Saturday, March 27, 2010

Garden Path Advice?

These are pictures of my garden last year.
I need some help!
I would like to have green paths in between the raised beds, but I'm afraid grass will work its way into the raised beds.
I've used chipped wood for the last couple years, but it takes a lot of wood chips and they decompose, so I have to haul in more chips every Spring.
Last year I didn't even get all the paths covered with chips.
Do you have any advice?
What do you use in between your raised beds?




5 comments:

  1. What we have planned to use are flagstones that we have hauled back from trips. Each time we go somewhere we have brought back a load for free, from the side of logging roads, colors and textures that have caught our eye. This is my first garden and hopefully we get enough sunshine hours to have a harvest. Good gardening LA.

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  2. There is something called weed control cloth. Or I have heard of people laying down 8 or so layers of newspaper.

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  3. I've been letting grass grow and it surprised me how nice the paths are, I guess we don't walk on it enough to kill the grass. And the wheelbarrow rolls so nicely (I'm a little worried about, say, gravel)... I'd love to get those little paver stones and dig out the paths level, pack sand, and then dry-fit pavers but I suspect that's a project we're not going to get to anytime in the next few years...

    We were going to dig out the grass and replace it with layers of newspaper and then wood chips on top this year, because like you said - the grass creeps into the garden (since we don't have any kind of barrier; the edges of our paths are just medium-sized round rocks that we've saved from digging around the yard). And weeds (especially creeping charlie) start growing in the grass, so then I need to weed the garden AND the path!

    After your post, I'm not so sure about the wood chips anymore though... maybe I should just deal with weeding the path for another year or two until we can get pavers laid. Maybe if I set my goal to pave one path each year...

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  4. some people use old shingles to keep grass from growing,ask at construction sites or freecycle, and your mulch or gravel will last longer. love your mushrooms!
    kudzu

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  5. Look at free cycle in your area. You might could come up with old bricks somebody is getting rid of. Check new subdivisions. Somebody building a house gave us all their leftovers from the job. Brick companies usually only take back full pallets.

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