Living Pathways: A Complete Growers Guide

In this week's video we do a complete breakdown of living pathways, covering everything from how to prepare the paths, how to manage them and what to grow.
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[@katehache]

We need a sticker that says, “If your neighbors don’t think you’re out of your mind, you’re doing it wrong.”

[@JerryFulford]

Genius!

[@brentjenkinsdesigns]

Lol.

[@furlockfurli2719]

My neighbours hate me and accuse me of creating chaos attracting pests. Their fields are basically dead, their crops need tons of fertilizer, they are all ill... so I just bring up a friendly smile and go ahead with my journey. I am certainly grateful to them, as they show me every day how well my gardens and fields are doing, how happy nature is in my acres and some day they will all do what I do. Kind regards.

[@billiverschoore2466]

@@furlockfurli2719 same here, just only on allotment scale! 🌳🕊💚

[@jvin248]

The 'mow everything' rather than leaving areas wild: Subdivision popped up next door and the township demanded the builders leave wild areas, one of which became a drainage gully left wild and several neighbors keep mowing and extending their lawns. They complain about stuff growing in there (fed by their over-zealous use of lawn chemicals lately) getting rid of cattails. The golf-course mentality sold by lawn equipment companies is super ingrained. More acres of land are under grass cultivation than food cultivation in the US...to the detriment of rivers+lakes.

[@Oktopia]

To think it all started as wealthy people wanted to show off their garden designs. Lawns are completely arbitrary and useless for nothing but soft footing and play. Ironically some people obsessed with their lawns won't allow kids to play on them.

[@inigomontoya8943]

I’m a landscaper by trade and a farmer ecologist by passion and it is insane the conversations I have with homeowners on a daily basis. “No regardless of what the law care company tells you fungicides,insecticide, herbicide are not safe for your kids and pets.” Nearly every day..the indoctrination is thicc.

[@Oktopia]

@@inigomontoya8943 Thank you for your good work trying to educate people.

[@ladyryan902]

I'm with you!! My neighbor said she's tired of the grass n weeds n was going to buy weed killer I was horrified explained that will go into the ground water n poison my gardens out front I agreed to pull the grass n weeds she was complaining about every other week.i take a bucket over n fill it up throw it to my chickens😅 and I suggested she research the flowering weed. It's portuculous and be edible n medicinal..lol now she's making tea from her weeds

[@Oktopia]

@@ladyryan902 Excellent! Good on you to educate your neighbor!

[@philippamanning-smith1229]

Oh no Jesse, you can't leave us hanging for a few months without the dad jokes... lol😅😅😅. Thanks for the inspiration, and encouragement. I look forward to hearing about your new project soon. Blessings from NZ, Phil

[@angiegustafson7949]

I planted Dutch white clover in all the pathways of my 3200 square feet garden this June. It’s about 5 inches tall now and the entire garden is wild and green. So soft to walk on and I’m excited to see the benefit of nitrogen fixing and hopefully over the years, other weeds will become less. I do let several edible weeds grow in my garden for eating. I don’t grow spinach anymore because it bolts immediately and lambs quarter tastes just as good and grows freely all over the garden. My neighbors and friends definitely think I’m crazy, so I guess I’m doing it right 😂

[@jpppbarbosa]

Hello supernerds! Love the subject of this video. We use living pathways here in our farm in Italy, which is super dry on summer and super windy all the year. This leads to cracked, hard and dry soil. So, we just let nature decide what needs to grow and since we use them our crops are much happier. Our strategy is to let it grow and when the first flowers are on, we cut everything and put over the beds. It consumes time, but since we believe this is our way to work, we just try to organize everything together. Cheers!

