As someone who loves gardening and goes barefoot whenever possible, wood chip pathways are definitely uncomfortable to walk on. This year I covered the coarse wood chips with a very thin layer of straw- just enough to soften the sharpness. Worked great. A layer of sawdust on top also works well. Spray it well with water when you first spread it, then it sticks together and stays in place without puffing into the air. It’s like walking on a cushioned kitchen mat. 🙂
I was gifted two skids of hydroponic coco coir grow bags, and that’s what I’ve been using for a few years now on a slight slope. Talk about soft! Furthermore, due to the way the fibers lock together, there is zero washout ever. The downside is that application is very tedious and time consuming.
I love watching videos and taking completely random tidbits away. Todays worker smarter not harder tip comes to you from 2x6. One short section of 2x6 and you too can wheel your barrow right to the top of your compost pile. All for the low price of visiting your scrap yard. Thanks Jesse!
I ❤ that at the start, talking about your Q&A at the correctional facility, you said "each person". I could see it was 100% intentional. I also think that program sounds awesome 🌱
Regarding living pathway management, I'm currently running a number of related experiments for chicken management of the paths. For our main garden, which is about 30' x 40', I've run semi-permanent chicken tunnel (AKA "chunnel") completely around it, hooked right into their main enclosed run area. I constructed that perimeter chunnel from wire mesh fencing (basically wimpy "hardware cloth"), taking a 4' wide strip and bending it into a 2' x 2' extension that's attached to the main outer wire mesh fencing (for deer, rabbits, etc.). I built a bunch of easily portable chunnel sections, 4' x 2' x 2', out of 1" x 2" boards and chicken wire. I cut openings in the perimeter chunnel that can be wired shut or bent open as needed, so that I can temporarily set up a length of the portable chunnel frames from these openings at the end of a path and run it as far along the path as desired, optionally all the way to the opposite perimeter opening. The idea here is that I can cycle the chickens through the paths by periodically moving the mobile sections of the chunnel. The chickens have access to a lush area of the path, while other paths are allowed to grow. This prevents the chickens from ravaging the beds as well as the other paths, which they'd otherwise raze to dust without allowing anything to grow in their domain. This approach also gives me plenty of options for which paths I leave open for me to easily traverse. For the places I want to easily cross the chunnel, I have a specially constructed chunnel section that has a half-height portion, which I can step on a 1' high board to easily go over, while the chickens can easily duck under it, as as type of over/underpass. So far it's all going well, but time will tell how viable a plan it really is in the long run...
Living pathways in my garden area just won't work do to huge amounts of Bermuda grass in my husband's yard. At 71 years of age, no-turn compost sounds great to me. God bless y'all and keep growing
Clover is such a lovely plant. I was surprised to learn it was a legume. Not only are our pathways clover we use is as nitrogen fixing ground cover with things like cannabis and in our context it works great.
I have started using sawdust in my walkways in my greenhouse this season instead of woodchips like previously. So far I absolutely love it. Looks great and is so soft and fluffy and easy on both feet and knees.
With the living pathways on a slope my friend and I have been using crushed rock to give mulches and compost something to grab onto and no get washed away as fast, this will be the third year of doing this method and Ive noticed it’s balanced out the slope a bit as well which is really nice cause now we have some new areas to set up raised beds
I did living pathways this past summer after reading your book. I've done cardboard with Straw many years, and I agree, pathway management is such a pain and the alternatives are never perfect. I used dutch clover, and winter rye in my paths and trimmed with my weed Wacker all summer. I really liked having the green clippings after mowing to tip dress struggling seedlings or plants. I loved seeing the bees on the clover. Was able to manage the Bermuda grass pretty well as I think the roots slow to spread. The weed eating was a chore..but will do the same next year. Love the daily podcast. Really helps me through these dark days of winter...I miss the sun so much and it's only November!
Great update on the aerated compost! I had a similar experience with 'meh' compost as a result. I bought a small tractor 1 year ago for snow clearing and (mostly) compost turning/burying of spent brewing grain -it has been a great improvement. Also moves that fantastic compost into the beds with ease. Listen to the little voice inside your spine... buy a tractor! I'll be building 3 or 4 JS BioReactors this season using the tractor to fill an IBC tote cage. I line the cage with cardboard; fill it with wet steamy compost materials using the tractor and it will produce thousands of BTU for several weeks over the winter! When it cools down I water it well and stir it with battery powered auger and it heats back up. The living pathways are very cool but I've avoided them so far for fear of quack grass rhizomes and chickweed. I also farm on very well draining, level soil in a semi-arid climate so... we have different issues. How DO you get rid of chickweed in a no till system?
