Why This Vegetable Garden Has Grass Paths | Pros, Cons and My Favourite Alternative

Many of you have asked about why this vegetable garden has grass paths, and whether it creates issues such as slug problems. I decided to create a video to explain in more detail about why this garden has grass paths, the benefits and drawbacks of them as well as the only alternative I would personally consider to a grass path for a vegetable garden.
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[@Selfsufficientme]

Top vid mate! I also prefer grass paths as it suppresses weeds better than gravel or mulch paths and weeds can easily be mowed or trimmed anyway. The patch is cooler in summer especially in a hot climate and for places or pathways around beds that is difficult to mow I use recycled matting/tiles made from old car tyres it's durable and easy 👍

[@suburbanhomestead]

I end up with grass paths because I’m cheap, but they can be beautiful also. I made the new ones big enough to use a lawn mower that collects the trimmings. That gives me additional mulch. I would like a gravel or brick path, but I’m morally opposed to landscape fabric, so grass it is.

[@tolnaijani]

Just a quick note: Dandelions are not really weeds. They are important for bees. They also loosen up compacted soil. :)

[@HuwRichards]

I know and I talk a bit about that in my last video :)

[@danennis3078]

They're also a great dynamic accumulator of deeper soil minerals. They're also great for making tea, or eating the leaves like escarole.

[@grannysweet]

@@danennis3078 I AGREE. save the flowers for tea, leaves for greens, roots for medicine :@)

[@grannysweet]

Thank you. im currently enjoying a field of them. 😎👍🐶 . eat what grows wild where you live.

[@grannysweet]

@@HuwRichards thank you. please post links when you can. Love the natural grass paths.

[@bethanskitchengarden]

I like both, I had wood chip paths with fabric underneath at my allotment and it made it much easier to kneel on and maintain. Weeds will grow in it but they were very easy to take out and much easier than having to strim all the time. Great info and advice as always. Take care.

[@LizZorab]

Another great video Huw. Both your veg gardens look great. It'll be interesting to see in a few years which one is less work. The wood chip paths bring joys and sorrows with them, just as anything does.

[@HuwRichards]

Thanks Liz! I like both in different ways so it is nice to have a mixture :)

[@OurEnglishTropicalGarden]

I prefer the grass path it sure looks much neater and not hard to maintain ..

[@ludwigvonmiseswasright4380]

5:49 I found the trick to catch and remove slugs very helpful! No poison. very little work. Effective.

[@yukey2587]

Especially if you have ducks to feed!

[@HortiHugo]

Interesting discussion and comments. As you say, grass paths really add to the aesthetics in winter/ early spring. A mix of surfaces work too, particularly something hard wearing as main paths, depending on needs. Enjoyed the various views too. All the best, Hugh 😊👍🏼🌿

[@myoffgridforestgardenadven3938]

Love watching you enjoy your garden. Big flat stones for my paths but I need to hang on to every bit of moisture I can. Thanks again:)

[@jeanpauldupuis]

Half my yard is kitchen garden. I like to wander in clean slippers with my morning coffee. I would covet the harvest of clippings from grass paths, but could not abide the mud. As budget allows, I am gradually converting my paths from flagstone-over-woodchips to contiguous cement pavers. Hardscaping is self-cleaning in the rain and the runoff is concentrated into my beds. Snow clearing is very easy in winter. The bricks will last decades with negligible care, whereas woodchips need constant replenishment and are not rake-friendly for spring and fall cleanup. The other half of the yard is a 'woodland' garden in the deep shade and root zone of two large maples. It was once a weedy patch of spotty grass and bare soil. I have since hardscaped much of it with flagstone spaced six inches and 'grouted' with shade-loving moss, clover, ajuga, and muscari. The flagstone has mulched this dry area for improved water retention, and meanwhile the same amount of seasonal rainfall is concentrated into the now-lush grout lines. In short, I love pavers and so do my plants!

[@joannesherwood3562]

I love the look of your beds amongst the grass. 👌🌱

[@tanarehbein7768]

I think your grass paths are beautiful and a great source of compost/mulch material. I have woodchips and no sides on my beds so I just rake the mulch over my beds as needed and re-dress the paths in the fall. Love woodchips in the orchard, veg, and flower beds as I am in a very dry area.

[@alexandrasmith8868]

Excellent, thank you. It was a question I was going to ask.

[@wowpets9457]

What a beautiful garden...

[@chaosanddamage]

My raised beds are in the front yard. I'm thinking over ways to expand on flower beds around the edges, and aesthetically pleasing (and low maintenance) garden paths would be a nice addition. I'm eager to reduce the amount of lawn grass as much as practical. Great video, and useful perspective.