[@prodepranpongplutong]

Hi I'm in Thailand and I use Pinto peanut (Arachis pintoi) . You have to help them a bit with the tall grass in the beginning but once it is established it will do fine. It doesn't grow that tall so I don't have to cut it. It also has cute yellow flower that blooms every morning. I think I made a right choice here :)

[@Quercusssss]

Thanks for continuing to make high-quality videos that are both rich, informative, and accessible to all ! My gardening has improved greatly because of them

[@notillgrowers]

Awe, thank you so much! Amazing 🙌

[@xhmedruman5006]

M

[@sgtrickards5683]

I have living pathways in my food forest. I lined my paths with thick logs. That prevents me from having to edge my beds. The logs also help keep my soil and compost in the beds and acts like a raised bed. The logs attract a lot of bugs that help break down the soil and the logs. All of that works to feed the soil. I allow the natural grass to grow in the paths, but I also planted different types of mint. Mint helps keep the bugs down and smells awesome when you walk through. The logs help keep the mint in check. Mint spreads pretty quick.

[@the_green_anna]

'Embrace a little wildness'... Love that quote! 💚

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

Living pathways with hay/grass mulched beds has been great for my farm. Also the living pathways will suppress rabbit damage. Saw on multiple occasions where a rabbit would go for the pathways over anything in the bed. Which makes sense when you have hay and tiny stuff sparsely coming up through it vs a solid green pathway, they'll opt for the pathway.

[@freewillchoice8052]

I’m going to do 4 foot beds with 3 foot paths and build a chicken run to have my chickens eat up the walk way greens and poop it all out then let it grow back a little bit more and cut it down to put in their coop mixed with other stuff so they can break it al down into great compost to put back in the garden. Thank you for sharing!

[@robertcotrell9810]

My neighbor is a clean lines kind of person, and I've killed off essentially all of my grass for garden space. The direct comparison of conventional tidy and my version of tidy cracks me up always!

[@nikkyrocks2727]

Haha likewise where I live in N ID.. damn near every garden ya see is very tidy clean lines everywhere, I love my chaos gardening feels more like a garden of eden that way imo!

[@chrisa6682]

Great content as usual. Zone 4 here and my farm is definitely not as large as yours but I have living worm pathways😊. Every spring I put down overlapping well moistened cardboard topped with straw. When I weed, I toss the weeds onto the pathways and leave them there. In fall I don't pull any stalks or plants out of the beds. Come spring I compost any large stalks like corn but leave all roots in the ground. Then I rake the pathways onto my beds, which are now mostly broken down, level them out and start over. I now have lovely dark, rich raised beds to plant with no need to till or broadfork. My beds are also covered with straw and I rarely have to fertilize. When I make new beds I use chicken litter from the coop mixed with my native soil. I guess because I grow intensively on a smaller scale, this works for me.

[@lisawintler-cox1641]

How do you avoid compaction in the pathways?

[@chrisa6682]

@@lisawintler-cox1641 I believe the worms eventually eat some of the cardboard and the rest of it, including the straw and pulled weeds compost and break down over the winter. Whatever is left in the walkways come spring is raked into the beds. The walkways are somewhat compacted but still have plenty of worms.

[@sarahhamilton5879]

Love this method!

[@lizduerholt4033]

Yes, let's embrace more wildness! Thank you for stewarding that idea.

[@shawnmurphy234]

Love the dad jokes. Love the clarity and organized nature of the content. Love the comment about embracing wildness. Thank you for everything you do!

[@andreagrowsthings]

I (somewhat accidentally) ended up with some living pathways in my garden this year and I’ve been enjoying the softness and cooling effect from the extra green in the garden. :) I don’t do market farming or anything like that - just a small backyard home garden so it’s been easy to maintain with a trimmer. :) Definitely more cost effective than buying mulch or compost or something else like that. :)

[@play-doughsrepublic5121]

