My beds are 30" wide and mulched with grass clippings. My pathways are 30" wide mowed 2". Been doing it this way for decades. Every 8 years I let the ground rest by simply turning my pathways into beds and my beds into pathways.
I've heard of an organic farming old timer who did that with white clover. 20" beds/paths that alternated every year. Basically 50% cover cropping paths 50% production cropping beds. Pretty ingenious, if you have the space.
Each year we use wood chips, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps between the beds. During the year we add clippings, scraps, and chips as necessary to keep the paths at the desired height. Prior to the new planting season, we remove the pathways and screen the material. The screened material is added to the beds and the large material is added to the compost piles.
I turned my garden to no till this year, first season, and already seeing the straw and wood chips breaking down I thought of the exact same thing. I didn’t think of screening it first though, makes sense, great call!
You know, so many gardening gurus are so sure of themselves and their ways that they never question anything. I really love your channel and how you have an open mindset and not claiming your way is flawless and everything else is crap. It is really helpful to us that are newer in this when choosing a path and when facing challenges. Thank you for great work!
Most beautiful garden I've ever seen was a version of this in the 1970's in Louisville Ky. An old man lived next to where I worked and his "garden" was just strips of heavily tilled soil in his back yard the pathways were cool season turf grasses. He mowed the grass in alternating strips with a side discharge mower, throwing to the left one week and the opposite the next week. The clippings were a great mulch and there was practically no weed control.
iam from germany (zone 8a) iam using persian clover for years now for my living pathways, it works very well for covering the pathways, mulching the beds/ fertilizing, also its not winterhard, which works fantastic for my system, cause i rotate between beds and pathways yearly
For our beds we use what they call "Live Edge" in the North. You edge down the beds a few inches, to create an exposed face, and then you gently slope up to the bed. The edge that you create does a great job at air pruning the invasive roots from our living path ways. They even make "profiling" attachment for your weed Wacker that will help you maintain a clean edge.
I know two of the main weed eater companies make something called a bed redefiner as dedicated units or attachments. It’s basically an edger that makes a wider profiled cut. It also throws debris to one side. I have not seen them used in market gardening.. but I’m curious about how it would work in this context or even to establish and maintain an edge around an entire plot. In close proximity to crops, you’d probably need some kind of shield to keep debris out of the rows.
@@pere4267 we don't have a market garden, so we just keep up our edges with a stirrup hoe, and a weed eater. I'd imagine that with the volume of bed space they have that a redefiner is just the ticket.
My yard was covered with 100’ loblolly pines that had limbed themselves up about 50’. The “soil” (more like concrete) was covered with a thick carpet of pine needles that continuously refreshed itself, dappled sunlight and not a weed anywhere. Only a few shade plants would grow in the lighter patches. Gradually the pines were removed. The bare patches were covered with thick layers of deciduous fall leaves removed by the bag from curbs in the neighborhood. After 20 years, fall leaves & worms have created about a foot of gorgeous soil. Now I have to buy bales of pine needles almost yearly to refresh evergreen shrub beds, especially in sloped areas. The needles are fine but tough: rain drops break on them, they do not wash down or float, slugs hate them, they last years longer than any other organic mulch AND the bales are much lighter to handle than any other mulch with no shoveling! Try building a path of thick cardboard, wetted down, topped with pine straw and see if it works for you. Hope you find a free source of needles!
Glad I stumbled across your comment. I've been experimenting with pine needles in my walkways. The weeds grow through them a little but for the most part the only aggravating thing is when one of my chickens gets in the garden and kicks the pine straw all over my beds.
Like your idea, but pine needles will make the soil acidic. Perfectly fine for some plants like tomatoes and azaleas. Not so good for others. But as long as it works for you, great idea.
@@cherokeecountry I've always heard that myself, however I recently heard from a very seasoned gardener that claims hes not noticed much of a difference.
@@cherokeecountry I only use pine needles in paths and evergreen tree/shrub beds; I use chopped fall leaves for mulch on “growing” beds of flowers, veggies, herbs & berries.
Gardening in zone 4b, I have converted my front lawn into a garden with living pathways, which primarily consist of grass and clover. However, a section has yarrow which has slowly been taking over the paths... year 4 and it has been easy enough to maintain out of the growing beds (less invasive than the rhizomatious grass), trims well, incredibly soft to walk on, holds up to traffic, and is ground cover all season long, even in late winter/early spring to prep the beds. The medicinal herb quality is certainly a bonus too. I also have a section that has chamomile (year 3) and it's been a second favorite for my pathways.
For many growers, both small and large, pathways are a necessity and a burden - one needs pathways in order to tend the garden, but they wind up being a space for weeds to grow in. Here, we dug water retention trenches on contour (like swales, just not as pretentious) and filled them with wood chips: it keeps the trench from collapsing, absorbs the water that would otherwise just drain away through the sandy subsoil, and of course, prevents the wood chips from ever washing away. Our goal is to transition into perennial clover walkways once the overall soil organic matter has reached acceptable levels.
Howdy, been watching your videos for a while; wanted to express appreciation for your lack of dogma, willingness to experiment and general humor. Keep up the great work.
Being seventy five my late husband and I put in a raised organic planting bed made from concrete blocks two high. First laid down thick professional weed barrier, four by sixteen area of rabbit wire then laid the concrete blocks. Put in a thick layer of white gravel between the beds so there’s no weeding cutting etc. The soil consists of cotton burr, rice hauls and organic peet moss. This enables me to harvest carrots, sweet potatoes, and potatoes thruout the winter season. I’m in mid Missouri. Yes the ground does freeze but a few inches down the ground is super soft. This is a no til, no bending or stooping garden that is a back saver.
My living pathways are Dutch white clover. When I gets too tall, I cut it down and spread it as clover hay. Thick-enough stand can make a lot of hay. Doesn't weaken the clover either. Works great, comes back quickly.
Jesse, I wonder if you could trial woodchip pathway WITH king stropharia inoculation. I might have mentioned this in a previous comment. However, this fungi naturalizes very well, native to much of North America (or so I have heard), has symbiotic benefits with plants and soil life ecosystems, and most importantly in your context, it grows a very dense mycelium network. I am thinking much of the woodchip might be resistant to being washed away if it's part of this network.