I'm in zone 6 and I use white clover for living pathways. I mow the pathways with a bagging lawnmower to keep things clean and compost the cuttings which are dynamite in a compost pile. For unmulched rows I use a scythe to maintain the borders instead of an edger and I really like it. Sometimes I do a partial mow to let the clover flower to attract pollinators. YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaAAAAAAAAAAH living pathways
Our backyard goes out about 15' then it has a steep slope that goes down about 20'. We terraced the slope and use crushed gravel on the steps and between the beds, bark or hay would just wash down and clog the required french drain. I love the idea of living pathways for green and softness. I also love the ease of crushed gravel, one and done and the crunch. Our next property will have both. Thank you as always for the clear and concise info.
Consecutive swales with upright, log banked berms, were the answer to heavy rain washing down the hill on my property. I established perennial asparagus, oregano, rosemary and mint in them along with annual pumpkins.
Speaking of conferences, I attended the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Sustainable Agriculture Conference a couple weeks ago and I very much plan on attending it next year. It was an incredible wealth of information for me, especially as someone who self-describes as an "aspiring grower" who still has much to learn before I make the jump into farming myself. Some of my favorite workshops included information on crop planning and business management, tools to measure soil health indicators cheaply but effectively, and community plant breeding initiatives. (I also finally picked up a copy of the Living Soil Handbook while I was there- I thoroughly look forward to reading it through!!)
Did you tailor make this episode for me? The two big changes in my garden recently has been to trial living pathways and transition to a no-turn compost system. How nice of you!
Same, only difference is henbit is my Winter problem weed. Trying to mass plant crimson and white clover to hopefully out compete the henbit and suppress Spring and Summer weeds.
Once again thank you for the information on the compost. My farm is sloped in 2 directions. 2023 was a disaster for me we had non stop rain 68 inches with clay soil. I ended up resetting everything. I ended up raising the beds about 8 to 10 inches . My original plan was to use the pathways to drain the crazy down pours events . Well this summer it has been extremely dry and the raised beds well were not great either. I ended up filling the walkways with wood chips the wood chips I was able to get were not fresh or evenly chipped some larger than normal chunks. I put them down not liking them but the constant dry bed edges was not working either. The odd random sizes and them being 4 years old I think worked well it paths became fungal rather quickly and glued them together. We had a dump of rain in August 7 inches in 2 1/2 days water was running down my paths and almost none of it moved. Not sure what next year will be like
I have living pathways in my garden area. I leave them somewhat long out of laziness, and understand the thing with the going to seed. they are a bit wide (to allow the mower 48cm) and I'm terrible at edging, but i try. I hate the woodchip look and love to go barefoot so I'm sticking with the green paths! Though, to segue back to potatoes, I'm tempted to set them up elsewhere with conifer woodchip because they really loved that in previous years... (They also love deep trenches... very NOT No-Till....I have nothing to hill with, maybe I'll scrounge up enough leaves in future years)
The issue with trimmers is they throw debris everywhere. This is fine with certain crops. But a total no go with leafy crops, which also happen to be many small farms cash driver.
@mattg6472 I'm aware. But he is cutting the pathways with crops growing on either side. So the mulch collecting process ideally is enclosed to keep debris from getting into the beds.
@@mattg6472 also, my brain read hedge trimmer as weed eater... I've seen wheeled weed eaters, but not hedge trimmer. I'm guessing hedge trimmers fling less debris than a weed eater
@@NBarSMicrogreens well yeah a hedge trimmer is basically a mini sickle bar or part of a swather. It doesn't throw anything thats the point. Besides dont we all want the mulch on the beds ?
I did living pathways all last year on my new .25 acre plot on a hill and keeping up with it sucks but it sheds water like a champ with no erosion. So I hate it and love it lol but the alternatives are not better. We also have Bermuda grass in parts of that area so I gotta dig that out a lot. Bermuda can’t handle a determined farmer.
Another option for pathways including in high tunnels is camomile, only downside is lack of diversity, maybe other low growling hardy (don't mind being trodden on) to add
Great Channel. Great soil book. Compost temperature is discussed a lot as a way of killing pathogens. Have you ever come across preheating potential compost materia, in say an oven, before creating a compost pile?