I have an interesting piece of land. Last year I bought a 5 acre spot (no one else around for 20+ acres) and the land has had a traumatic history. The land is right on the border of 3b/4a (central Minnesota) and in 1891 the 'Great Hinckley Fire' burned through this area. After the fire left all these nutrients in the ground, the previous farmer deep plowed a well-drained hilltop for alfalfa for his horse teams. The land had been continuously plowed from about 1890, until about 1955. Although the trees in the area have come back since the fire, the plowed area *still* has no trees and only long grasses that grew back. I learned that this one acre field has some very serious soil compression/compaction. I plan to use this compacted earth as my living 'living pathways', as I till (ever so gently) the crop beds. So, soil compaction can/may work in our favor for 'living pathways'. Thanks Jesse for your videos - and I got your book - I love it... :)

[@Gkrissy]

Thanks for the content because I’ve been using a similar no-till system for the past 4 years. I’m a backyard gardener and I use a living mulch as well that I didn’t plant, it’s from the forest floor. I also use greenworks pro. Everything you said is spot on, I have more weed pressure in the other side of my land because it’s bare with decomposing woodchips. I am considering to get some chickens to help me with that weed pressure on the other section. I recently damaged my edger so I had to buy a Ego string trimmer yesterday from Lowe’s. My parents think I’m crazy for using a living mulch on my pathways. I just love the natural look and permaculture system. I don’t care about a perfectly neat garden, it’s all about productivity and and the circular relationship with nature for me. Now I have a video to show people😀

[@notillgrowers]

Nice!

[@jontaylor1365]

I am playing with the awesome combination of perennial ryegrass, Timothy, red clover with a bit of plantain and chicory. Thats four functional groups (grass, legumes, deep and shallo rooted herbs) that are ideal for building soil and the mowings are perfect for compost making.

[@vaniafarmar5281]

We’ll miss you!! So glad y’all will still keep up the videos though 😁

[@SeeStuDo]

Love the paths, love embracing wildness! ❤ thanks again, Jesse. You rock. 🎸

[@jacelightlylove9367]

Applying this knowledge towards my summer garden, thank you for being my mentor! We love you Kentucky down here in Sunnyvale, Texas! God Bless!⭐🙏

[@bakersbooks]

Definitely appreciate you guiding people away from the golf-course aesthetic mentality! Good luck with your new project, and I'm enjoying the interview series already.

[@janking2762]

I use a battery string trimmer with a cutting guard to mow the pathways. Once you get familiar with it, you can cut as high as you like and turn it sideways to do the edges. It’s very quiet, and lighter than a gas trimmer.

[@mwanamrembo]

I love it. It's neat. It's organized and more natural. Not messy at all. Beautifully done!!!

[@mssmaris24]

Just found your channel and watched 1 video and laughed out loud 3 times already. You funny.

[@noahpharms]

Ryhme it up man would love to see a dr seuss esque narration attempt. As always super informative and engaging, thank yall for these❤

[@KPVFarmer]

Thanks for providing us with more great info!!! 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸

[@tolbaszy8067]

As usual, great video! I sense some desperation for viewers with Kitty Kat photo bombing. Nice touch! Slab wood from a sawmill works well for solid pathways. I put a couple bark side up next to each other then put a slab bark down in between. Makes a veritable sidewalk! The ends can be a challenge as the slabs tend to curl up. Short paths can be kept flat with a large rock at each end. Some paths I will infill gaps in the slabs with woodchips, which help keep the slabs flat.

[@gabrielalbores846]

Thank you for the quality content; it’s definitely help me plan and shape my personal dream of growing on a scale of about 10 acres

[@thebiosoilcompany]

Fly is an understatement. Thanks so much for all of your hard work and information you are helping to build generations of sustainable production systems. Hats off

[@solbruden]

Thank you Jesse for sharing all your knowledge! Your farm looks amazing 😊. I will miss your videos, but wish you luck with your other project 🍀!