Oh we have done that for many years! Every time I put out a new path of wood chips (like in our tunnels) we inoculate with wine caps. Getting good flushes right now, in fact. But they don't seem to protect the wood chips from washout all that much unfortunately. At least not in our context. The rain is just too aggressive. That isn't a rigorous test, though, just anecdotal. Could be worth further exploration, but getting them to fully colonize before a heavy rain would be a bit of a challenge.
Don’t know if you can do what some people here do. Make a ditch on bed edges so that edges are easier to trim. My paths have clover dandelion buttercup couch grass etc. keeping a ditch makes all easier.
30” flail mower, 30” edger made out of an old rototiller (does both path edges at once), 30” power harrow with drop seeder. It’s a good management system, especially with long beds. I like the rototiller edger because I have rhizomatous grass and it goes deeper than the circular-saw type edger.
Tell us more about your belief in ghosts. 😂 Thank you for this invaluable insight into living pathways, a concept that I have never thought about. I am trying to increase photosynthesis, biodiversity, and living plants in the garden without it becoming a weedy mess. In California, we have native grasses that are perennial and clumping. I’ll try to see if I can create a living path with those.
Yeah in California they may or may not make sense because of moisture. It really depends on climate. You don't want to have to plant something in your paths that will need to be watered, but you can always start small and give it a small trial!
California native here, our grasses die off every summer and come back in the fall. We mow them when they're green, and this year when they start to brown I think I'll put some chips.
@@megmcguireme Thanks, Meagan, for the comment. I was thinking of using native grasses such as bent grass, carex (sedges), and some fescues in a living pathway, but you're right that even the most drought tolerant grasses get brown and almost dormant in our summers (I am in the inland Bay Area). Perhaps we can have brown summer living pathways? 😉 They're green in fall, winter, and early spring. That could be our California version of living pathways.
I Decided at my advanced age and poor energy level to Give up on my living paths (walkways) and install used astro turf . It's very cheap, comes with the weight down media granules and has years of weather exposure to leach out any residue chemicals. It's UV Treated and can be coated to revitalize or even change the plastic's color. I laid down the astro turf strips and sheets first then set my raised beds overlapping by three inches and where the turf meets the ground level grow beds i ramp cut the soil down 8 inches and then back cut a sharp channel with my power edger to tuck the turf back under itself in the soil, then pull my planting soil over on top of it to complete a nice sharp edge. No more mowing, weeding, blowing, vacuuming or stumbling over lumps, holes or wet spots. If you hard pack crush and run gravel underneath it first you can actually use a power wheelchair on it. Just like a grassy sidewalk.
Would love to hear what plants you use, besides the chamomile, in your pathways (unless of course you’ve already mentioned this, in that case don’t repeat yourself 😉). We have slightly raised beds on stone and sand. Our pathways are wood chips to retain moisture/hold out weeds. We have creeping thyme on the south side of each bed. This works well.
Hey Jesse, great video. I'm curious what management looks like on pathways near vining crops like sweet potatoes that tend to flop all over the pathways. I know you love growing sweet potatoes. How have you handled that?
Great question! We do not grow any vining crops around our living pathways. All of our vining crops are under a cover crop and mulching system. So the paths are just mulched. Effectively our gardens are divided into high rotation and slow rotation plots. The high rotation is where the pathways are. The slow rotation are managed with cover crops and mulches.
Hi, I'm wondering: (1) have you ever used some type of bordering material to contain your rows of gardening beds so there is a physical separation between your pathways and your crop production areas, and (2) what reasons have kept you from establishing some sort of physical barrier? Sorry I'm relatively new to your channel and maybe you've already covered this in a previous video.
Thanks for the update the living pathways. I'm a bit giddy to see how the ones I started last fall are going to do this summer on the East Coast, Canada. We did a terraced slope with short fruit bushes on the edges of the terraces and then an annual veggie bed on the inside of the terrace with living pathways (of white clover) between them and also on each end where we put a alley for bringing in carts to harvest the fruit. We also got alpacas last summer, so we are now trying to figure out if we can walk them through to mow down the clover or rake it up to feed to them, etc. Thanks for the inspiration for this fun project!
I kept living pathways when turning my yards into gardens. So far it's been good; you've covered pretty much everything. I have one bed with a perimeter of ~18" pieces of branches (~2" diameter) and that's helped a lot with making the perimeter easier to manage, plan on adding more as I get the wood.
You and Jenny inspired me to have living pathways. I feel they haven’t made a negative impact on my garden. In fact, they have enhanced its appeal. Thank s!
Hi we are from Switzerland. We need living pathways, because our land ist steep and we build terraces. They manage the water similar like swales. Anyway the grass holds the terraces. Otherwhiles all would fall down. There are no stones or bars etc. to hold the terraces. In this case we use strong grass especialy during the winter. The big ways for the tractor we maintain with a flail mower. The pathways we do the same like you. We are still looking for a kind of edger for the terraces, but more like a hedge trimmer. We will see 😊. Thank you for your very intersting videos 👍🏼
I really love the rock music you use as opposed to the same boring acoustic guitar practically every other gardening program has used since forever. That's coming from an acoustic guitarist
I've not had issues with woodchips floating off on me. But my style of gardening is more permaculture inspired than market garden focused. Lots of contours, higher beds, spotted perennials amongst annuals, etc. I also have living patches in paths to stop water from flowing; as well as intentional drainage sites where water accumulates most. Totally see where that could be an issue with your more intensive market style garden. Im in the same locale as well, 6b/7a VA.
I'd love to have living pathways but in SE Arizona high desert thats a pipe dream. Would like to use wood chips, but they just get either get blown away by high winds or covered in sand. Seems like the only thing that works here is landscape fabric. Not pretty, but it does the job.
We are starting new gardens on a new property. I'm leaving existing grass/clover/dandelion/wildflower lawn in-between beds. I'll run the chicken tractors across it where it's 8 feet wide and mow with a bagger in all paths to use the cuttings for compost.
There are other types of "living" paths that you could plant/use that require much less work. Try looking at some of the clover yard mixes that are Honey Bee friendly, they grow in much thicker, crush resistant and give back to the soil they can also be trained to grow to specific heights. Plus they look real cool when in bloom. I also lined my path edges with garden cloth, no edging when ya mow then. Just a beekeepers perspective :) I'm kind of a lazy gardener. :) Ty for your time, Blessed Days...
