The Downsides of My Living Pathways

Living pathways have a lot of advantages and are a very beautiful and productive alternative to other pathway management styles, but like every system, they are not without their complications. In today's video we will discuss the pros and cons of living pathways as well as my chamomile pathway project so that if this is something you are considering, you know what to look out for.
This video was made possible in part through a grant from Southern SARE, and answers the following: How to grow great cover crops, how to establish cover crops, different cover crops, mistakes in cover cropping and more.
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This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2020-38640-31521 through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under project number LS21-348. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider.” The goal with this grant is to provide context and technical detail for the four principles of soil health.

[@bradharris2503]

Do you welcome visitors?

[@notillgrowers]

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 🤞

[@bradharris2503]

No worries. Would certainly like to come check you out sometime. Happy growing...

[@ronnance4866]

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.

[@bharatkukreti8449]

what is your experience in terms of produce productivity and weed management.

[@ximono]

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.

[@lovism6590]

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!

[@compiticny1445]

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.

[@rosehavenfarm2969]

I just may try this in one pathway this year. . .

[@5JBelfry]

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!

[@hallyaponno9698]

So smart 😀

[@randallsullivan3692]

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.

[@funnywolffarm]

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.

[@notillgrowers]

That's awesome to hear! Thank you

[@sandrahoffman1958]

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.

[@coleradley6614]

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.

[@bettinaripperger4159]

Do you have to replant that every year ?

[@garrettscott4094]

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.

[@pere4267]

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.

[@garrettscott4094]

@@pere4267 yes that is exactly what I'm referring to.

[@garrettscott4094]

@@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.

[@patrickasmawidjaja6531]

Great idea, edging down the beds. Maybe something like the DUC plow helps to create this edge on the side of the living pathway

[@notillgrowers]

Interesting! Thanks for the comment

[@zepheniahdraws]

'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.

[@shelbymcdill5564]

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.

[@andreaszettl3498]

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

[@gr8gardn]

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!

[@FinznFowl82]

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.

[@cherokeecountry]

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.

[@FinznFowl82]

@@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.

[@gr8gardn]

@@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.

[@gr8gardn]

@@FinznFowl82 have to admit imaging your chickens tossing pine needles made me laugh. Those girls get into everything!

[@pattyellen1954]

I once used sod rolls in between planted rows and found I was able to mow and edge the sod 😊

[@MistressOP]

it's good to see your living pathways worked out. we can't do that in Cali cos of water but you had that rain issue with the slopping. so this makes PERFECT sense.

[@shannonezer2645]

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!

[@bryangalen6340]

I have been skeptical of living pathways until this year. Your videos have slowly changed my mind lol. I just added a plot this year to our garden with the usual wood chips but we had a crazy thunderstorm shortly after which move the wood chips into the compost and went all crazy. This has happened before on the older plots too. I get free wood chips but this idea of grass pathways is growing on me. I see the ground slope in naturally and make a drainage ditch in our main walkways around the plots that are grass. Those then become mini rivers when the crazy thunderstorms come in so I assume the narrower plot pathways would work the same way eventually… y’all are geniuses. Next year I’ll be moving the new plot downhill into some areas where water flows wild with down pours and have had that problem in the back of my mind for a long time. I’m gonna roll with living pathways. Thank you for experimenting with all this stuff. I’m going to read your new book soon. Sorry for just typing up my own book right here lol

[@lisamcdonald1415]

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

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

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.

[@angelamacdougall7022]

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!

[@Green.Country.Agroforestry]

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.

[@michaelburke5907]

In England this used to be known as swale gardening. I used this system in the past and found it very effective as well as handsome. I top seeded the grass with a bit of white Dutch clover, providing some drought tolerance and additional nutrition for the sod,as well as attracting pollinators. Great system.

[@kearstinnekenerson6676]

I’m so excited my husband and I are looking for our first house actually and I’m going to have my own little homestead I have learned so much here I can’t wait to give it large scale try’s on some things

[@tammybyrd1054]

Great video as usual! I've never considered them but just looking at your area, I think they would be worth the effort, it's beautiful. I like the idea of the chamomile and the aroma. I am forever walking by my herbs and pinching things between my fingers. Even watering some things-mint-is just lovely.

[@RetreatfarmFarmvilleVirginia]

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.

[@lynhirthe9674]

Love the video and love the Chamomile idea! Brilliant mix species!

[@gchrom]

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

[@tamarackartstudio7893]

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.

[@notillgrowers]

I like that idea a lot! Just convert a flail.

