Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi everyone

I've got bark and wood chips on my paths at the moment but they are rotting and it's a bit of a mess, so I was thinking of replacing them with paving slabs, but I'm not sure what kind of ground cover I should use underneath. I've come across two types of cover that let water through: Spundbond fabric and woven weed control fabric. The woven stuff frails, so I'm not too sure about that, but it doesn't rot. Does the spundbond fabric one rot?
Any advice on this would be appreciated.

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*Feather*

Hi Feather
The spunbond weed suppressant is infinitely superior to the woven groundcover. It is easier to lay, to cut and to handle. I have experience in laying huge quantities of both and I'd go with spunbond every time - although it is more expensive. Suppose it depends how much you need - we used 6m x 100m rolls of the stuff at a time so we noticed the price differential quite a bit - or at least my boss did

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Would a layer of sand not be sufficient as its not really load bearing (which would require concrete) and any weeds that popup in between will only be in sand and easily removed!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Hi there! Snadger, I know we've talked about paths in the past......I'm going to use the extra strong black plastic sheeting I used to kill off the weeds on my lottie as a base for my paths.........I'm trying to go for the cheapest, cheapest option - I've read somewhere I could use straw on top of the plastic.......what do you think? How about a layer of plastic, sand and then straw? Ta chuck! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Hi DDL, I've just re-read my previous thread and I don't think I was very explicit. The sand was in that instance was to be used 'under the paving flags' Anyway....
I too may be using plastic with sand on top as a temporarary measure until I could afford something else. If it works well though I'll stick with it!

Supersprout uses a lot of straw, but she uses it as a mulch on the beds. I don't think it would be a good idea to use it on the paths, especially if they are permanent as it rots down too quickly and you will be basically walking on a slowly deteriorating compost heap!

I will probably use the sand on plastic until the council in there infinate wisdom decide to dump a load of woodchippings! Once delivered, I'll be down like a shot with the wheelbarrow and just lay them on top of the sand!

So it's plastic.... sand..... then woodchips for me, then straw as a mulch on some of the beds!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I love my woodchip paths, they smell delicious. I've just renewed them all as they were rotting down. We ask a local garden/oddjob firm to deliver them to our site, in exchange for a few free veggies now and again

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I've been collecting carpet to use for my paths (well, just one path - up the middle of the plot). I'm not too sure about the environmentally friendliness of it, but at least i saved the carpet from landfill.

There's no way we can afford paving slabs, or even enough woodchip come to think of it, our plot is just too big! Something has to be done though, the weeds on the path got completely out of control last year and i don't have a mower!

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
Happy Gardening!

We've used woodchip on top of weed suppressant material for most of our paths, although the wood chip mountain we had on the site has disappeared rapidly once found by another plotholder who has used it liberally over his plot with nothing underneath

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

Snadger, my plot is infested with bindweed, so I don't think the sand would work, as the roots can reach a depth of 18ft. I spent most of last season weeding both the beds and the paths, so I want to reduce the weeding this year so I can concentrate on the important bits... the veggies!

Thanks to everyone else for their suggestions. I think I might go with SR's advice of putting down the spunbond fabric. Someone on ebay is selling 100m x 1.5m for £36 - very cheap if you see the garden centre prices 10m x 1m for £14.99!

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*Feather*

I would add another layer of wood chips.

If I was going to put down slabs I would dig out all the chips and compost them and then tramp the earth down put a layer of Sand and then just out the slabs on that.

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My phone has more Processing power than the Computers NASA used to fake the Moon Landings

How about broken down pallets! That way you can dictate the width of the paths and they are free from a lot of garden centres!!
SS

Hi - I took on my allotment about a year ago and inherited carpet paths...a few months later the council ordered us to remove carpets, 'cos most of them leech chemicals into the soil. Not being able to transport/afford bark or slabs, I used the grass/turf from my overgrown allotment to make a new path. Some people round her even mow them...which is better than vacuuming the carpets i spose ; )

Plot No 1 has edged beds, with weed control fabric covered in bark, Plot No 2 currently has mud, but we are hoping to get some edgng put in, then put down some cardboard, weed control fabric and bark chipping!

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 26th November2008 - more new piccies!

Thanks for that Snadger! Our council don't do wood chippings, so I'll put the plastic and sand down for the time being! Ta chuck! DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Or vacuuming the grass?!!! LOL DDL

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

We have a maze of grass paths round and between our allotments, we are obliged by the committee to keep them neat,trimmed and safe for others accessing their plots. My plot is a mixture of one main grass path down the centre and carpeted paths between raised beds with bark chips on top of that. I'm experimenting with wood left over from decking the garden and some purpose made plastic roof tiles that clip together (also leftovers). the wood and tiles are slippery and i will probably remove them soon and use the for something else. So carpet or weed suppressant and chipping seem to be best, even though it needs renewing once a year. its also free, from local tre surgeon and carpet shop with a big skip full of old hessian backed carpet.

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Retirement is when you stop living at work and start working at living

Serendipity rules. Today me and my allotment chum were discussing what to do about weedy paths between beds, and I mentioned carpet, but wasn't really happy with the idea. A light bulb went on above her head, as she remembered cylcing past a fly-tipped pile of Astroturf on the way there. Three trips later we had enough to make our paths. It's got to be weed-proof, will not rot, super durable, and blends beautifully with the surroundings. Have been advised they use salt, so we'll be rinsing it off. Apart from that, I can't see any drawbacks.
Chuffed!

Astroturf usually has a fine grade of sand brushed into the fibres on the pitch. I wouldn't fancy playing on it if salt was used because one of its downfalls is that players get 'carpet burns' if they go to ground!

Carpet burns with salt rubbed into them sounds wonderful!

As you say though, it would make excellent paths!

PS The third and forth generation pitches use rubber crumb infill, it's a shame some of that hadn't been fly tipped also!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Hi

I just mow my paths with a push mower from freecycle.
Its easy, and its good exercise.

Tigerella