[@corymiller9854]

Well the best crop for your paths for covering is what grows naturally. I believe most people call them weeds:] I have been using this style for the first time this year working great. The so called native weeds deserve respect and they are also full of clover and every other thing that is needed for the native insects to eat. I just mow close to my mulched rows even shoot the mower at the tougher crops hand free mulching:] I have large paths maybe 48inch and I leave the middle growing full size no mowing. This is a great system so little work and nature thrives in a way you have never seen:] Embrace those native plants right meow hehe

[@carolyncarlon9870]

Am loving these videos…

[@ladyothelake7386]

I put Greek oregano in an empty bed this year and it covered pretty well, and it smells lovely and is delicious. Might make a good path 😊

[@paullittle5200]

Lovely smell as you are harvesting your crops 😊

[@greenthumbpatriot3295]

I started using cardboard for my pathways 3 years ago and it’s worked out great!

[@pascalxus]

i love this channel! not only informative but so LOLZ.

[@clivesconundrumgarden]

You’re living pathways are awesome but you’re hats are fire!! Thanks for both, we, and pollinators love ‘em Cheers 🤜🤛

[@notillgrowers]

🙌

[@j.n.sloane]

Love your philosophy. Thanks for the great content.

[@Nancy-zk9dj]

Cool shrooms! Are wood chips living pathways? My pathways are chopped leaves and I pull grasses out as they come. Dad joke in front of a greenhouse--You cant plant flowers if you haven't botany--😊 Love the overheads of you beautiful land. My garden embraces wildness! 🙂

[@gggbon]

Thanks for the amazing videos! In our 100's years old garden in southern france, the payway's soil is so compacted that the only thing that grows is bermuda grass. So we embrace it and keep it in very close check with a spade to clean the edge and a mower.

[@notillgrowers]

Love it and thank you!

[@nuhamin9673]

Can you take me franc ??

[@claudinedecarlisle8647]

Great info. Thank you! I love your kitty being in the videos.

[@79PoisonBreaker]

Even though I'm up in Canada zone 3, I really enjoy the geeky info you get into on here. Thanks and enjoy your summer adventure.

[@N8TRONOUS]

Thank you for helping us!

[@spaceantelope1]

One day soon I’ll buy your book. Thank you so much!!

[@wildrangeringreen]

A mix of tall fescue (bunch grass that spreads by above ground tillers (easily cut off when you mow) or seed), Chicory, Broadleaf Plantain (only spreads by seed), and white clover (spreads by seeds and stolons (like strawberries) (which can be cut off with mowing)). The plantain, Alfalfa, chicory and clover fills in the gaps between the clumps of fescue. As far as overhead irrigation is concerned, just plant something that needs/uses a trellis (like peas) where the lines/heads need to go; and use the trellis posts to hold the heads up, run the line down the beds. I use a "kwik edge" tool, it's basically a mini moldboard plow you use by hand to maintain the edge, it also is pretty useful in a high residue situation of opening up furrows for planting into. Just make sure it's very sharp (like, "don't slide your hand on it", sharp). on water usage concerns: there have been trials done out in North Dakota (depending on where you are in that region, they only get, like, 15-18" precipitation) where they've compared bare fallow (or in this case, bare paths) with covered fallow (or green paths) water usage. At the end of the year, the water in the soil was the same. The plants do use some water, but they shade the soil and the roots+carbon+biology around them allow for better infiltration and retention of water.

[@sparkywatts3072]

My biggest weed problem, by far, is grass! I would love to be able to use lawn grass in my walkways and just mow it. In my situation that doesn't work. Anything I plant is soon smothered with grass.

[@sapientisessevolo4364]

Regarding the wood chips, I read in "Regenesis" that you can throw a lot into a pile, compost it almost all the way, then add a thin of it layer to the beds as an innoculant of beneficial fungi. And you only need to do like 3 mm worth spread out over like 7 years if I remember correctly. Boosted yields a lot. Maybe experiment with that?

