garden, we needed to spend more time and money installing bridges. But it’s important to me that my friends and visitors to the garden have easy access, so the bridges went in.
It’s also easier for Brian to get the mower from one side of the yard to the other, without having to worry about nicking a blade on a stone.
I have debated whether to install railings on the bridges or not. Part of me wants to find something interesting and decorative, and part of me thinks it will just be too visually busy.
I have to admit, I like the garden better WITH bridges.