Have you noticed the path less traveled is also covered in more plant life? This is the main reason that when you enter a national park they ask you very politely to please stay on the path. Even if you see no plant life in an area it might be there, sometimes waiting in dormancy for the right moment to spring up. Compacted soil is an obstacle that most plants can not over come. Even worse of course is driving a vehicle over the soil, but even a heavy wheelbarrow can do some serious damage. You can keep your garden soil light and loamy for years to come and without having to till, if you make permanent walks, and keep the soil mulched.
Walks are an enjoyable way to add interest and lead guests through your landscape. Consider serpentine paths around natural elevation changes and landmarks. Remember less energy invested in the creation means more time to enjoy. Work with the land not against it.
How wide to make your walk
18 inches is more than enough for a person to walk comfortably of course if you need to bring your garden cart through give it enough space and plan for a place to turn it around.
Paths will evolve on their own, as you walk over them their nature will be revealed by their usefulness. If a path has no purpose it will be unused and then overgrown. Build a path with purpose and it will be maintained without effort.
Paths with parallel or grid configurations take much more space than designs created with more organic forms. This is called least path design.
Materials for a walk
mulches of all sorts make good walks, they retain moisture add nutrients and cull weeds. Call a local Arborist for his latest chips, use leaves in the fall, and grass clippings in the summer.
found field stones are great materials for hard scape, know that plants will eventually grow in between the rocks. You can fight this forever, as weeding is a losing battle, or you could plant them with small ground cover or moss. I don't recommend placing a plastic sheeting underneath to stop weeds as it will eventually deteriorate contaminating your soil. A natural fabric can help for a few years, for added protection, stability, and drainage level out an inch of sand underneath.
pea gravel and river rock are also good for light or heavy traffic, make sure to have good rails around the rocks so they don't migrate into your beds. Try using as local a product as you can. For my paths I have used things found on and around my property.
Path Boarders
Even if you have well planned out paths often people walk all over your bed anyway. They simply do not understand the destruction they are causing, or are oblivious to the rules of garden space. If you plan on having guests give the paths some definition. Try lining the boarders with taller rocks or small logs. Again I don't recommend adding plastic to your garden in any form, boarders and rhizome barriers included.
I am not against a grass walk, the problem is that it will spread into your garden giving you more weeding if the boarders aren't well secured. Carefully mowing it over and over again take time and effort.
Earthworms, moles, and plants with deep tap roots are your friends when it comes to soil compaction. They will create small tunnels by digging or dieing off in the soil leaving spaces for new roots. Tilling on the other hand is at the "root" of soil compaction. Earth that has been tilled has no protection from the elements and life in that soil will soon leave. Sun, wind, and rain will deteriorate the soils resiliency even further. Besides tilling only encourages weeds to grow. Without protection the Sun burns out the soil, irradiating it. You wouldn't go out in the sun without sunscreen would you? Then the dry top soil e gets blown away, now we can call it dirt, and the rain beats down on it washing it away and compacting it. Instead of soaking into the ground like it should the rain runs off eroding the land. Where this has occurred soil becomes like that of the desert.
There was a show on television just the other night about the dust bowls of the Midwest, a Farmer remarked, "We didn't learn from our mistakes, when something wasn't working one year you tried it harder the next." Agriculture has not learned it's lesson yet.
Luckily rehabilitation is possible.
Walks are an enjoyable way to add interest and lead guests through your landscape. Consider serpentine paths around natural elevation changes and landmarks. Remember less energy invested in the creation means more time to enjoy. Work with the land not against it.
How wide to make your walk
18 inches is more than enough for a person to walk comfortably of course if you need to bring your garden cart through give it enough space and plan for a place to turn it around.
Paths will evolve on their own, as you walk over them their nature will be revealed by their usefulness. If a path has no purpose it will be unused and then overgrown. Build a path with purpose and it will be maintained without effort.
Paths with parallel or grid configurations take much more space than designs created with more organic forms. This is called least path design.
Materials for a walk
mulches of all sorts make good walks, they retain moisture add nutrients and cull weeds. Call a local Arborist for his latest chips, use leaves in the fall, and grass clippings in the summer.
found field stones are great materials for hard scape, know that plants will eventually grow in between the rocks. You can fight this forever, as weeding is a losing battle, or you could plant them with small ground cover or moss. I don't recommend placing a plastic sheeting underneath to stop weeds as it will eventually deteriorate contaminating your soil. A natural fabric can help for a few years, for added protection, stability, and drainage level out an inch of sand underneath.
pea gravel and river rock are also good for light or heavy traffic, make sure to have good rails around the rocks so they don't migrate into your beds. Try using as local a product as you can. For my paths I have used things found on and around my property.
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| Taking advantage of a interesting tree shard |
Path Boarders
Even if you have well planned out paths often people walk all over your bed anyway. They simply do not understand the destruction they are causing, or are oblivious to the rules of garden space. If you plan on having guests give the paths some definition. Try lining the boarders with taller rocks or small logs. Again I don't recommend adding plastic to your garden in any form, boarders and rhizome barriers included.
I am not against a grass walk, the problem is that it will spread into your garden giving you more weeding if the boarders aren't well secured. Carefully mowing it over and over again take time and effort.
 |
| Instant pathway of broken pavers |
Earthworms, moles, and plants with deep tap roots are your friends when it comes to soil compaction. They will create small tunnels by digging or dieing off in the soil leaving spaces for new roots. Tilling on the other hand is at the "root" of soil compaction. Earth that has been tilled has no protection from the elements and life in that soil will soon leave. Sun, wind, and rain will deteriorate the soils resiliency even further. Besides tilling only encourages weeds to grow. Without protection the Sun burns out the soil, irradiating it. You wouldn't go out in the sun without sunscreen would you? Then the dry top soil e gets blown away, now we can call it dirt, and the rain beats down on it washing it away and compacting it. Instead of soaking into the ground like it should the rain runs off eroding the land. Where this has occurred soil becomes like that of the desert.
There was a show on television just the other night about the dust bowls of the Midwest, a Farmer remarked, "We didn't learn from our mistakes, when something wasn't working one year you tried it harder the next." Agriculture has not learned it's lesson yet.
Luckily rehabilitation is possible.
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