[@notillgrowers]

We actually have been! This year we mulched our elephant garlic with broken down wood chips, in fact. They were unfortunately the smallest I've grown in years, so I think they still need a light layer of compost to compliment them 🤷

[@PlantObsessed]

If the neighbors don't think you're nuts you're doing it wrong. I have unknowingly been doing it right all along.😂

[@paulmcwhorter]

I am playing around with growing comfrey in the walking paths. Then cut them back with a hand sickle. This provides abundant and continuous mulch, which can be dropped in walking path or on the bed. Comfrey seems to come back no matter how often or aggressively it is cut back. The comfrey is very tolerant of being walked on, and it does not creep into the beds. comfrey creates more work in managing the path, but it is generating lots of mulch, so the mulching process is less work. OK, the downside would be if you decide you dont like it, it would probably be hard to get rid of it.

[@kdillon2824]

This was great… thanks for the Roman Chamomile and clover shoutouts… I’m curious about other perennials or herbs!

[@beccanlevisalaska]

We're planning a garden in Alaska and watching the water just build during the rain in the gravelled areas, I love this idea! Definitely will be executing it once we have a real garden built.

[@beesandseeds]

Always appreciate any video you produce. Thank you

[@kathrynvanduynhoven6697]

Thank you so much for sharing all your amazing content! Such an inspiration

[@NannaCarlstedt2]

Thank´s for sharing your experiences!

[@KatiDebelic]

Thank you for shari g your knowledge and providing different angles on the management of gardens. I have a very different setting (community garden, raised bed). While my paths are pre determined ( lose gravel for one area, wood chips for the other plot I care for) I deal with a fair amount of weeds (dandelions, buttercups, and other) and will never be completely weed free as the roots of these are behind and below the raised beds and also growing under and through the landscape fabric that was applied years ago, before my time as a gardener. But these days I get excited by the weeds, as I make tea with them, and I get an unlimited amount of weed tea which my plants totally love. My broccoli heads are 10 inch wide, thanks to the weed tea this year!

[@billiverschoore2466]

What works on my allotment is the broad-leafed plantain (Plantago major; flower heads and leaves don't grow as tall as e.g. Plantago lanceolata). Native and always found along hikers' trails. I have the large-leafed plantain too, for medicinal harvest, but not in the paths. Great for barefoot walking, too. They seem happy to be growing with white clover. No grass; you always get annual meadow grass (Poa annua) in any grass areas around here (S UK), which seeds itself around at every opportunity, virtually uncontrollably low by the ground too. Broad-leafed plantain isn't evergreen (but the roots will certainly keep the soil stabilised all year 'round), so i use a small amount of wood shavings from organic animal pet bedding used by one of my neighbours, which will prevent slippery mud in winter. Quick and easy to mow. Maybe wood chips screened for size would be fine too. Much easier to keep free of the smaller weeds, too! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 🌳🕊💚

[@adamredden2007]

We're definitely going in this direction in the spring. Mainly because we have a real issue with knotweed that was heavily established on the only flat spot on our acreage that we eventually built on. 3 years later it STILL pops up in our lawn but mowing, grass and clover really suppresses it. We've had to consistently till to manage it in our garden and then hand pull weeds twice weekly in the rows. Done with that! Thanks Jesse

[@one_field]

Empathizing with you as I hand pull knotweed from my own paths. It's an ancient food crop, but boy is it unhelpful in my garden. Those tenacious roots are impressive and frustrating.

[@adamredden2007]

@one_field I have slowly added electric fencing to encompass the areas that we can afford to allow our two cows into and they are keeping it down. It's healthy for them so 2 birds, one stone. Downside is cow manure near water sources so having to intensely manage that.

[@one_field]

@@adamredden2007 Our goats and sheep love it, plus the young geese and the egg laying females devour it, but none of those are allowed in my garden (they'd eat too many of the other plants). Perhaps I just need to learn how to harvest and eat it instead of resenting it as a weed! Lol. Too aggressive and fast growing in the beds, though.

[@teresathomley3703]

Thanks Jesse. Your dad jokes are all right.

