I could use some ideas. Last year I used bark mulch, which wasn't a good idea since I like to work the garden barefooted, spent a lot of time picking out splinters. It's a sheet composted ("lasagna") no-till garden, and I don't want to use brick or anything similar. I thought I might put down a new layer of newspaper to keep weeds down and use straw, but I bet there are some people with better ideas. Bonus points for something cheap and/or recycled.
For me the "newspaper to keep weeds down and use straw" has worked very, very well. That's what I use in both the herb garden and around perrenial flower beds. In what I call my "Speciman" garden I have paths of closely trimmed grass. In the blackberry area it's just pine straw, but about a foot thick & added to each year. In the main garden I keep the paths cultivated (scraped clean) with my trusty Troy Bilt tiller set to the minimum cutting depth. The main garden has about 2600 feet of paths and anything else would be too much time & labor. Peace, poor_old_dad
I like bark over a weed block layer, but then I seldom go barefoot. High arches need those shoes for support. It lasts longer than straw, any rain and straw needs to be replaced pretty often.
Well, I've decided - to hell with paths! I noticed last year that my plants are no respecters of my garden designing talents. Some took over the adjacent paths, and in some beds I wasted good garden space. I'm going to try the "old-timey" way of planting according to the needs of each plant, and walking in the natural spaces between. I may "enhance" the paths with some extra straw to keep down the weeds. We'll see what happens.
Hm, I'm rather partial to stones to lay out a path. Not bricks, because it doesn't look natural. But I have found stones with a smooth side that I lay with that side facing up, to make a neat footpath from one end of my garden to the other.
Gaston, what you describe is what happens to my "paths," too. About the most successful long-lasting "path" I've had yet (I'm kind of new to this gardening stuff, only a couple years doing vegetables so far) was cardboard with a log holding it down in one place, and some big rocks.
lol... my plants didn't respect their boundaries either, and they were all potted! I've seen people use recycled decking lumber. I've seen a TON of it on freecycle & craigslist over the past few months for free or next-to-free. It always looks so nice - almost zen-like, and if a piece rots you just pick it out & replace it with another freebie board! love, mom
