Today it’s all about grass paths… why I really dislike mine, why I think they may not be right choice for you, and why I’m getting rid of mine!
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1:27 Reason 1
3:44 Reason 2
6:02 Reason 3
7:26 Reason 4
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#gardening #irishgardener #irishgarden
21 Comments
Thank you for this Niall. I have the same problem on my allotment which just encourages couch grass! How are you going to get rid of the grass please? Chemicals?
Hi well lay cardboard over beside one raised bed and top it off with wood chip and small stones got so fed of grass.
Great reasons for dispensing with the grass. When I took on my full sized allotment it didn’t take me long to realise that I was digging over paths/walking areas to clear the weeds. So rightly or wrongly I laid down weed suppressant ground cover to create pathways. Over the last year I have been changing over to no-dig beds and laid cardboard down with wood chip on top. The jury is out on that as the bindweed and couch grass still break through! It seems there are difficulties everywhere with path making but then who said life was meant to be easy. Love the videos and good luck with the gravel moving!
Wow! You really don't like grass! You do need to get rid of it.
Happy Gardening My Friend 🌿💚🌿
Lol Niall just in after a tidy up in my water logged garden with grass and weeds every where so I'm glad I'm not the only one, maybe if the weather keeps a little dry I will get a bit of a tidy up during the week
I have wood chip paths on my allotment plot. Truck loads of free wood chips are dropped off fairly frequently by local arborists. I have shovelled wood chips directly onto uncut grass areas. My 100 square metre plot is a full day's work to cover, twice a year. Any weeds that grow through are easily pulled out or smothered by the next lot of wood chips. The bonus is that if I wish to extend or change the position of the beds, I simply rake the wood chips aside to reveal what has become bare soil. The wood chips are slowly breaking down, composting into the soil underneath.
Grass paths also attract and become a good breeding ground for wireworm, these are the pupae stage of the click beetle and they love grassland. Wireworm will create small holes in developing potato tubers, later slugs get into these holes and enlarge, destroying your crop, well at least part of it. So grass paths are a no no in the veg garden…Steve…🙂
Yes, grass paths look great but are a lot of work, I've done them. My alternative has been over the years is to convert them to stone paths with the rocks we all dig up after years of gardening. If careful you can get that pristine look. With just a few inches of sand underneath or your preferred weed block and topping off the crevasses with a decomposed granite type topper you get a nice old-world look. Looks good year-round, doesn't leach nutrients from the garden and fun to walk on barefoot.
Looking forward to seeing your solution to this (obvious) problem – gravel, mulch, ??? 😉
I really enjoyed this video and I agree wholeheartedly, I have chosen not to have grass pathways for much the same reasons. I still have a few areas to finish but I have almost all bark now ☺ 🌱
Do what’s best for you and your time schedule, within your own garden Niall. You have a large space and a lot to maintain. I SO truly understand the part about not walking on wet grass! 😖 I thought that it was just me. LOL. I refuse to do it.
I love grass paths. They're all I have or will ever have. I hate wood chips. I hate the feel of walking on them. They break down and have to be replaced regularly. I hate the way they look. Ugly brown. Also, in my area, box elder bugs and earwigs are a big problem and they LOVE wood chips. My neighbor has them in their paths and they are swarming with both bugs. They are breeding grounds for them. Literally thousands and thousands of them and they are decimating his garden.
On the other hand, grass feels good to walk on, looks much better, never needs replaced, and mowing it makes more for the compost bin. I love mowing and trimming around the beds. It's all part of the garden upkeep that I enjoy. I don't get enough rain and have good drainage, so I don't have to worry about that, and being in my area of the U.S. my garden spends most of the winter under snow, so there's not a lot of walking on the paths anyway.
I took up gardening becasue I didn't like cutting grass. The way I saw it was: I had just cut the grass, I was cutting the grass, or I was going to be cutting the grass, when all I really wanted to do was garden. I replaced the last of the grass paths this year with gravel and pavers over weed a barrier. Anyone want a lawnmower?
Wood chip is a better idea. Making soil rocky never did any gardener any good 🙂
Niall, I understand all the issues you have mentioned with your grass paths. But from my experience all the different materials have their own issues, just different. I have had grass, mulch and now gravel of which I like the look best but weeds are a constant maintenance for me as they are in mulch. Because of the rock, pulling the weeds is a pain. At first it looks real good then not so much. I suggest you get the most expensive weed block you can find then add a pre-emergent yearly to prevent germination. You may need to use a weed and grass killer along the edges to keep them from traveling on top whether you use rock or mulch.
I 100% agree with get rid of grass paths. Like the idea of gravel. I did wood chip as free and also compost in the future. But id rather have paving. Easier to clean up if you get soil on the paths. Been picking up through facebook market place
Great reasons behind your decision of changing the paths from grass to gravel 👍 it actually brought back a lot of the similar reasons why we started to change over too all those years back 😊 but I had forgotten about them because they were not a problem anymore! 😉 As you know we have a lot of gravel/stoned paths and a bit of woodchip in the kitchen garden. I find walking on the woodchip easier both from energy saving and joint pain perspective as it doesn't move around under foot as much as stones do and the wheelbarrow tyre doesn't sink into it either but it does in stone. Great vid, mind yourself! Best wishes from Co. Kerry 🤗🌿💚
Remarkable timing… I'm doing this at the moment around my raised beds in the garden. Wooden border to create a framework outside the beds, cardboard, membrane and golden gravel for the finishing touch!
I laid down square stone flag stones around my vegetable garden. A lot less work and looks good. Gravel will invite weeds in but flag stones are better very little weeds!
We’ve inherited a gravel drive with flower beds & hedges along the side & I absolutely HATE it!😫 particularly at this time of year with all the leaves falling on it & also every time I cut the hedge, it’s impossible to sweep up the clippings & leaves without scooping up the gravel too. I far prefer the woodchip paths I’ve put in my veg garden, because any leaves etc can be left to rot down or scooped up with a bit of the woodchip which will also break down in the compost heap.
I am surrounded by pine trees and enjoy raking the fallen pine needles each fall for my (smallish) garden paths. These keep my footwear dry and clean, as well as detering pests.