Subscribed!... i totally just realized i can use my driveway/sidewalk edger on my garden beds! woah cant believe i have been using a shovel for two years haha
Another amazing video Jesse. We have spoke a few times about the living pathways, we definitely love the benefits like visually and walking on as you mentioned but we really struggle keeping it out of the beds. The wild field grass has such deep roots we might have to consider planting them all like garden beds as opposed to leaving the natural stuff growing
We are starting new gardens on a new property. I'm leaving existing grass/clover/dandelion/wildflower lawn in-between beds. I'll run the chicken tractors across it where it's 8 feet wide and mow with a bagger in all paths to use the cuttings for compost. (This is my Prepper and Garden channel)
Jesse, it is great to hear the benefits and drawbacks of living pathways, thanks! I'm zone 4b VT and last year tried annual ryegrass in my pathways. I wanted something that wouldn't spread into the beds. It worked well and made a winter-killed mulch, but grew very vigorously and bogging down my EGO mower. I am nervous to try perennial pathways, but with an edger it looks manageable. I also have crazy slug/snail pressure in the spring and wonder if living pathways will give them more cover. This season plan to mostly cultivate pathways with a wheel hoe until July so as to hopefully disrupt slugs and slug eggs and then seed annual ryegrass. I would love to hear more about whether you think living pathways actually reduce slug pressure.
If you want to kill the slugs your best bet is to get you a 12 pack of Michelobe or Budweisser beer (I wonder is any Weissen bier would work?) Drink most of the bottle and chuck the beer bottles into your garden. The slugs are attracted to the yeast and there's a chemical... methionine? That slugs will literally starve themselves to death if they don't have access to it. And traces of it are found in beed. Slugs will travel far snd wide fir methionine. Other ways to kill or deter them organically are coffee grounds, eggs shells or diatomaceous earth (I do not recommend. Will kill beneficial insects ss well), copper tape, slugs repelling plants, or wheat or corn bran. If you son want to kill them, make sure you have at least one trap crop in the bed, say every 10 feel or so. I've noticed in my yard they seem to LOVE the Sudex and Canadian/wild lettuce. So my guess is a nutritious brassica is what they want. So plant one or 2 of the trap frops and throw a little dog, cat food or seaweed around the base. I would be willing to bet if you did this they wouldn't touch anything else other than that trap crop. If you're growing brassicas in a bed you may have to try harder
Do you deal with Bermuda grass? I’m in Oklahoma 6-7b and I’m trying to keep the grass under control between my beds. I’m also on a bit of a slope with clay mixed soil that becomes a sponge whenever it rains. The grassroots keep the soil in place but spread rhizomes quickly choke out the beds.
Reading your book now and transitioning the farm to some living pathway trials. Two things I’m going to trial that I already have a significant quantity of are perennial peanut and yarrow. Both rapid underground spreaders… but with frequent edging and occasional mowing I think I could maintain it. Anyone have any experience with this or reasons to not try? (I’m also mainly trialing oat or rye with clover.)
What if you put scrap lumber or bricks or whatever you can find embedded in the earth on each side of the path. Would this help in any way? Your row cover could be on the other side of that so maybe you wouldn't have to move everything. Just a thought.
Yeah... woodchips on a slope are not always super great. At our old place I was all excited about getting some... and then we got one heavy rain and they all floated down to the lowest corner of the yard 🤣 At our new place it's more or less level so woodchips obviously work a lot better. We're also working with some living pathways, but I'm finding that if the beds or rows aren't lined with logs or something, the "pathways" start growing right into them and it just becomes more weeding. And with grasses that spread by rhizomes... uff da. That's *going* to be a real problem, guaranteed.
I do a similar system in by garden. The whole yard is down to 1m bed, 1m grass, 1m bed.. then every let's say 2m along it's alternating banana papaya, some of those swapped out for bigger stuff, kept small, lemon, pomegranate, litchi, figs, tree tomato and a sour sop, nineteen those are peppers, cassava and other soft crops like chives, herbs, beans, spinach, strawberries, tumeric, sweetpotato, etc which move around their favorite sections... I will say, holding back the grass is a mission.. but the system is designed to keep a balance between livable garden and farm
I wonder if low ground covers such as creeping thyme and Corsican mint (both of which are very vigorous spreaders) would out-compete weeds, so there's no need to mow? Or covering pathways with cardboard to kill the weeds and then plant the thyme and mint? Wouldn't it be amazing if it worked - aroma of these herbs, not to mention thyme vibrant flowers to bring colour and pollinators closer to crops?
Zone 6A - I’d be the first to buy a mower/edger combo. Tried living pathways last year but bindweed, Creeping Charlie, Bermuda, and chickweed are all four an issue. Using a wheel hoe with 12” stirrup blade this year to weaken their reserves and hopefully end up with all living pathways in a year or two.
We are about an hour east of you. I seeded some living pathways to see if it would help with moisture retention and erosion. Only concerns I have is 1, will the clover hold up to the foot traffic and 2, tarping. I guess I'll have to use some 4' ground cover and tarp individual beds as needed. Excited to see how they turn out. I know at the very least they'll be nice to look at
Having had over 3 inches of rain in 30 minutes this month (Zone 7 on clay), I find myself gravitating towards living pathways more and more as I can neither leave my native clay bare nor can I have my mulch floating around. As I reclaim some lawn for beds by tarping this year, I will try in 2023 various species of grasses, clovers and whatever else I can think of next year and see what works best for pathways
Glad to see the cham update! I utilize mostly living pathways and feel the same about the pros/cons. I mostly use a weedwacker to edge the beds but it's honestly a lottt of work doing that on an acre. Recently got an edger and I am not convinced about it... does it really work to keep things from creeping in? How often do you have to do it?
HI Sarah! During peak season we are mowing/edging every ten days or so. It's about a half hour to an hour job give or take. And we do both at the same time. Now, our living pathways are on about 1/3 - 1/2 of an acre, so it's not nearly as intensive as yours. I want my edger to have a little hook on it, honestly. That would help to grab the grasses back a little better instead of just slicing through the. Like the blade should be the shape of an L or something like that.
I have to fight Bermuda grass. It is so invasive and hard to kill. I am afraid it will overrun my path ways. Noontime here in hard clay soil. Any ideas? Y’all havagudun.
So thinking of edging of the beds. What about using mint? Have it tendril along the leading edge the length of your beds on one side, maybe the chamomile on the other. Have you tried it or do you think it would work? Then you can offer a cham- a- mint blend or something. And mint helps keep bugs away so plus there.