[@coreycox6876]

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

[@pault.juckniess7265]

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

[@soilbellefarm3710]

Love living pathways. I have them. The challenges are real. I don’t use and edge just mow the grass. Edger looks really effective

[@msb8013]

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.

[@GrowBagUK]

I have found Plantain (plantago sp.) to be useful living path covers...they don't creep or seed readily and are happy being mowed.

[@growingwithfungi]

Wonderful video as always, thank you so much 😊🌱💚🙏✨

[@abugman]

That was a wonderful presentation 👏 💚🙏🌞

[@wyattbottorff2473]

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.

[@bigtiger9523]

We used large, long, narrow, portable cages with a bob-sled front to climb over the tall grass with ducks to do our mowing work, moving them like chicken tractors in staggered, diagonal rows in the vegetable bed walkways. No gas, no mower, no trimmer, and no maintenance bills. Not only no feed bills but free fertilizer to boot, plus eggs and meat as a bonus. Like you, we used a mixture of different pasture seeds to boot the Omega3 and make sure we had coverage from spring through fall.

[@advancedgardeningsolutions4485]

Mow paths are great. Crawling around the garden is so much nicer. Alot of work, but some roll top metal edging should stop the creeping grass. I use a hover mower in my garden. Having no wheels allow me to get up tight to my flowers, no line trimming needed. Keep up the good work over there!

[@Onnada]

I have this!! I've been collecting information in a notebook for a while now! I call it my Homesteading Hopechest Notebook! ❤😊 I splurged and picked up your first book (as that's where I am now, learning to garden and water canning).

[@StreetMachine18]

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

[@mococlimbing]

Hi! Waiting for your book The living Soil to arrive !!!! Spain, new market garden proyect ready to go. Thanks man, you're awsome

[@swissfarmer]

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 👍🏼

[@royormonde3682]

I have living grass pathways and have been installing plastic garden edging every year, should be all done next spring before planting and seeding is done. The ones I've done in previous years have no issues and nothing creeps in from the paths. Row covers can be an issue sometimes, usually in the corners but I try and tuck them in behind edging and use small spring loaded clamps to hold it in place on the top edge of the edging.

[@andrewstacey4868]

Great video thanks Jesse!!

[@MikeV607]

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.

[@Marshall_Weber]

Awesome Video as Always!!

[@spoolsandbobbins]

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.

[@angelneumann8135]

You're right, Jesse. I *am* awesome. Miss you!

[@notillgrowers]

Awe, Angel! Much love to you and the family!

[@Dakota77d]

I would of never thought of camomile- thanks

[@nchomestead7860]

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.

[@peterjenkins2449]

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.

[@CrazyIvan865]

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

[@gunning6407]

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!

[@mimic5433]

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.

[@StarChaserRanch]

Here in South Idaho, we only get 8in of precipitation per year. Living pathways would require lots of water that we are limited on. We choose to use bark to mulch and protect our soil. Our ground is mostly flat too.

[@rageinthekage4247]

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.

[@clarkansas6590]

Good job. Great book.

[@melanieallen3655]

I am going2 try chamomile for my pathways.thanks!

[@fourdayhomestead2839]

Great info. I'm dealing with heavy clay soil & crabgrass. I already hot compost the mowing residue, but looking into mulch & edger to keep it from creeping.

[@olivebirch7272]

We have very similary soil. And crabgrass. Soil is slowly improving but the crabgrass is pretty awful. Takes over in a hurry. Were you able to get it out of your growing space?

[@dcsblessedbees]

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...

[@johnjude2685]

Just learning,brought some crimson clover .would that be good for the pathways. I've haven't use any yet?

[@wildrangeringreen]

As far as irrigation lines: I plant my peas on the beds where the overhead irrigation needs to be, and I use the trellis posts to hold the risers and wobblers. row covers get draped over the posts/trellis. Peas, lettuces, spinach, kale, collards, cabbages, and chard all get planted out together (early sweetcorn gets transplanted a little later), and can all use the row cover at times. I have two sets of field blocks, and alternate veg and cover crop every year, so my peas+ sweetcorn+ greens beds always go in the same place every time. Bunch grass (like ky31) spread by seed and tillers (sort of like a long, arching strawberry runner), keep it mown and cut off the tillers as they form, and you won't have it spread. It's also easy to pull out any small clumps that form from tiller you miss and fill in bare spots in the paths. Seed is cheap, commonly available, and it does well with traffic and some shading from crops. On cover-cropped years, I overseed the paths with a little more KY31 to keep it thick (bought the 50lbs bag several years ago, still going through it). I mow mine when they get 6-8" tall down to 1.5" with a Powersmart 127cc 17" gas mower (I burned up a cordless mower in less than a season before I bought the gas one). I'm mowing once every 10-14 days or so during the spring/fall, and roughly once a month during the summer. On beds that have things that can take grass mulch, I side discharge onto the bed, everything else, I mulch in place.