[@kovukfarm]

I think the white clover is the best option for living paths. It's short and resistant to being stepped on. Creating living pathways is also one of our goals. But on our farm, there are a lot of stubborn weeds like couch grass and blackberries, so we decided to follow a few stages before that. For a couple of years now, we have been using tarp and landscape fabric to prevent weed pressure. After that, we are going to switch to using cardboard plus woodchips, and finally we are going to try to make living paths. In our case, creating living paths right away would not accomplish much. It needs a process. By the way, we are already on stage 2 in some areas now, we are removing the fabric and covering those paths with woodchips and cardboard.

[@joanies6778]

The cardboard and woodchips turn into living soil over time, too, feeding the microbiology and worms below. I had to use black plastic one summer in the back of my lot due to overgrown weeds when I bought the place. Then 2-3 years ago, I put cardboard and bark mulch down. I am seeing dirt now. It's not blowing away.. it's becoming soil, and I have worms everywhere I dig. The mulch also helps with water retention, which is important in dry climates. I just need to make the layer thicker.

[@Floraltherapyfe]

Did you need to till prior to the tarp or did you just mow it low? My garden furthest from the house is out of control. Out of sight out of mind and I’m thinking of just putting plastic down and trying to over time get it back. Would love to hear what your stage 1 process was

[@kovukfarm]

@@Floraltherapyfe Hello, what you are considering is a good idea. We mowed it low as you said and just covered it afterwards. But if you do this in the summer time it would be better

[@janellelucido4444]

Great video. Love your ethos.

[@cherylmosher6026]

Thumbs up for supporting a little wildness. Love the clover idea. My Mum used creeping thyme in her rose garden.

[@MarkDurbin]

Always interesting, thank you!

[@chrisoja2909]

Bought your book so much good information thanks again farmer jesse!!!!!!!

[@flathillfarm]

I’ve been using invasives as path mulch this year and I LOVE it. Phragmites is my current favorite, but water lilies also work great. They both dry out really well and grow in (previously obnoxious) abundance.

[@kriskaul8009]

Good permaculture thinking, there. One area's problem becomes another area's solution.

[@brooketeague4985]

I am going to implement this in our 5,000sqft garden. We have been battling Bermuda in our cardboard and mulch pathways and I’m at my wits end. Here in north GA by mid june the garden looks like a jungle! Thanks for the inspiration!

[@douggibson9084]

Great information, thanks 👍👍😊

[@RocktPlays]

Your channel is awesome thank you

[@raincoast9010]

great info on living paths

[@jimfrench1746]

We have the Fiskars StaySharp and love it! It can easily set super high and really is easy to push. The clippings can either go forward or back. No bag option that I know of. Love your channel :)

[@notillgrowers]

Thanks!

[@mourlyvold64]

Thanks for the tip. I just had a look on their dutch website and saw they do have atachable bags. The problem I see is that they have a 61 centimeter (24 inch) width, which is pretty (too) wide for a many paths. They do seem perfect mowers, though. Time to unite as farmers and convince the producer they can be part of a growers' revolution by building narrower ones as an option, I guess.

[@KaLinaAgriculture]

I love your work about agriculture

[@CSheri2]

On my slope row walking paths, I placed across the path, bags of manure or compost to act as a berm ( A raised bank; like a dam) to slow down the flow of water and sink the water run-off so the growing rows on the side could benefit.

[@nicolazaina1386]

I am so happy I came across your video on living pathways. I have just been debating this for myself and came to the conclusion that I could use clover which is already planted in the whole field but didn't know anyone who did this. So know I have seen that it is doable I am going to go for it. That way the clover stays and all I have to do is create my beds. Thanks so much for your super informative videos.

[@fadedrose100]

Mallow does well here. It's able to tolerate a wide range of conditions and easy to pull out where not wanted.

[@terrym2210]

‘Look super fly’. Lol. Shine on you crazy diamond. Love your videos. Thanks.

[@Babushka_Kat]

you are a rock star - thank you!

[@ardenthebibliophile]

Enjoy the time away, we'll miss ya!

