hi,i have several beds on my lottie with paths between them,i was going to cover them with wood chippings but i have been told its best to keep the grass and weeds to encourage all the root eating critters to them rather than into my veg beds, is this true?cheers rick. :-\
Hmm..well it is true and it isn't. I've got both sort of paths and both work equally well.
As much as grass will give shelter for beneficial insects it will also hide some unwanted creatures too..but that's nature..there is no one without other. Usually there is balance of both without any major concern for you.
But chippings can as well have its own unwanted things hiding amongst it.
I would not worry for the sake of pest when you decide which choice you going for..but rather base it for your own liking..are your happy keeping the grass down and have some greenery?..or are you after low maintenance option?..lot of work to start with but once done it will be easy to look after.
If you go for the chippings option you will need to place a liner on ground first and the chipping go over that. If there is lot of perennial weeds amongst your grass then you will need to lift the turf off too or the weed will just 'travel' underneath until the liner comes to an end or some will just push trough if you are unlucky.
I have been quite successful with old terracotta floor tiles as paths :-) they are easy to take up, weed under and re-lay. I don't need to actually get a wheelbarrow onto the plot so I make them just wide enough to walk on.
Strangely enough I am just taking out the grass paths on my site.
After several years I have got fed up with grasses and weeds (Ground Elder in particular) spreading in to the beds.
I am going to scrape back what is there - cover with membrane and maybe fill in with gravel or chippings - what ever I can get for free!
Last year I started with straw paths, several thicknesses of newspaper underneath and then straw on top. I flung a few slug pellets in amongst the straw every now and again and it has worked well. The straw gradually rots and then can be composted and it looks tidy and neat, nothing much has grown through it, although I did weed thoroughly first.
I use old carpet to make paths you can always find it at the local dump
Ug... marcusesmum... modern carpet has nasty chemicals in it that will leach out.
Would wood shavings work as a pathway?......or would they all blow away? :-\
Just walked past our local timber yard and spotted a sign 10 large bags for £15
Bea
Trouble with woodshavings is that , being fine stuff..it tends to stick onto bottom of your shoes,,
I haven't had problem them being blown away..but in winter..bit of mud on your soles and walk across the shavings and all of the sudden you have grown an inch.. ::) ;D
I've got some now on border where 'nothing' grows..it keeps weeds down but I for walking surface I stick to something coarser.. ;)
*slaps forehead*
Hadn't thought of the "glue" factor ::)
Scrap that idea then, woodchippings or straw it is then ;D
Our plot is quite stony so Mrs Stick collects them up and uses them to cover a membrane to make the paths. Takes a little while to build up but apart from the membrane it's free