Re: Garden Pathway suggestions please.

Dr. White

Step one: cut the bermuda as close as possible to the soil. A heavy duty string weed-eater works best.
Step two: take newspapers, using only the black and white pages, 8-10 pages thick, and wet them in a tub of water. Apply the wet newspaper layer totally covering the weed area, with good overlapping, and extending up the sides of the raised beds. This newspaper layer is an effective weedblock, and will smother the weeds.
Step three: apply a 6-8" deep layer of wood chips, chopped tree trimmings, on top the newspapers, packing well using a rake, foot stomping, and watering to get a dense mulch.
Step four: you will have zero weeds in the pathway for quite a while. Eventually some will grow here and there. Dig them out, which will be easy because the roots are now in the soft wood chip layer. Re-mulch all weeded areas.

We have found that kids and many adult volunteer groups love doing this--loading wheelbarrows with chips using a manure fork, wheeling and dumping, spreading, packing and stomping, etc. The newspaper wetting can also be fun on a hot day.

Don Lambert


Dr David White wrote:

I maintain several school gardens with raised beds. Weed growth on the pathways has become a time consuming maintenance task. What suggestions are there for low maintenance/weed free pathways? At one garden we laid landscape cloth and covered it with decomposed granite. The bermuda grass grows through the cloth and weeds grow in the D.G. ! Any input appreciated.


______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden

______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index