[@conradsutton]

Hi Jesse. New subscriber here (and a new gardener, too). You may have already tried plastic landscape edging on your pathways, but I thought I'd toss the idea in the ring. Excellent content, btw.

[@tanjawestfall-greiter9814]

Totally agree on the extra work with grasses creeping into the beds and wish we had a mower for exactly this purpose. Also totally agree with loving them. I'm in a new location where it's hit and dry in the summer and I find I can regulate temps and moisture by letting the grass grow higher. Also loving being able to spread the cut grass on the spot or use it to start new beds (mow, mulch, cover). I'll never go back to woodchips.

[@notillgrowers]

Soil loves fresh cut grass!

[@VanillaAttila]

@@notillgrowers The worms come out at night and pull it down into their burrows

[@ellensedge1898]

I've been practicing living pathways in my kitchen garden for years, I use a weed eater and mower for management. never thought of planting herbs (as I look for my seed catalog)

[@preppersparadisecanada2064]

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)

[@natefox1496]

Thank you!

[@GardenKatt]

Also in Ky, the crab grass is just too much for me to try your way right now. I have just put down black plastic that i am going to use all this summer to try and kill off most of the grass and weeds first. In the fall i am going to pull it up and put down mulch. I do have an edge around entire garden area and each bed in itself. But i am urban farming so have a much smaller area to manage.

[@poeticpursuits1332]

I went with living pathways on day one. Because I did not have enough money to spend on that many woodchips and it was the only option. My rows are also too close together to mow because I am working with a relatively smaller space. Using living pathways in KY 6b has not, for me, deterred slugs. They mowed down my beans and lettuces last year and are already starting again.

[@jarrettonions3392]

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

[@Sssanbo]

I used a "bed redefiner" on my stihl , not an edger. Its more powerful and clear out a wider band, a bit destructive to the soil , .... i had to tinker with the depth. I also taped cardboard over the open side to prevent stuff shooting all over. I used clover and existing weedy grass . Idk i paused doing living paths because it was work and i thought it was bringing pests because we have slug issues , Not sure if that was the cause , we still get slugs. .

[@forced4motorsports]

I actually decided on living paths about a week ago before I knew they were a thing. I can't use mulch or wood chips due to fire ants - they love using that and the local sand, so the alternative is drop cardboard, top soil and plant a cover crop that can handle mowing. That will in turn be fed to the birds or the compost piles...

[@ronaldcummings6337]

I was just pondering this yesterday and wondering how this was working out for you.

[@user-qy1sp3dn3r]

Hey, love the channel, by the way. I wonder if you used low-growing warm-season grass like buffalo grass (or a mix of warm and cool grasses in your living pathways) to reduce the amount you need to mow. Keep up the great work!

[@TNTurtle]

Today, I watched a couple of your living pathway videos and read Jennie Love's blog. You mentioned in one of your videos that you are looking for alternatives to grass. Next, a blog by Margaret Roach came to my attention. She talked about a trial of Carex that Mt Cuba center just wrapped up. After going down a rabbit role, I read about Carex jamesii, a fine textured Sedge, that looks very promising as a candidate because it does well in the sun (with medium (to wet) water) and is rated well for mowing. It's a clumping form rather than a spreading form. Sadly, the trial did not address endurance to foot traffic. Still, I have to wonder if this might be a good candidate to put in the mix for living pathways, especially on the edges, next to the bed where foot traffic may be less. It something to consider.

[@fiendeng]

Botanical Bubble gum. I'm here for it! 😁👍

[@susanjordan2130]

I have not tried living pathways but am considering it. Ive used woodchips but didnt like walking on them. Ive tried bare dirt pathways and ioved going barefoot, grounding. But when watering and dragging around my hoses, it makes mud which is messy and annoyjng. My fav so far is to hoe the weeds in early spring, if i do it soon enough, and spread grass clippings on the pathways so i can still go barefoot. This year ended that when rats moved in from the neighbors junk trailer. Now i dont go barefoot, a rat pops out and startles me almost every day.

[@dls677]

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.

[@notillgrowers]

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.

[@harrock2]

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?

[@notillgrowers]

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.