Sir I too have living pathways What we need is a 18 inch mower and have 15 wheelbase ( have the narrow wheelbase moved forward ahead of the blade's deck so that the wheels are not in the solf soil causing the deck to bottom out. Yes something nobody builds or would charge more money than surgery cost. I'm thinking my son running a mower shop should watch for me a mower that has front wheel drive and steel deck and I'm a good fabrication at fabrication and welding. .. Yeah should be nice for cheap and I don't care about ugly but it should mow and not bottom out in my living pathways much as you agree.
So for living pathways If it's a low growing grass or cover crop. Would giving it a raised (like 4 or 6 inch board on both sides) this would allow to mow down and then weed under the edge of 2x4. If it naturally builds up a couple inches of soil on inside and you are weed eating under them and this not letting them go over wood. Would they be able to go under the wood and get in?
You could experiment with used chicken wire to hold down wood chips in sloped areas. Cover the chicken wire with more wood chips . Or not. You like your pathways already.
any suggestion for perennial living pathway species that are low growing, and fairly hardy in wet, cool soils? we have a 10 acre veggie/seed farm and are looking to covert a portion into living pathways / permanent beds.
I don't believe in ghosts because I've never seen a ghost naked and clothing doesn't have a spirit. So, if there are ghosts they would be naked and that would just be creepy well creepier than it already is
In our country, this would require more water than I can afford to waste. It would also bring little vermin and rattlesnakes. Your garden is very pretty.
Talk to a local sawyer and ask for their slabs. Use the slabs for your borders and all you'll need is a weedeater to stop creeping. See if they'll cut them to 1" and the slabs will conform to the ground. Easy border control that feeds soil. JS
Have you considered plantains, yarrow, bugle, self heal, b.f trefoil. all fairly low growing (although creeping) plants, tolerating quite a lot of mowing/ browsing
I was watching this again and was wondering if you know the dripline guide from terrateck? They use it on the wheelhow, but with some diy, you can maybe make it fit on top of the mower so the dripline goes overtop instead of moving it aside?
Have you ever considered metal or heavy duty plastic landscape edging to prevent the creep in to the beds? Would at least stop the creep through the soil, but growth can go over top and drop seed. Might be interesting to edge a few beds to see how that helps the creep.
Making the paths the width of your tool is the way to go, otherwise dont plant all the way to the edge so you can pass by with a narrow dutch hoe or smt. Still its a lot of work to mow, especially with row covers
Re mower bogging down in high grass, have you tried using the bag + high-lift blade? I did some heavy testing with our greenworks 60V mower last fall on ~10 cubic yards of compacted leaves (municipal delivery). I was able to process faster and more reliably using either side-discharge or bagged discharge, since it keeps the deck clear. I was thinking about this video today while cutting 6+" grass into the bag. As long as I empty early and often, I've been impressed with how much this mower can handle!
I wonder if you could use a "low-mow" seed mix of different carex and fescues. Only need to be mowed about once a year, but you'll still have to keep up with edging
Good work! I haven't tried this yet so I don't have anything to add but I am super curious about it. If and when I do try I want to see what happens with perianal weeds like plantain and dandelion. I've been doing this weird thing were I collect weed seeds now. Anyway, it was educational but I laughed my a$$ off a couple times as I eat a brunch thing looking like Jabba the Hutt on my couch. Thanks!
Hi Paxton! The most concerning weeds for me are things like crab grass and Bermuda grass. The dandelions are gonna blow in no matter what I do, haha! Plantain is not as bad for us up here, but I could see it becoming an issue, for sure!
I'm planning permeant beds with living pathways this next season. To mow the pathways I'll use a 20v B&D trimmer with a mower base. I can also detach the trimmer from the mower deck and use the trimmer for edging or If necessary I can use my little Mantis tiller with the edger attachment.
I'm well into the growing season now with living pathways. I have 14 - 3-4' wide growing beds with roughly 24"~ pathways. The beds are raised beds or mounds. I seeded the pathways with inexpensive grass seed that is primarily a mix of annual and perennial rye grass. In time, I expect nature will contribute as well . As mentioned I'm using the 20v B&D string trimmer w/mower base for management. So far I'm loving the living pathways.
mow higher, this could cut down on the bogging down plus it's better for the plants in the paths. Any luck with the wheel hoe option that we talked about a while back for edging ?
![[UNCUT] “บอสณวัฒน์” ลากไส้!! ใครหนุนหลัง "แม่ตั๊ก ป๋าเบียร์" I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 30 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QlD7mU2KKRk/mqdefault.jpg)
Do you welcome visitors?
Hi Brad, we hope to in the near future but we do not at the moment. We're just too busy, TBH, but events coming soon 🤞
No worries. Would certainly like to come check you out sometime. Happy growing...
My beds are 30" wide and mulched with grass clippings. My pathways are 30" wide mowed 2". Been doing it this way for decades. Every 8 years I let the ground rest by simply turning my pathways into beds and my beds into pathways.
what is your experience in terms of produce productivity and weed management.
I've heard of an organic farming old timer who did that with white clover. 20" beds/paths that alternated every year. Basically 50% cover cropping paths 50% production cropping beds. Pretty ingenious, if you have the space.
Each year we use wood chips, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps between the beds. During the year we add clippings, scraps, and chips as necessary to keep the paths at the desired height. Prior to the new planting season, we remove the pathways and screen the material. The screened material is added to the beds and the large material is added to the compost piles.
I just may try this in one pathway this year. . .
I turned my garden to no till this year, first season, and already seeing the straw and wood chips breaking down I thought of the exact same thing. I didn’t think of screening it first though, makes sense, great call!
So smart 😀
You know, so many gardening gurus are so sure of themselves and their ways that they never question anything. I really love your channel and how you have an open mindset and not claiming your way is flawless and everything else is crap. It is really helpful to us that are newer in this when choosing a path and when facing challenges.
Thank you for great work!
Most beautiful garden I've ever seen was a version of this in the 1970's in Louisville Ky. An old man lived next to where I worked and his "garden" was just strips of heavily tilled soil in his back yard the pathways were cool season turf grasses. He mowed the grass in alternating strips with a side discharge mower, throwing to the left one week and the opposite the next week. The clippings were a great mulch and there was practically no weed control.
iam from germany (zone 8a) iam using persian clover for years now for my living pathways, it works very well for covering the pathways, mulching the beds/ fertilizing, also its not winterhard, which works fantastic for my system, cause i rotate between beds and pathways yearly
For our beds we use what they call "Live Edge" in the North. You edge down the beds a few inches, to create an exposed face, and then you gently slope up to the bed. The edge that you create does a great job at air pruning the invasive roots from our living path ways. They even make "profiling" attachment for your weed Wacker that will help you maintain a clean edge.