[@lovesstronger898]

Love this, I use the grass for mulch and to feed the bunnies and geese!

[@HuwRichards]

Sounds great! :D

[@gwenscoble6229]

Great and timely video Huw. I put slate waste over weed membrane around my raised beds as it is very windy with narrower paths than yours. However 'onion couch grass' is my most irritating weed, and I am finding it difficult to hoe, rake or dig out. I'm considering replacing it with wood chip. I bought a plum tree and was given white and black currants. I've laid carpet around them and this has killed most weeds underneath. I've just been lifting it and shoveling wood chip in its place. Really makes the fruit look good and no competition from grass etc. Hope the lack of weed membrane won't be an issue. This is on quite a slope, so cardboard underneath would lead to it all sliding down. The wood chip seems to be knitting together well. Strimmering around trees and bushes can damage them, and my mower wheel spins on the slope. We also have 'weed eaters', Giant Welsh Wooley Maggots' and rabbits! 😉

[@TheWelshGardener]

Great video Huw! My woodchip paths are great and I don't have membrane! They are about 4/6 inches deep though!😁

[@HuwRichards]

Good depth then for less weeds, and pulling put any weeds will be pretty easy :)

[@larkatmic]

I have grass paths too. A little more maintenance, but the grass cools my work down while I’m bending over the plots, and I use the clippings for mulch and compost just like you do. I haven’t much of a slug problem, and when I do. I use the saucer beer method. Works great.

[@HuwRichards]

Oh the cooling down part is excellent - I had never thought of that! Thank you so much for watching

[@jamesfenter4194]

Now I’m picturing you going to check the saucer in the morning and finding Homer Simpson face down in it, with a faceful of slugs…nightmare fuel.

[@larkatmic]

@@jamesfenter4194 That made my morning. Thanks for the laugh 🤣

[@cottagemommy5116]

I have grass path with my raise beds. They work well.

[@jiminsealbeach4536]

Knees and aesthetics. Two great reasons for grass paths. When the pandemic is over I’m moving to an arid inland area of Southern California. I’ll try grass paths the first summer and see if they survive. I love the slug and snail solution. Much better than pesticides, not as gross as plates of beer, and less hassle than getting a duck.

[@howconnie]

JIMinSealBeach I live in Southern California with no summer water and I have grass paths. They are easily maintained with the runoff water from the vegetable garden. I have California native grasses that are drought tolerant. Sometimes I give up gardening in the summer heat, the paths die off but come back with the winter rain.

[@lorraineowen7978]

I love grass paths 😍

[@lizbeardmore2435]

The paths in my 'inherited' walled garden are covered with shingle, with membrane underneath. It was probably laid around 10 years ago and does need attention. It is in keeping with the rest of the garden, so would probably keep the same, although wood chips would be a possible alternative. Looking forward to starting your course - hope all going well!

[@HortiHugo]

Liz Beardmore Shingle is very serviceable, but as you say, the fabric underneath does wear and needs to be replaced. All the best with it, Hugh 😊👍🏼🌿

[@lizbeardmore2435]

Thank you! I appreciate your thoughts 🌞

[@natashak8281]

I do this, one I like walking around barefoot and I have lots of different weeds, I pull out any weeds with long tap roots and cut them down before they go to seed, I don't have my beds in wooded beds and they are big and fluffy I just trim around them

[@HuwRichards]

Thanks for watching Natasha! :)

[@Tabby318]

Although I prefer grass, I am getting yellow slabs put down between my 3 raised beds as, after getting top soil I got chickweed, having got rid of it I got more top soil elsewhere and then got scutch grass and, although it has been removed, it was sliced off, not dug out, so there are still roots and the ground is stony because I had a concrete building removed and the gravel around it was supposed to be raked off before the top soil went on - I later found out that the gravel was still there. Removing the chickweed left me with a bit of a shoulder blade muscle issue. I am unable to use a strimmer, my lawnmower is good (though a little heavy) and I think it would be hard to go in-between and around the beds and I'd still need to do the edges. On the plus side! The rest of the garden now has a small fruit bed, a herb bed and grass on half of it. The remainder (that also had scutch grass) has a small apple tree, a cherry tree and a simple water feature. I am planning a wild flower explosion with some shrubs and scented plants, but I am eyeing it up as somewhere to plant potatoes as well. I hope no one minds me wittering on; in these unusual days, I find the opportunity to 'talk'/write my thoughts invaluable. Oh, battle of the sexes! Every man that has been in my garden has said that I ought to have kept the huge concrete building as a turf shed or workshop and every woman has said 'thank goodness you got rid of that'.

