[LadyMage]

My yard has always been more display than walk through, and the way it is right now, the kids just go up my driveway on the right side of the property and along the front of the house to the front door to get their treats, and the headstones and most of the display faces the street in fairly boring rows, so when they're at the door, they're behind almost everything. I'm looking to have the kids engage more with the display, not just edge around it to get to the candy, so I'm thinking of changing it up.

What I'd like to do is put a temporary pathway up the center of my lawn directly from the sidewalk to the front door. I'll arrange my ever growing collection of stones so that some face the pathway and some face the driveway on the right side, and on the left, some flanking the evergreen tree in the middle of the left half of the lawn, but still as many facing the kiddos on the pathway as the street. The problem is, I want to put something in place that will indicate a pathway, but won't kill the grass. Realistically this will have to cost next to nothing as I am currently unemployed, so we have no budget for anything. I would like to eventually have cemetary fencing, but that's not going to be something that I can realistically afford to do the way I would want to right now, so I'd rather backburner that for now until I can afford what I really want. So the criteria is cheap, won't blow away or trip the kiddos, and removable. Anyone have any ideas, or experience in making temporary pathways that you're willing to share? I'm kinda drawing a blank, but I've got the idea of doing it in my head now, so I at least want to explore it.

 

[HauntedWyo]

To mark the pathway in the middle of my yard, I just took some orange Halloween/Christmas lights and strung them from shepherd hooks I made with clothes hanger wires on both sides of the path. They were about 8-10 inches out of the ground. You could also mark the path with milk jugs and dollar store led candles. You could make the jugs look like ghosts by drawing faces on the non handled side with a black marker. Just cut a hole on the handled side so you can put the candle in. I don't know how many TOTs you usually get, but our yard held up okay to the foot traffic we got, which was about a 100 TOTs. We just made sure to the let the grass get a little tall.

 

[Frankie's Girl]

Start watching craigslist or your neighborhood social media (Nextdoor?) for scrap wood/wire/cardboard or other type of decorative building materials. They list stuff there in the free section all the time. You could also post in Nextdoor or Freecycle or such that you're looking for fencing/cardboard/wood or paint for cheap or free.

In the beginning, I used wooden stakes hammered into the yard with lights/cheesecloth draped over them to be a sort of loose fencing look. Then I switched over to a folding metal garden fence with posts made from cardboard. I used scrap cardboard boxes I collected from trash day/big box stores, cut and painted them using oops paint (can be had for under $10 a gallon or less again keep an eye on the craigslist or check the oops sections of paint stores) and secured them by pounding two stakes into the ground and then sliding the hollow bottom of the columns over the stakes (insure a snug fit by angling the stakes outward and pinching them together to get the column to slide down snuggly). First year I think using them pictured below was 2008 or so (and they're STILL holding up despite being exposed to at least 2 weeks of fall weather every year since):

Here's a great instructable using round carpet tubes (can also use mailing tubes! I collected a bunch from work and they're great!)
https://www.instructables.com/id/CardBoard-Dock-Pilings-for-Halloween-Fence/

Cardboard pickets ( just size them at least 3 foot tall, could have some "wonky" crooked ones in there and paint them streaky white/gray and they'd look nice and old! Secure to the ground using rebar or stakes every few feet (could tie them off using fishing line or twine)
http://clearwatercottage.blogspot.com/2013/05/easy-cardboard-picket-fence-decoration.html

As long as all of the cardboard is well covered with latex house paint they should stand up to a bit of wet weather. The outdoor paint is fine, but indoor works well as long as you get the cardboard well coated.

 

[ChimpDaddy]

I have found that the plastic Halloween chain from DollarTree is the best for this situation. It is $1.00 for 40" during season or you can order a case directly from their website for $24.00 and free shipping to your nearest store. https://www.dollartree.com/Halloween-Headquarters/halloween-decorations/Plastic-Halloween-Chains-40-oz-/1191c639c639p399123/index.pro

You can attach them to any simple post with zip ties, I recommend black 100 packs from Harbor Freight for $3.00. The posts can be from any material that can be driven in the ground...PVC, boards from a pallet, tree branches at least 2" in diameter, etc...

I get about 800+ people through my yard every year and I direct them with those chains, has been flawless. Here is an example of how I use them.

 

[tinafromidaho]

Just be sure to clearly mark the path with lights or rope or "beware" tape or fake chains, otherwise they will wander around in the yard when they come up to your door to see the props.

 

[UnOrthodOx]

Alternative. Pallets. Lots of pallets.

Either as a path...

Or as fencing if you have some T-Bars to strap them to.

Usually can find them free. If you DO make the pathway, your grass will survive under it for 3 days fine. After that it'll start to yellow a bit but snap out of it. Anything over 10 days, it'll start to die. I actually built it as it was gentler on the grass than the numbers we get.

 

[kakugori]

I have a not-insignificant amount of the plastic bronze skull fence (from Spirit and/or At Home), which is staked into the ground and zip-tied up, then I put string lights on that for visibility and obvious "follow the path" messaging. We have a good run of real cast iron fence I light up as well.

Last year, I used less fence and directed traffic with luminary bags - LED tea lights in brown paper bags with some sand for weight. Do yourself a favor, bag the sand so it doesn't get all in your candles. It worked beautifully, but it was a mess.

This year, I'm going to do a mix of the fence, sticks and tree limbs covered in spiderweb, and maybe some stacked wood fence in this style if I've got enough decent size limbs.

Of Note: I think it's important to either be wide enough for 2 people to pass, or to have areas set aside for that. Because I always have people who freeze, or try to go backward (especially bad in the early days where there was a single path in and out), or I need to be wandering around and people need to get by. Don't make a single-file width.