I know two of the main weed eater companies make something called a bed redefiner as dedicated units or attachments. It’s basically an edger that makes a wider profiled cut. It also throws debris to one side. I have not seen them used in market gardening.. but I’m curious about how it would work in this context or even to establish and maintain an edge around an entire plot. In close proximity to crops, you’d probably need some kind of shield to keep debris out of the rows.
@@pere4267 yes that is exactly what I'm referring to.
@@pere4267 we don't have a market garden, so we just keep up our edges with a stirrup hoe, and a weed eater. I'd imagine that with the volume of bed space they have that a redefiner is just the ticket.
Great idea, edging down the beds. Maybe something like the DUC plow helps to create this edge on the side of the living pathway
Interesting! Thanks for the comment
My yard was covered with 100’ loblolly pines that had limbed themselves up about 50’. The “soil” (more like concrete) was covered with a thick carpet of pine needles that continuously refreshed itself, dappled sunlight and not a weed anywhere. Only a few shade plants would grow in the lighter patches. Gradually the pines were removed. The bare patches were covered with thick layers of deciduous fall leaves removed by the bag from curbs in the neighborhood. After 20 years, fall leaves & worms have created about a foot of gorgeous soil. Now I have to buy bales of pine needles almost yearly to refresh evergreen shrub beds, especially in sloped areas. The needles are fine but tough: rain drops break on them, they do not wash down or float, slugs hate them, they last years longer than any other organic mulch AND the bales are much lighter to handle than any other mulch with no shoveling! Try building a path of thick cardboard, wetted down, topped with pine straw and see if it works for you. Hope you find a free source of needles!
Glad I stumbled across your comment. I've been experimenting with pine needles in my walkways. The weeds grow through them a little but for the most part the only aggravating thing is when one of my chickens gets in the garden and kicks the pine straw all over my beds.
Like your idea, but pine needles will make the soil acidic. Perfectly fine for some plants like tomatoes and azaleas. Not so good for others. But as long as it works for you, great idea.
@@cherokeecountry I've always heard that myself, however I recently heard from a very seasoned gardener that claims hes not noticed much of a difference.
@@cherokeecountry I only use pine needles in paths and evergreen tree/shrub beds; I use chopped fall leaves for mulch on “growing” beds of flowers, veggies, herbs & berries.
@@FinznFowl82 have to admit imaging your chickens tossing pine needles made me laugh. Those girls get into everything!
Gardening in zone 4b, I have converted my front lawn into a garden with living pathways, which primarily consist of grass and clover. However, a section has yarrow which has slowly been taking over the paths... year 4 and it has been easy enough to maintain out of the growing beds (less invasive than the rhizomatious grass), trims well, incredibly soft to walk on, holds up to traffic, and is ground cover all season long, even in late winter/early spring to prep the beds. The medicinal herb quality is certainly a bonus too. I also have a section that has chamomile (year 3) and it's been a second favorite for my pathways.
For many growers, both small and large, pathways are a necessity and a burden - one needs pathways in order to tend the garden, but they wind up being a space for weeds to grow in. Here, we dug water retention trenches on contour (like swales, just not as pretentious) and filled them with wood chips: it keeps the trench from collapsing, absorbs the water that would otherwise just drain away through the sandy subsoil, and of course, prevents the wood chips from ever washing away. Our goal is to transition into perennial clover walkways once the overall soil organic matter has reached acceptable levels.
Same plan here except with pine needles as we have plenty.
Howdy, been watching your videos for a while; wanted to express appreciation for your lack of dogma, willingness to experiment and general humor. Keep up the great work.
That's awesome to hear! Thank you
Being seventy five my late husband and I put in a raised organic planting bed made from concrete blocks two high. First laid down thick professional weed barrier, four by sixteen area of rabbit wire then laid the concrete blocks. Put in a thick layer of white gravel between the beds so there’s no weeding cutting etc. The soil consists of cotton burr, rice hauls and organic peet moss. This enables me to harvest carrots, sweet potatoes, and potatoes thruout the winter season. I’m in mid Missouri. Yes the ground does freeze but a few inches down the ground is super soft. This is a no til, no bending or stooping garden that is a back saver.
My living pathways are Dutch white clover. When I gets too tall, I cut it down and spread it as clover hay. Thick-enough stand can make a lot of hay. Doesn't weaken the clover either. Works great, comes back quickly.
Do you have to replant that every year ?
Jesse, I wonder if you could trial woodchip pathway WITH king stropharia inoculation. I might have mentioned this in a previous comment. However, this fungi naturalizes very well, native to much of North America (or so I have heard), has symbiotic benefits with plants and soil life ecosystems, and most importantly in your context, it grows a very dense mycelium network. I am thinking much of the woodchip might be resistant to being washed away if it's part of this network.
Oh we have done that for many years! Every time I put out a new path of wood chips (like in our tunnels) we inoculate with wine caps. Getting good flushes right now, in fact. But they don't seem to protect the wood chips from washout all that much unfortunately. At least not in our context. The rain is just too aggressive. That isn't a rigorous test, though, just anecdotal. Could be worth further exploration, but getting them to fully colonize before a heavy rain would be a bit of a challenge.
@@notillgrowers ah interesting! Thanks for the knowledge shared from your personal experience!
Don’t know if you can do what some people here do. Make a ditch on bed edges so that edges are easier to trim. My paths have clover dandelion buttercup couch grass etc. keeping a ditch makes all easier.
30” flail mower, 30” edger made out of an old rototiller (does both path edges at once), 30” power harrow with drop seeder. It’s a good management system, especially with long beds. I like the rototiller edger because I have rhizomatous grass and it goes deeper than the circular-saw type edger.
I like that idea a lot! Just convert a flail.
Do you deal with any Bermuda in your pathways/beds?
I have found Plantain (plantago sp.) to be useful living path covers...they don't creep or seed readily and are happy being mowed.
'Botanical Bubblegum' Yes! I have grown chamomile for the first time this year and have failed to accurately describe that smell. I love it so much.