Why not lay down logs or bricks horizontally and terrace the land if its so sloped? Would the terraforming not improve retention and thus pay for itself over time?
My soil is so difficult without the woodchip walkways. I have a terrible mixture of gray clay, sand, and shiny particles that would turn to cement when it was wet. It wouldn't absorb water at all unless there was a complete deluge and so much run off. I've done heavy compost and woodchips for the last 5 years but have been able to do less of each this year due to the soil finally building up nicely. I tried doing living pathways but I battled Bermuda so badly it just didn't work with the hard soil. Now I only had a handful of it come up this year and the soil was soft enough that it pulled right up and didn't come back this time 🙌. Now if I could completely get rid of this wiregrass 🫠. Any tips? Soil is soft so it's pulling right up but in between plantings it tends to take over quickly.
Why can't you just get a normal push mower. Most have adjustments for the deck hight. If you raise one side and stick the wheels slightly off the edge they will create an edge plus mow at the same time ?
Obviously, you've never had truffle flavoured potato chips. Oh, and if the farming goes down, because, somehow, people won't need food, make a bee line for the Writers Guild of America, they have unions and all.
There was a great interview with Farmhand's founder I think on the Growing for Market Podcast. Where he explains it's not ai.. yet. Because there is still too much machine learning required for this niche field. But they are working in the direction one day.
As someone who loves gardening and goes barefoot whenever possible, wood chip pathways are definitely uncomfortable to walk on. This year I covered the coarse wood chips with a very thin layer of straw- just enough to soften the sharpness. Worked great. A layer of sawdust on top also works well. Spray it well with water when you first spread it, then it sticks together and stays in place without puffing into the air. It’s like walking on a cushioned kitchen mat. 🙂
I've been doing sawdust for a minute and I enjoy it. one of the most beautiful gardens ever. Keep on rockin..... In the Free World!
Great idea
I was gifted two skids of hydroponic coco coir grow bags, and that’s what I’ve been using for a few years now on a slight slope. Talk about soft! Furthermore, due to the way the fibers lock together, there is zero washout ever. The downside is that application is very tedious and time consuming.
I love watching videos and taking completely random tidbits away. Todays worker smarter not harder tip comes to you from 2x6. One short section of 2x6 and you too can wheel your barrow right to the top of your compost pile. All for the low price of visiting your scrap yard.
Thanks Jesse!
I ❤ that at the start, talking about your Q&A at the correctional facility, you said "each person". I could see it was 100% intentional. I also think that program sounds awesome 🌱
Regarding living pathway management, I'm currently running a number of related experiments for chicken management of the paths.
For our main garden, which is about 30' x 40', I've run semi-permanent chicken tunnel (AKA "chunnel") completely around it, hooked right into their main enclosed run area. I constructed that perimeter chunnel from wire mesh fencing (basically wimpy "hardware cloth"), taking a 4' wide strip and bending it into a 2' x 2' extension that's attached to the main outer wire mesh fencing (for deer, rabbits, etc.).
I built a bunch of easily portable chunnel sections, 4' x 2' x 2', out of 1" x 2" boards and chicken wire. I cut openings in the perimeter chunnel that can be wired shut or bent open as needed, so that I can temporarily set up a length of the portable chunnel frames from these openings at the end of a path and run it as far along the path as desired, optionally all the way to the opposite perimeter opening.
The idea here is that I can cycle the chickens through the paths by periodically moving the mobile sections of the chunnel. The chickens have access to a lush area of the path, while other paths are allowed to grow. This prevents the chickens from ravaging the beds as well as the other paths, which they'd otherwise raze to dust without allowing anything to grow in their domain. This approach also gives me plenty of options for which paths I leave open for me to easily traverse. For the places I want to easily cross the chunnel, I have a specially constructed chunnel section that has a half-height portion, which I can step on a 1' high board to easily go over, while the chickens can easily duck under it, as as type of over/underpass.
So far it's all going well, but time will tell how viable a plan it really is in the long run...
