Wooly thyme, creeping thyme, and oregano can work as pathways. I have oregano that has naturalized into our lawn. We mow it. The wooly thyme and creeping thyme stay low.

It takes time, ie a couple of years or more, for the thyme carpets to fill in. You can start them from seed, which is inexpensive. In my experience, the thyme carpets I started from seed grew as well as and better than plants I bought at the nursery. Plus, starting from seed I get tons of seedlings for less money than one plant and I plant larger areas. In three years, one creeping thyme plant filled an 18" by 36" patch.

cheers,
Norabelle

There are many low growing groundcovers, however the nature of ground covers are creeping, so using them in a path may not fit with your plans, or of course, it may!!

I have some places where I use a mix of creeping thyme and chunks of old concrete. It looks MUCH BETTER than it sounds, and the concrete leaches out some lime, which the thyme really loves a lot. The only maintenance for me is moving the occasional re-seeder in there, an annual spring weeding and cutting the overgrowth of thyme off of the stepping stones. Thyme works great if the soil is not boggy or overly constantly moist. Also look into the little used hepatica. Both can be winter sown really inexpensively. One packet of seed and you have a pathway!

I vote for thyme. Use a combination of creeping thymes to make tht path interesting. Wooly, mother of thyme, lemon thyme makes for a great contast.

If you have a shadowy area- use ajuga which can take a bit of foot traffic.

Oregano doesn't really work because it will send out stems with blooms. I thought at first that they grow in the ground but to my surprise has stems tht produces lovely red or white bloom.s I've one patch in my garden which I matched up with my lambs ears.

The only thing I have to say about any groundcovers, is that they won't prevent weeds and so be prepared to dig as weeds come up. I've been having to do this with dandelions sneakily invading my creeping thymes

Scotch and Irish moss will take light foot traffic, are compact enough a lot of weeds don't take hold in them.

Annette