Tell us more about your belief in ghosts. 😂 Thank you for this invaluable insight into living pathways, a concept that I have never thought about. I am trying to increase photosynthesis, biodiversity, and living plants in the garden without it becoming a weedy mess. In California, we have native grasses that are perennial and clumping. I’ll try to see if I can create a living path with those.
Yeah in California they may or may not make sense because of moisture. It really depends on climate. You don't want to have to plant something in your paths that will need to be watered, but you can always start small and give it a small trial!
California native here, our grasses die off every summer and come back in the fall. We mow them when they're green, and this year when they start to brown I think I'll put some chips.
@@megmcguireme Thanks, Meagan, for the comment. I was thinking of using native grasses such as bent grass, carex (sedges), and some fescues in a living pathway, but you're right that even the most drought tolerant grasses get brown and almost dormant in our summers (I am in the inland Bay Area). Perhaps we can have brown summer living pathways? 😉 They're green in fall, winter, and early spring. That could be our California version of living pathways.
I Decided at my advanced age and poor energy level to Give up on my living paths (walkways) and install used astro turf . It's very cheap, comes with the weight down media granules and has years of weather exposure to leach out any residue chemicals. It's UV Treated and can be coated to revitalize or even change the plastic's color. I laid down the astro turf strips and sheets first then set my raised beds overlapping by three inches and where the turf meets the ground level grow beds i ramp cut the soil down 8 inches and then back cut a sharp channel with my power edger to tuck the turf back under itself in the soil, then pull my planting soil over on top of it to complete a nice sharp edge. No more mowing, weeding, blowing, vacuuming or stumbling over lumps, holes or wet spots. If you hard pack crush and run gravel underneath it first you can actually use a power wheelchair on it. Just like a grassy sidewalk.
Would love to hear what plants you use, besides the chamomile, in your pathways (unless of course you’ve already mentioned this, in that case don’t repeat yourself 😉). We have slightly raised beds on stone and sand. Our pathways are wood chips to retain moisture/hold out weeds. We have creeping thyme on the south side of each bed. This works well.
Transparency; also Ghosts... I see what you did there hahaha 😆
Hey Jesse, great video. I'm curious what management looks like on pathways near vining crops like sweet potatoes that tend to flop all over the pathways. I know you love growing sweet potatoes. How have you handled that?
Great question! We do not grow any vining crops around our living pathways. All of our vining crops are under a cover crop and mulching system. So the paths are just mulched. Effectively our gardens are divided into high rotation and slow rotation plots. The high rotation is where the pathways are. The slow rotation are managed with cover crops and mulches.
I once used sod rolls in between planted rows and found I was able to mow and edge the sod 😊
Love the video and love the Chamomile idea! Brilliant mix species!
Hi, I'm wondering: (1) have you ever used some type of bordering material to contain your rows of gardening beds so there is a physical separation between your pathways and your crop production areas, and (2) what reasons have kept you from establishing some sort of physical barrier?
Sorry I'm relatively new to your channel and maybe you've already covered this in a previous video.
Thanks for the update the living pathways. I'm a bit giddy to see how the ones I started last fall are going to do this summer on the East Coast, Canada. We did a terraced slope with short fruit bushes on the edges of the terraces and then an annual veggie bed on the inside of the terrace with living pathways (of white clover) between them and also on each end where we put a alley for bringing in carts to harvest the fruit. We also got alpacas last summer, so we are now trying to figure out if we can walk them through to mow down the clover or rake it up to feed to them, etc. Thanks for the inspiration for this fun project!
I planted perennial chamomile last year and was thinking about using it as a ground cover. It some pretty thick stuff.
Yeah it's weirdly thick! In your paths or in your beds?
@@notillgrowers I'm starting with paths but who knows?
Where do you get your bulk chamomile seeds?
I kept living pathways when turning my yards into gardens. So far it's been good; you've covered pretty much everything. I have one bed with a perimeter of ~18" pieces of branches (~2" diameter) and that's helped a lot with making the perimeter easier to manage, plan on adding more as I get the wood.
You and Jenny inspired me to have living pathways. I feel they haven’t made a negative impact on my garden. In fact, they have enhanced its appeal. Thank s!
... EDGED.... Creeping Thyme..?... IN the Camilla..?... high-ishly mowed for Vetch..?
Hi we are from Switzerland. We need living pathways, because our land ist steep and we build terraces. They manage the water similar like swales. Anyway the grass holds the terraces. Otherwhiles all would fall down. There are no stones or bars etc. to hold the terraces. In this case we use strong grass especialy during the winter.
The big ways for the tractor we maintain with a flail mower. The pathways we do the same like you. We are still looking for a kind of edger for the terraces, but more like a hedge trimmer.
We will see 😊. Thank you for your very intersting videos 👍🏼
Put some chickens on it and let them eat the grass
I really love the rock music you use as opposed to the same boring acoustic guitar practically every other gardening program has used since forever. That's coming from an acoustic guitarist
I've not had issues with woodchips floating off on me. But my style of gardening is more permaculture inspired than market garden focused. Lots of contours, higher beds, spotted perennials amongst annuals, etc. I also have living patches in paths to stop water from flowing; as well as intentional drainage sites where water accumulates most. Totally see where that could be an issue with your more intensive market style garden. Im in the same locale as well, 6b/7a VA.
Blackberries are in my pathway, shading out corn. Also I have the small electric mower too. Pulling rather than pushing is better for taller grasses.
How do you eradicate Bermuda grass? It has invaded every acre of my farm. I would love living pathways if Bermuda grass did not exist.
I'd love to have living pathways but in SE Arizona high desert thats a pipe dream. Would like to use wood chips, but they just get either get blown away by high winds or covered in sand. Seems like the only thing that works here is landscape fabric. Not pretty, but it does the job.
Whats the story with the ghost? Haha
We are starting new gardens on a new property. I'm leaving existing grass/clover/dandelion/wildflower lawn in-between beds. I'll run the chicken tractors across it where it's 8 feet wide and mow with a bagger in all paths to use the cuttings for compost.
There are other types of "living" paths that you could plant/use that require much less work. Try looking at some of the clover yard mixes that are Honey Bee friendly, they grow in much thicker, crush resistant and give back to the soil they can also be trained to grow to specific heights. Plus they look real cool when in bloom. I also lined my path edges with garden cloth, no edging when ya mow then. Just a beekeepers perspective :) I'm kind of a lazy gardener. :) Ty for your time, Blessed Days...