That was nice having a question and answer at a Correctional Facility to answering their garden they look after as part of their rehabilitation.😊
Living pathways in my garden area just won't work do to huge amounts of Bermuda grass in my husband's yard. At 71 years of age, no-turn compost sounds great to me. God bless y'all and keep growing
I am becoming enamored of these storytime endings. I think today's would be titled "Horton Would've Heard a Who (but there's no sound in space)"
Clover is such a lovely plant. I was surprised to learn it was a legume. Not only are our pathways clover we use is as nitrogen fixing ground cover with things like cannabis and in our context it works great.
I have started using sawdust in my walkways in my greenhouse this season instead of woodchips like previously. So far I absolutely love it. Looks great and is so soft and fluffy and easy on both feet and knees.
With the living pathways on a slope my friend and I have been using crushed rock to give mulches and compost something to grab onto and no get washed away as fast, this will be the third year of doing this method and Ive noticed it’s balanced out the slope a bit as well which is really nice cause now we have some new areas to set up raised beds
I did living pathways this past summer after reading your book. I've done cardboard with Straw many years, and I agree, pathway management is such a pain and the alternatives are never perfect. I used dutch clover, and winter rye in my paths and trimmed with my weed Wacker all summer.
I really liked having the green clippings after mowing to tip dress struggling seedlings or plants. I loved seeing the bees on the clover. Was able to manage the Bermuda grass pretty well as I think the roots slow to spread.
The weed eating was a chore..but will do the same next year.
Love the daily podcast. Really helps me through these dark days of winter...I miss the sun so much and it's only November!
Thanks for the continued content. Appreciate it
Great update on the aerated compost! I had a similar experience with 'meh' compost as a result.
I bought a small tractor 1 year ago for snow clearing and (mostly) compost turning/burying of spent brewing grain -it has been a great improvement. Also moves that fantastic compost into the beds with ease.
Listen to the little voice inside your spine... buy a tractor!
I'll be building 3 or 4 JS BioReactors this season using the tractor to fill an IBC tote cage. I line the cage with cardboard; fill it with wet steamy compost materials using the tractor and it will produce thousands of BTU for several weeks over the winter! When it cools down I water it well and stir it with battery powered auger and it heats back up.
The living pathways are very cool but I've avoided them so far for fear of quack grass rhizomes and chickweed. I also farm on very well draining, level soil in a semi-arid climate so... we have different issues.
How DO you get rid of chickweed in a no till system?
If its Star Chickweed, it can be eaten or used for a nutritional tea.
@ursamajor1936 not looking for recipes
Weed removal is important part of farming
Thumbs up just 'cos I love compost
I'm in zone 6 and I use white clover for living pathways. I mow the pathways with a bagging lawnmower to keep things clean and compost the cuttings which are dynamite in a compost pile. For unmulched rows I use a scythe to maintain the borders instead of an edger and I really like it. Sometimes I do a partial mow to let the clover flower to attract pollinators. YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaAAAAAAAAAAH living pathways
Our backyard goes out about 15' then it has a steep slope that goes down about 20'. We terraced the slope and use crushed gravel on the steps and between the beds, bark or hay would just wash down and clog the required french drain. I love the idea of living pathways for green and softness. I also love the ease of crushed gravel, one and done and the crunch. Our next property will have both. Thank you as always for the clear and concise info.
Like button smashed! I'm loving all the composting information of late.
Consecutive swales with upright, log banked berms, were the answer to heavy rain washing down the hill on my property. I established perennial asparagus, oregano, rosemary and mint in them along with annual pumpkins.
Speaking of conferences, I attended the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Sustainable Agriculture Conference a couple weeks ago and I very much plan on attending it next year. It was an incredible wealth of information for me, especially as someone who self-describes as an "aspiring grower" who still has much to learn before I make the jump into farming myself. Some of my favorite workshops included information on crop planning and business management, tools to measure soil health indicators cheaply but effectively, and community plant breeding initiatives. (I also finally picked up a copy of the Living Soil Handbook while I was there- I thoroughly look forward to reading it through!!)
we love that conference, we were unable to attend this year, but hope to be back on track next year.
Did you tailor make this episode for me? The two big changes in my garden recently has been to trial living pathways and transition to a no-turn compost system. How nice of you!
Same, only difference is henbit is my Winter problem weed. Trying to mass plant crimson and white clover to hopefully out compete the henbit and suppress Spring and Summer weeds.