[@vynedvyne59]

Many thanks🎉

[@EmE433]

Your local farmers are amazing🎉

[@swallowhousetakeo]

Thanks bro for sharing knowledge

[@lizneu629]

Nice. I was planning on implementing something like this. Planning on leaving 4 ft in between my beds to accommodate my rabbit tractor, leaving whatever the grass that is there for now.

[@weseedweed386]

I read about crimson clover to be a good living pathway. I got it from miss Langerhorst who is doing companion planting since the 70ies without any animal inputs

[@Oktopia]

I have living paths that are just wide enough for my mower. It's because I put my raised bed on top of the lawn just putting cardboard in the bottom along with sticks, branches, old compost, bokashi, biochar, and new compost on top. I have to hold my paths down or the slugs and snails get a place to hide. I love the mowing of the paths because I get material for my compost.

[@edwardreedy]

Saw a 14" mower at the cemetery the other day that was made so it fit between the headstones. I think l may ha e to find one and upgrade to living pathways and not have to widen any.

[@ohokayofficial]

Perfect time for people to watch this in the south / southeast (probably more places than that right now) A slight frost is on the way around October 30th thru the first week of November 🙌🏽

[@PIESvcs]

After hand weeding out some horrible creeping kikuyu grass, surviving clovers were left in our pathways. Hopefully, they will be red clovers. We're intending to sow in more clovers to compete with the invasive kikuyu that thrives in the hot dry of summer. The red clover helps to feed our bees. Thanks for the reminder about Roman Chamomile. We used this before by 'plugging' them into a bench/sitting border where the smell is amazing. A farm contractor warned me that "it will take over your paddocks" (fields) but it never did.

[@mickichikwinya5519]

Good topic.

[@kafevlog262]

Wonderful 😊

[@fpaullee9988]

you are the man!! good information

[@notillgrowers]

Merci à vous!

[@hummingbirdforestgardens]

love "embrace a little wildness" - yes!

[@pattyb5653]

Thanks!

[@jamesalanstephensmith7930]

Ingenious

[@craigmatheson2736]

Living pathways, as you said, don't work in the high desert mountains. If you can just remember the old adage "A healthy lawn covers a multitude of sins." In other words the tall clover walkway smothers out the weed seeds that blow in and are a great soil erosion control. Other ground covers repel insects and rodents as well as smell good. And if a companion plant (check out “the three sisters) they help nearby plants grow.

[@davegifford3198]

I am loving the book Jesse. Maybe on your mower try a (home made) bracket that extends the wheel axle down a few inches? idk I can see it in my mind, but it may not be feasible. Cheers.

[@joewamsley8004]

From Michigan, I love wood chips and creaping Charley, which is three plants btw. The combination forms a nice thick rug which is nice to knee down on and walk barefoot on.

[@MynewTennesseeHome]

I tried using the roman chamomile in one area of my garden but didn't work well for me. I ended up terracing everthing on contour and using wood chips. My paths work like mini reservoirs with heavy rain and with mounded beds the chips don't float that high. I dry farm so this is the best I come up with.

[@notillgrowers]

If it works for you it works! Context is everything in farming

[@CarterHewins]

I used teff grass this year on my farm. It works great at holding the soil. After I mow It adds a mulch around the plants and at the same time it fertilizes them. The only problem I have is my mower isn’t quite matched with the size of my pathway.

[@camelotiaknitting3239]

Hello! I have one plot with living pathways, mostly white clover and whatever comes through the white clover. We are in a very dry climate (central Portugal) and the living pathway is the most efficient way to keep moist in the soil and around the crops. Even during the peak of summer, it can dry completely, but once the first fall rains arrive it gets back to life, and with all the root system of the plant in place the water retention is really improved. Now I’m seriously thinking in having living pathways in all plots, in the other ones I usually use tarps for a period of time with the size of the pathway to keep it under control.

[@natefox1496]

Thank you

[@dantheman9135]

ThankQ

[@raincoast9010]

thanks