Just learning,brought some crimson clover .would that be good for the pathways. I've haven't use any yet?
Subscribed!... i totally just realized i can use my driveway/sidewalk edger on my garden beds! woah cant believe i have been using a shovel for two years haha
Another amazing video Jesse. We have spoke a few times about the living pathways, we definitely love the benefits like visually and walking on as you mentioned but we really struggle keeping it out of the beds. The wild field grass has such deep roots we might have to consider planting them all like garden beds as opposed to leaving the natural stuff growing
We are starting new gardens on a new property. I'm leaving existing grass/clover/dandelion/wildflower lawn in-between beds. I'll run the chicken tractors across it where it's 8 feet wide and mow with a bagger in all paths to use the cuttings for compost. (This is my Prepper and Garden channel)
Hi! Waiting for your book The living Soil to arrive !!!! Spain, new market garden proyect ready to go. Thanks man, you're awsome
Jesse, it is great to hear the benefits and drawbacks of living pathways, thanks! I'm zone 4b VT and last year tried annual ryegrass in my pathways. I wanted something that wouldn't spread into the beds. It worked well and made a winter-killed mulch, but grew very vigorously and bogging down my EGO mower. I am nervous to try perennial pathways, but with an edger it looks manageable. I also have crazy slug/snail pressure in the spring and wonder if living pathways will give them more cover. This season plan to mostly cultivate pathways with a wheel hoe until July so as to hopefully disrupt slugs and slug eggs and then seed annual ryegrass. I would love to hear more about whether you think living pathways actually reduce slug pressure.
If you want to kill the slugs your best bet is to get you a 12 pack of Michelobe or Budweisser beer (I wonder is any Weissen bier would work?) Drink most of the bottle and chuck the beer bottles into your garden. The slugs are attracted to the yeast and there's a chemical... methionine? That slugs will literally starve themselves to death if they don't have access to it. And traces of it are found in beed. Slugs will travel far snd wide fir methionine. Other ways to kill or deter them organically are coffee grounds, eggs shells or diatomaceous earth (I do not recommend. Will kill beneficial insects ss well), copper tape, slugs repelling plants, or wheat or corn bran. If you son want to kill them, make sure you have at least one trap crop in the bed, say every 10 feel or so. I've noticed in my yard they seem to LOVE the Sudex and Canadian/wild lettuce. So my guess is a nutritious brassica is what they want. So plant one or 2 of the trap frops and throw a little dog, cat food or seaweed around the base. I would be willing to bet if you did this they wouldn't touch anything else other than that trap crop. If you're growing brassicas in a bed you may have to try harder
Try bamboo mulch if you can find it. Interlocks so, won't blow or wash away and lasts about 1 yr before decomp
Do you deal with Bermuda grass? I’m in Oklahoma 6-7b and I’m trying to keep the grass under control between my beds. I’m also on a bit of a slope with clay mixed soil that becomes a sponge whenever it rains. The grassroots keep the soil in place but spread rhizomes quickly choke out the beds.
Reading your book now and transitioning the farm to some living pathway trials. Two things I’m going to trial that I already have a significant quantity of are perennial peanut and yarrow. Both rapid underground spreaders… but with frequent edging and occasional mowing I think I could maintain it. Anyone have any experience with this or reasons to not try? (I’m also mainly trialing oat or rye with clover.)
What if you put scrap lumber or bricks or whatever you can find embedded in the earth on each side of the path. Would this help in any way? Your row cover could be on the other side of that so maybe you wouldn't have to move everything. Just a thought.
Yeah... woodchips on a slope are not always super great. At our old place I was all excited about getting some... and then we got one heavy rain and they all floated down to the lowest corner of the yard 🤣
At our new place it's more or less level so woodchips obviously work a lot better. We're also working with some living pathways, but I'm finding that if the beds or rows aren't lined with logs or something, the "pathways" start growing right into them and it just becomes more weeding. And with grasses that spread by rhizomes... uff da. That's *going* to be a real problem, guaranteed.
I do a similar system in by garden. The whole yard is down to 1m bed, 1m grass, 1m bed.. then every let's say 2m along it's alternating banana papaya, some of those swapped out for bigger stuff, kept small, lemon, pomegranate, litchi, figs, tree tomato and a sour sop, nineteen those are peppers, cassava and other soft crops like chives, herbs, beans, spinach, strawberries, tumeric, sweetpotato, etc which move around their favorite sections... I will say, holding back the grass is a mission.. but the system is designed to keep a balance between livable garden and farm
I wonder if low ground covers such as creeping thyme and Corsican mint (both of which are very vigorous spreaders) would out-compete weeds, so there's no need to mow? Or covering pathways with cardboard to kill the weeds and then plant the thyme and mint? Wouldn't it be amazing if it worked - aroma of these herbs, not to mention thyme vibrant flowers to bring colour and pollinators closer to crops?
I would of never thought of camomile- thanks
Ghost! I saw it! 👻
Zone 6A - I’d be the first to buy a mower/edger combo. Tried living pathways last year but bindweed, Creeping Charlie, Bermuda, and chickweed are all four an issue. Using a wheel hoe with 12” stirrup blade this year to weaken their reserves and hopefully end up with all living pathways in a year or two.
Yeah, chickweed is super sneaky. And bermuda is one I have not had to battle in the paths but could be a real issue real fast.
We are about an hour east of you. I seeded some living pathways to see if it would help with moisture retention and erosion. Only concerns I have is 1, will the clover hold up to the foot traffic and 2, tarping. I guess I'll have to use some 4' ground cover and tarp individual beds as needed. Excited to see how they turn out. I know at the very least they'll be nice to look at
Having had over 3 inches of rain in 30 minutes this month (Zone 7 on clay), I find myself gravitating towards living pathways more and more as I can neither leave my native clay bare nor can I have my mulch floating around. As I reclaim some lawn for beds by tarping this year, I will try in 2023 various species of grasses, clovers and whatever else I can think of next year and see what works best for pathways
Glad to see the cham update! I utilize mostly living pathways and feel the same about the pros/cons. I mostly use a weedwacker to edge the beds but it's honestly a lottt of work doing that on an acre. Recently got an edger and I am not convinced about it... does it really work to keep things from creeping in? How often do you have to do it?
HI Sarah! During peak season we are mowing/edging every ten days or so. It's about a half hour to an hour job give or take. And we do both at the same time. Now, our living pathways are on about 1/3 - 1/2 of an acre, so it's not nearly as intensive as yours. I want my edger to have a little hook on it, honestly. That would help to grab the grasses back a little better instead of just slicing through the. Like the blade should be the shape of an L or something like that.