Once again thank you for the information on the compost. My farm is sloped in 2 directions. 2023 was a disaster for me we had non stop rain 68 inches with clay soil. I ended up resetting everything. I ended up raising the beds about 8 to 10 inches . My original plan was to use the pathways to drain the crazy down pours events . Well this summer it has been extremely dry and the raised beds well were not great either. I ended up filling the walkways with wood chips the wood chips I was able to get were not fresh or evenly chipped some larger than normal chunks. I put them down not liking them but the constant dry bed edges was not working either. The odd random sizes and them being 4 years old I think worked well it paths became fungal rather quickly and glued them together. We had a dump of rain in August 7 inches in 2 1/2 days water was running down my paths and almost none of it moved. Not sure what next year will be like
I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!
I have living pathways in my garden area. I leave them somewhat long out of laziness, and understand the thing with the going to seed. they are a bit wide (to allow the mower 48cm) and I'm terrible at edging, but i try. I hate the woodchip look and love to go barefoot so I'm sticking with the green paths!
Though, to segue back to potatoes, I'm tempted to set them up elsewhere with conifer woodchip because they really loved that in previous years... (They also love deep trenches... very NOT No-Till....I have nothing to hill with, maybe I'll scrounge up enough leaves in future years)
I have your solution sir!! This is the idea im coming up with. Hedge trimmer on wheels. I think this idea is part of the revolution .
The issue with trimmers is they throw debris everywhere. This is fine with certain crops. But a total no go with leafy crops, which also happen to be many small farms cash driver.
@@NBarSMicrogreensnot for crops . He wants to cut his living paths for mulch
@mattg6472 I'm aware. But he is cutting the pathways with crops growing on either side. So the mulch collecting process ideally is enclosed to keep debris from getting into the beds.
@@mattg6472 also, my brain read hedge trimmer as weed eater... I've seen wheeled weed eaters, but not hedge trimmer. I'm guessing hedge trimmers fling less debris than a weed eater
@@NBarSMicrogreens well yeah a hedge trimmer is basically a mini sickle bar or part of a swather. It doesn't throw anything thats the point. Besides dont we all want the mulch on the beds ?
I did living pathways all last year on my new .25 acre plot on a hill and keeping up with it sucks but it sheds water like a champ with no erosion.
So I hate it and love it lol but the alternatives are not better.
We also have Bermuda grass in parts of that area so I gotta dig that out a lot. Bermuda can’t handle a determined farmer.
Another option for pathways including in high tunnels is camomile, only downside is lack of diversity, maybe other low growling hardy (don't mind being trodden on) to add
Great Channel. Great soil book. Compost temperature is discussed a lot as a way of killing pathogens. Have you ever come across preheating potential compost materia, in say an oven, before creating a compost pile?
How often do you edge the beds?
ThankQ
What's going on in indiana this weekend ? Where and when?
Hello from wichita ks.
Why not lay down logs or bricks horizontally and terrace the land if its so sloped? Would the terraforming not improve retention and thus pay for itself over time?
My soil is so difficult without the woodchip walkways. I have a terrible mixture of gray clay, sand, and shiny particles that would turn to cement when it was wet. It wouldn't absorb water at all unless there was a complete deluge and so much run off. I've done heavy compost and woodchips for the last 5 years but have been able to do less of each this year due to the soil finally building up nicely. I tried doing living pathways but I battled Bermuda so badly it just didn't work with the hard soil. Now I only had a handful of it come up this year and the soil was soft enough that it pulled right up and didn't come back this time 🙌. Now if I could completely get rid of this wiregrass 🫠. Any tips? Soil is soft so it's pulling right up but in between plantings it tends to take over quickly.
Jesse, what the heck are you talking about when you mention that space rock? I don't get it.
Are there straw farmers out there who harvest at milk stage?
Why can't you just get a normal push mower. Most have adjustments for the deck hight. If you raise one side and stick the wheels slightly off the edge they will create an edge plus mow at the same time ?
Why dont we have mini swathers on this continent ? I need hay and cut living path at height too
Greetings from the land below the sea, please accept my comment for the algorithm gods
Obviously, you've never had truffle flavoured potato chips.
Oh, and if the farming goes down, because, somehow, people won't need food, make a bee line for the Writers Guild of America, they have unions and all.
Enter, Farmhand. sounds like AI
There was a great interview with Farmhand's founder I think on the Growing for Market Podcast. Where he explains it's not ai.. yet. Because there is still too much machine learning required for this niche field. But they are working in the direction one day.