[@tara281]

After 3 years I’ve had to give up on my beautiful green grass paths. The grass here sends roots under the soil into my beds and they were becoming a solid mat of grass. Even my one tall bed (24inches) was being invaded by grass. You must have better behaved grass in Wales ;)

[@HortiHugo]

Tara TreeLove Oh interesting to read Tara, sounds like a vigorous invasive grass there ...Did you change the path surfaces to something else? All the best, Hugh 👍🏼🌿

[@wowpets9457]

How do you get rid of slugs...

[@HortiHugo]

WOW Pets Great question. It’s a mixture of ways here, night time patrols, diligence in finding their hiding places and beer traps. I’ll be doing an update very soon on what I do here. All the best, Hugh 😊👍🏼🌿

[@ktpieallen]

My grass is Bermuda grass and it invaded my raised beds from underneath, took them over and ruined them. 😢

[@HortiHugo]

Our Simple Life Oh no ! Hope you managed to wrestle your beds back 🌱🌱🌱

[@Coccinelf]

Very timely. We are making our first garden this year and I'm trying to come up with a solution for permanentely muddy grass paths. I'm thinking crunched pine cones. Maybe it would deter cats as well. I didn't really want to waddle in mud but I didn't think about the safety hazard! Thanks! Also, I have one question, your raised beds seem on a slope. How big of a slope is too big? I'm wondering if I could just let mine be or if I should level it.

[@tirvplumbing]

I like the idea of grass paths but one thing you didn't touch on is if your plot has a particularly nasty weed issue, marestail in my case, then grass paths won't work. I can't use slabs either as I need to continually dig the roots out to keep it in check.

[@stevendowden2579]

cracking video

[@HuwRichards]

Thanks for your continued support Steven :)

[@G_Threepwood]

Nice video Huw. Have to admit, I've just replaced my grass paths with bark/compost (following Charles Dowding's method) I was finding it a pain to get the mower around the raised beds. Time will tell if it was the right decision. The main path down the middle is brick

[@ludwigvonmiseswasright4380]

Like Huw said, aesthetics, and enjoying your gardening is also very important. I bet the brick and chips look great.

[@HuwRichards]

Exactly Sarah :) And brick paths look super amazing Max!

[@grandmananners]

Hello from Alberta, Canada. I was wondering what is the best type of grass for garden areas because we killed our grass by walking on it, taking wheel barrels through it etc.

[@HilaRah]

Aesthetics. Ver ver important.

[@izzywizzy2361]

I have a mixture of grass path and woodchip. To be honest I find the grass paths easier to manage and maintain!

[@HuwRichards]

And more satisfying too I hope? ;)

[@izzywizzy2361]

@@HuwRichards Yes, much easier on the eyes, and the knees!

[@clairewoods6309]

Ha, suitable footwear! I usually wear slippers, and then barefoot after I water my feet, but most of my garden is paved, so I can.

[@DJEK44]

I'm thinking that wire worm infestations might occur more frequently with grassy areas close to the beds.

[@kathybecklinkathy1448]

I don’t use grass because we don’t get enough rain and need to irrigate and pay high water bills! I admit it looks nice and is soft on feet and knees.

[@pennypink3759]

Dandelions are full of vitamins , they are not a weed. I make dandelion ice tea , dandelion honey , dandelion vinegar. A very healthy plant.

[@timelapseadventure5253]

Interesting video, thanks for sharing. This is so nice We loved the video it was inspiring. We hope to have good quality videos like this one day. Keep it up!

[@jeanniemullinder9038]

can you recommend a decent strimmer ? I have to say first, I am retired and not the strongest so one like you are using would be unsuitable. I am tired of trying and wasting money on various strimmers, the most annoying thing being the cords keep breaking, it is difficult to replace and I have suffered facial injuries from flying pieces of cord ? any advice please ?

[@SmallGardenQuest]

Why I don't use grass paths in my garden | pros & cons Cons: It grows to much and additional work "strimming" it its additional work for me It attract slugs like a magnets and I don't have ducks to at them. And again picking them manually is additional work for me. After the rain it get all swampy mushy and slippery. My garden in an old swampy area. Weed-seeds are closer to my garden thus increasing the chance of landing in my raised beds increasing the work I need to do weeding them. Pros: There are no pros I have a grass patch to and from my garden I don't need it in my garden. Wood-chips are the best :)

[@redpsycho90]

Anyone had the thought about white clovers? It is a nitrifying plant but I am afraid it would become too strong and weedy?

