GARDEN PATHS
Pat Sutton explained to her Garden Gang that once a year her garden paths get covered in wood chips. Pat has been gardening for wildlife for decades. Still, I thought her wood chip pathways were JUST for SHOW … cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional hardscaping.
But, Duh! Now I realize wood chip paths are a standard solution for preventing weeds not just in the path, but beyond!
WHY SO IGNORANT?
I began to garden with no hands-on knowledge. (I’d spent decades explaining the importance of biodiversity at AMNH; but I never got my hands in the dirt until Dave and I moved to New Jersey.) Knowing how toxic conventional gardening can be, I had overlooked the good along with the bad.
Armed with this new, basic knowledge I went to Dave: “We have to get rid of the lawn paths! Anything growing in the lawn is infesting the beds.” Being a guy, he loves a reason to use a power tool and wanted to rent a sod cutter right away adding, “we won’t be able to rent one in spring at peak demand.”
But I wonder: should I weed the beds first, then remove the weedy paths? If the beds stay weedy, before the paths are removed, will they just re-infest everything? Now we’re deep into an August heat wave. The drought may help kill the lawn paths. But heat exhaustion may take me out too!
I was annoyed by Dave’s lack of understanding of just how tenacious these weeds are. Never mind, that I had only just come to this understanding myself.
Reader, what are your thoughts on edging, lawn paths and tackling lawn weeds? Should I wait until spring and slowly edge all the beds? What’s the best time to do this? Should I tackle it little by little, one bed/path at a time or all at once?
What “conventional” gardening techniques do you use in your wildlife garden?
What do you think of this four-part defense plan:
- Weed the beds
- Edge the beds (carefully teasing out the weeds and the turf grass that encroach the beds)
- Then clear out all the lawn paths that meanders between the garden beds with a sod cutter
- Finally, replace lawn path with mulch
Please share your thoughts and comment below! And stay tuned to see our next steps in the #WILDintheGardenState garden!