I have to fight Bermuda grass. It is so invasive and hard to kill. I am afraid it will overrun my path ways. Noontime here in hard clay soil. Any ideas? Y’all havagudun.
So thinking of edging of the beds.
What about using mint?
Have it tendril along the leading edge the length of your beds on one side, maybe the chamomile on the other. Have you tried it or do you think it would work? Then you can offer a cham- a- mint blend or something. And mint helps keep bugs away so plus there.
Sir I too have living pathways
What we need is a 18 inch mower and have 15 wheelbase ( have the narrow wheelbase moved forward ahead of the blade's deck so that the wheels are not in the solf soil causing the deck to bottom out.
Yes something nobody builds or would charge more money than surgery cost.
I'm thinking my son running a mower shop should watch for me a mower that has front wheel drive and steel deck and I'm a good fabrication at fabrication and welding.
.. Yeah should be nice for cheap and I don't care about ugly but it should mow and not bottom out in my living pathways much as you agree.
So for living pathways
If it's a low growing grass or cover crop. Would giving it a raised (like 4 or 6 inch board on both sides) this would allow to mow down and then weed under the edge of 2x4.
If it naturally builds up a couple inches of soil on inside and you are weed eating under them and this not letting them go over wood. Would they be able to go under the wood and get in?
Chamomile walkways = wafts of botanical bubble gum, I must say that I am convinced.
You could experiment with used chicken wire to hold down wood chips in sloped areas. Cover the chicken wire with more wood chips . Or not. You like your pathways already.
couldn't you just put down landscaping fabric if you're not going to move the pathways?
any suggestion for perennial living pathway species that are low growing, and fairly hardy in wet, cool soils? we have a 10 acre veggie/seed farm and are looking to covert a portion into living pathways / permanent beds.
I don't believe in ghosts because I've never seen a ghost naked and clothing doesn't have a spirit. So, if there are ghosts they would be naked and that would just be creepy well creepier than it already is
In our country, this would require more water than I can afford to waste. It would also bring little vermin and rattlesnakes.
Your garden is very pretty.
Wonderful video as always, thank you so much 😊🌱💚🙏✨
Talk to a local sawyer and ask for their slabs. Use the slabs for your borders and all you'll need is a weedeater to stop creeping. See if they'll cut them to 1" and the slabs will conform to the ground. Easy border control that feeds soil. JS
The only solution I have for the creeping ...wider paths and a side cutting walk behind.
Have you considered plantains, yarrow, bugle, self heal, b.f trefoil. all fairly low growing (although creeping) plants, tolerating quite a lot of mowing/ browsing
I am definitely open to trying more species!
Curious about what the rows of plants with the dark red stems large green leaves are in your Living Pathways cover picture?
I was watching this again and was wondering if you know the dripline guide from terrateck? They use it on the wheelhow, but with some diy, you can maybe make it fit on top of the mower so the dripline goes overtop instead of moving it aside?
Have you ever considered metal or heavy duty plastic landscape edging to prevent the creep in to the beds? Would at least stop the creep through the soil, but growth can go over top and drop seed. Might be interesting to edge a few beds to see how that helps the creep.
Making the paths the width of your tool is the way to go, otherwise dont plant all the way to the edge so you can pass by with a narrow dutch hoe or smt. Still its a lot of work to mow, especially with row covers
Huw richards from UK use pathways to make compost.
K, did you go back and add the thing about believing in ghosts after editing and seeing the footage? no way was that coincidence...
Re mower bogging down in high grass, have you tried using the bag + high-lift blade?
I did some heavy testing with our greenworks 60V mower last fall on ~10 cubic yards of compacted leaves (municipal delivery). I was able to process faster and more reliably using either side-discharge or bagged discharge, since it keeps the deck clear. I was thinking about this video today while cutting 6+" grass into the bag. As long as I empty early and often, I've been impressed with how much this mower can handle!
Of course, if you use bare paths, then you have to contend with all those bears using them.
What is the point in living pathways if do not even cover your beds? Sure the bigger spot for errosion
I had a home garden that grew a low growth sedum . It covered everything. I just used a hoe to remove it from beds for greens. It worked pretty well
I wonder if you could use a "low-mow" seed mix of different carex and fescues. Only need to be mowed about once a year, but you'll still have to keep up with edging
Possibly! I'm open to more varieties of plants
I use old wood boards takes less space and they can decompose in time. Slugs live under them and I kill with a hammer.
How can chamomile survive tarping?
I think you and Anders the cocktail guy must be related…
Good work! I haven't tried this yet so I don't have anything to add but I am super curious about it. If and when I do try I want to see what happens with perianal weeds like plantain and dandelion. I've been doing this weird thing were I collect weed seeds now. Anyway, it was educational but I laughed my a$$ off a couple times as I eat a brunch thing looking like Jabba the Hutt on my couch. Thanks!
Hi Paxton! The most concerning weeds for me are things like crab grass and Bermuda grass. The dandelions are gonna blow in no matter what I do, haha! Plantain is not as bad for us up here, but I could see it becoming an issue, for sure!
Try pine needles, they won't wash out or move.
do you use fresh cut grass like mulch ? ive seen a few do it and was curious what you think
Could you put some kind of edging at the path edge to prevent creeping?
what about a robot for mowing? I have not yet found one that would be able to cut so narrow pathways?
I'm planning permeant beds with living pathways this next season. To mow the pathways I'll use a 20v B&D trimmer with a mower base. I can also detach the trimmer from the mower deck and use the trimmer for edging or If necessary I can use my little Mantis tiller with the edger attachment.
I'm well into the growing season now with living pathways. I have 14 - 3-4' wide growing beds with roughly 24"~ pathways. The beds are raised beds or mounds. I seeded the pathways with inexpensive grass seed that is primarily a mix of annual and perennial rye grass. In time, I expect nature will contribute as well . As mentioned I'm using the 20v B&D string trimmer w/mower base for management. So far I'm loving the living pathways.
Semisubtropical = 6b?
How does photosynthesis help the rest of the garden?
mow higher, this could cut down on the bogging down plus it's better for the plants in the paths. Any luck with the wheel hoe option that we talked about a while back for edging ?
Mow your pathways when growth is 3", not 6".
What about creeping thyme?