[@car9140]

I have grass paths and some bare spots because I can’t afford anything else. Although it’s increasingly clover.

[@veganchiefwarrior6444]

im seeing if i can mulch out grass at the moment with leaf litter (chop n drop) but if it doesnt work ill just strim, compost doesnt make a good mulch, woodchips may not even, but layers of leaves should act like a weed mat (in my brain), the only reson i compost is because i need a pile to bury all the kitchen waste in otherwise ill atract too much wild life and they will destroy my garden

[@kennethcarter5720]

Hi Huw I have grass between the beds. I find that it grows up the inside of the raised beds and spreads through them. This is my third year and I was about to give up the idea of growing. Last year in desparation I put cardboard on top and put mushroom compost on top of that. This year it is looking more like vegetable beds and not weed beds. I was going to put down some gravel while the going looks good. But now watching your video not sure what I should do. Being new to growing, I am not sure why the grass is not taking over as it has done in the past. I would prefer to keep the grass but do you think it will invade again

[@HuwRichards]

How deep are your raised beds? The mulch is a good idea. I've never had the grass grow up inside the raised beds so this is new to me. Perhaps the grass was simply weed seeds?

[@kennethcarter5720]

Huw Richards - Grow Food Organically I have about 12” of soil now. Before we moved here it was rented. The place was overgrown. All the shrubs were like trees. I was thinking that because of the weed infestation it was not just coming up the sides but all the way through the bed. I am more deliberate with the strimming now. Following some of your advice, little and often

[@vickieowens8946]

Grass also helps you see snakes better in the summer better.

[@HuwRichards]

Fortunately this is something I do not need to be concerned about ;)

[@dustingilbert4728]

Hew, I have a random simple question...I have been watching your videos and you are often adding compost on top of your raised beds. Are you just adding it on top and not removing any? Don’t your raised beds over flow as your adding more compost each year? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but I am new to the gardening world.

[@dustingilbert4728]

Sorry...Huw I spelled your name wrong in the original post!

[@joannecarroll5504]

No questions are dumb, better to ask & learn, really dumb people wouldn't ask😄. The vegetables take nutrition from the soil, the sun takes moisture, the wind & rain remove topsoil & the earth settles a bit too. It all needs replenishing.

[@npknscrb]

The compost continues to break down, or rather get broken down by microbes and other organisms, and thus decreases in volume, while plants also remove nutrients as they grow. Adding compost on a regular basis, such as annually, replenishes both nutrients and volume of growing media in the bed. (There are other things it does but these are two of the main reasons for regular additions of compost and why the bed will not overflow.)

[@HuwRichards]

Hi Dustin, as the comments above has mentioned. Also, think of it as refueling a car, it goes into producing other things and gets used up so you will need to replensih it again.

[@dustingilbert4728]

Huw Richards - Grow Food Organically thank you! That makes sense. I’ve really enjoyed your KZbin channel and book!

[@nygardenguru]

One bad thing for me, with somewhat clay soil my grass paths get compacted like crazy

[@ludwigvonmiseswasright4380]

I live in the suburbs, whenever I see a tree trunk ground into a chipped pile, I leave a note on the door and ask if I can remove the pile for them. They've always said yes. Boom. 1/2 dirt, 1/2 chipped wood. Turns into a nice black soil in 2 years. Your clay soil doesn't have to stay clay.

[@nygardenguru]

True that but then you don’t really have grass anymore

[@danennis3078]

I learned a new word to use when I'm pretending to be from the UK. Strimming, right?

[@joannecarroll5504]

Jeez not another American who thinks it's clever to put on a bad accent that they think is called 'British'. You'd sound smarter if you just read books.

[@thomasclark5247]

@@joannecarroll5504 why so nasty?

[@dodopson3211]

@@joannecarroll5504 you know there are more countries than just the UK and US right? :D none-native english speakers can also pretend to be British. Do I sound smart yet? I totally read books.

[@tickledpink6684]

@@joannecarroll5504 My goodness, could you be more negative? What makes you think it has anything to do with sounding smart? Ever heard of humor?

[@tickledpink6684]

I caught that too. It has a nice ring to it, but I'm sticking with weed-eater or no one will know what I'm talking about. ;-)

[@exeterbeekeeper]

I am trying to avoid grass the wood chip is my choice by a country mile.

[@RocketPipeTV]

6:39 not if you cover it with cardboard First. That will kill the Gras and weed seeds won’t be able to germinate

[@sandypineda7207]

1st

[@joachimlunger520]

Who had already downvodet the video ? He couldnt have possibly have whatched the whole thing ...

[@HuwRichards]

KZbinrs always have trolls😉