[@dafureallythough4960]

Try bamboo mulch if you can find it. Interlocks so, won't blow or wash away and lasts about 1 yr before decomp

[@esrcornwell]

My recent experience with this is. I have a hill on the west side of my property and it's covered in grass. The steepest portion which abutts my garden which is on a mostly level part. I have decided to put soft fruits in. I have decided to get rid of the grass between for example my blueberry bushes. I am cardboarding and then putting compost over the area. Finally wood chips. Now I figured there will be erosion and the wood chips will move. So I am putting in what I call mini-gabions to mostly solve this. A row of small rocks piled on each other going across the contour. Only a couple inches high. Between each row of plants. Any erosion of wood chips and soil will be paused there and settle out. Once or twice a year I can rake them back up to the top of each section.

[@dantheman9135]

ThankQ 👍

[@steellion907]

Totally didnt consider wood chips floating in the rain. Have you considered experimenting with grass clippings from mowing? No seeds but acts like hay. At least in my small garden :)

[@davidbrieske6148]

Try pennywort. It's a ground cover, which doesn't grow any higher than 2 inches and is super soft on bare feet.

[@llywolafjohnsiii4574]

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 ?

[@ourhomesteadjourney1775]

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.

[@NlNJAA]

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.

[@isabelllober6330]

Hey buddy great content i really enjoy your cannel I ve been stonemason and just thogt about the use of cutoff form the stoneplates too frame in the veggiebeds to prevent from overgroth by creepinggrass could save a lot of work and they are for free just make sure you get some wtih at least 3 cm thikness also confrey on the edge of the livingpahtway could blog the weeds from growing over into the bed

[@xaviercruz4763]

Have you trialed any keyline plowing, terracing or swaling on the corridors to prevent water from washing off soil and woodchips? Also wood barriers like done to bamboo underground?

[@brandenthrasher4948]

I would place logs along the low side to shoulder in the wood chips to that line of hillside. 🤓👩‍🌾

[@bradtisch7803]

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.

[@notillgrowers]

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!

[@megmcguireme]

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.

[@bradtisch7803]

@@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.

[@jimmypostell2373]

Have just done this for this year with winter clovers. Didn't know it had a name. 🤔🤷‍♂️

[@tribalwind]

I've had perennial grasses and weeds paths for the last two years, the weeds and grass just encroach far too much into the beds since they're not framed like a small garden may be..and having to mow it all is added work, although i liked having ready-made grass clippings for mulch, and nicer looking and the walk on. I'm now Sheet-mulching with cardboard and woodchips, maybe in the future I can keep it purely dense clover or chamomile etc. But I fear weeds will overtake

[@MynewTennesseeHome]

I planted perennial chamomile last year and was thinking about using it as a ground cover. It some pretty thick stuff.

[@notillgrowers]

Yeah it's weirdly thick! In your paths or in your beds?

[@MynewTennesseeHome]

@@notillgrowers I'm starting with paths but who knows?

[@frankmorris4790]

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.

[@elizabethschell1441]

Transparency; also Ghosts... I see what you did there hahaha 😆

[@xaviercruz4763]

Jesse, here: Irish Moss, Scleranthus uniflorus, Arenaria balearica, Blue star creeper, and red poppy for a decorative touch.

[@goldenteech3436]

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

[@mattschoolfield4776]

Could you put some kind of edging at the path edge to prevent creeping?

[@pizzaguy3645]

Jessie, Try to figure out a way to mount your edger on to the front or side of your mower. You may have to make two passes or maybe your could mount two edgers on your mower. Think about it. It just might work. Much love from Nikiski, Alaska.

[@notillgrowers]

That's my dream right there! I've fiddled with that idea a little bit but it's unwieldy in with both operating simultaneously. I need to just take the time to really examine it--may be an easy solution there that I'm not seeing

[@aenorist2431]

Pretty sure he's been searching for a way to combine the two for years now.

[@oftheFence]

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

[@notillgrowers]

Possibly! I'm open to more varieties of plants

[@ericandrews7115]

You could add a 2x6 to edge the living paths. I've collected scrap lumber from new construction sites for free. You could also take apart pallets as long as the wood hasn't been treated.

[@notillgrowers]

On a smaller scale, I think borders are a great idea. We have 140 paths so it would be tough for us

[@ericandrews7115]

@@notillgrowers Hi, I love your videos and your personality. I'm so thankful that you responded. Thank you for your content as well. I agree that this is a large task. To be transparent and realistic I'd have to say you still might have to edge it every once and a while. As far as time management goes, if you take an hour to install a 2x6 edge, how much time would it save you from edging?

[@ximono]

Also, they're the perfect breeding ground for slugs. If you have those.