Garden path

I put this under stone work, though I don't know if I will go with stone. Here's what I'm wanting to do... I'm thinking about a garden path in my large backyard, and I don't know what the most sustainable, and still relatively good looking, alternative is for material. I don't want to sit down and sketch the path and then say, "Okay, BOOM, that's where it's gonna go." I'm mostly mowing grass at this point, but as Permy stuff begins to happen, that will disappear, and the need for a 54 inch deck will evaporate. I'm thinking that the path should naturally meander between zones, to get where it is going in a lazy, roundabout way. Recommendations? Lessons learned? Caveats?

I think it depends on the space, but I really have fallen in love with just wood chipped paths.

Piling a thick layer enriches the soil underneath, suppresses weeds, costs little, and takes foot traffic well. It does have a tendency to spill outward if you don't have logs/timbers to create a physical barrier but people have been creative and successful. It is semi-permanent meaning that it will stay a path until you put some work into raking it away/reseeding but much less work than breaking concrete/raking rock.

I'll be curious to see what other people answer.

Similar to Timothy's answer, my wife has done something similar to a mulch path through our little garden but using tree bark instead. (I am of course the pack animal who happily collects the bark and dumps it in place. Windstorms and a large dying tree in our yard have been a great part of the team.) Granted, the path so far is only about six feet long, but think of it as a proof of concept.

I had an idea to do a path at our previous house using discarded broken up chunks of concrete from sidewalks/driveways people had removed and listed for free on Craigslist. My idea was to lay them out like flagstone. It never materialized, but custom sod removal to match the rough/uneven undersides of each chunk probably would have presented a prohibitive amount of work anyway. Possibly someone else could think up a way around that problem though!

Hi Jim, There is actually nothing wrong with grass as a long term solution - depending on the grass, your climate and the traffic the paths get of course! I believe that Martin Crawford set out with a grass field and left the grass in place where the paths are and mowing these once a month or so is one of the few maintenance jobs to do.
In my tree field (about 6 acres) I have done something similar. We set out trackways for vehicular access in a meandering pattern to suit the gradient and give access close to most areas and then let pedestrian paths develop on 'lines of desire' for ourselves (or on occasion, the dogs!). Mowing the paths gives grass or hay mulch which is handy to have, but a chore to do, although my husband appears to enjoy this exercise. I can't see us changing this there, as the vehicle access required is very seldom.
Around the house and garden, where the paths get more use by me, things are still in a state of flux. The driveway is graded (ie levelled) natural rock all the way down to bed rock! Here is a rock we call 'rotten rock' which is a volcanic rock that crushes very easily and gives a perfect roadway after being driven over and levelled once or twice. If unused they get a bit weedy, but I like the softened edge effect. The paths around the house itself were a mix of paving and concrete, although as we are preparing for a house extension, some of these have been removed and may not be reinstated in quite the same way. In my fruit garden and secret garden - more ornamental forms of forest garden close to the house - I have made bark and/or woodchip paths with a thick layer of newspaper underneath, which I have found pretty effective at preventing plants from coming up from underneath, although they can still grow on top to a certain extent. These just need topping up occasionally, and I never have enough material to do this with, but on the other hand the paths need no other maintenance - no cleaning or mowing, and are perfect for foot traffic.
I hope this helps.

Very much so, and thanks everyone so far for your answers...I'm thinking about going as non-invasive as possible to start. No crushed stone or crete or digging or anything. Wood chip or mulch will probably do. I can get it free from my city. They keep a huge pile going from blowdowns and yard waste and if you're a city resident, all you have to do is go and get it. I think that is going to be my solution.

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi Jim, There is actually nothing wrong with grass as a long term solution - depending on the grass, your climate and the traffic the paths get of course! I believe that Martin Crawford set out with a grass field and left the grass in place where the paths are and mowing these once a month or so is one of the few maintenance jobs to do.
In my tree field (about 6 acres) I have done something similar. We set out trackways for vehicular access in a meandering pattern to suit the gradient and give access close to most areas and then let pedestrian paths develop on 'lines of desire' for ourselves (or on occasion, the dogs!). Mowing the paths gives grass or hay mulch which is handy to have, but a chore to do, although my husband appears to enjoy this exercise. I can't see us changing this there, as the vehicle access required is very seldom.
Around the house and garden, where the paths get more use by me, things are still in a state of flux. The driveway is graded (ie levelled) natural rock all the way down to bed rock! Here is a rock we call 'rotten rock' which is a volcanic rock that crushes very easily and gives a perfect roadway after being driven over and levelled once or twice. If unused they get a bit weedy, but I like the softened edge effect. The paths around the house itself were a mix of paving and concrete, although as we are preparing for a house extension, some of these have been removed and may not be reinstated in quite the same way. In my fruit garden and secret garden - more ornamental forms of forest garden close to the house - I have made bark and/or woodchip paths with a thick layer of newspaper underneath, which I have found pretty effective at preventing plants from coming up from underneath, although they can still grow on top to a certain extent. These just need topping up occasionally, and I never have enough material to do this with, but on the other hand the paths need no other maintenance - no cleaning or mowing, and are perfect for foot traffic.
I hope this helps.

at some major universities, when they add a new classroom building, they don't put any paths or sidewalks around the building for a couple of years and just wait for the students to beat the paths in the dirt. Then, when they know where the students are going to walk, they add the sidewalks to keep mud out of the buildings.

I love to build woodland paths and I hack new paths in the undergrowth all the time, but I never improve the paths until I can see that I am actually using them on a regular basis. That just takes a while.

I'd heard about that type of path planning before, back when I was at Ball State in the mid to late 90's. Design thinking in action.

Thanks!  

Cade Johnson wrote:at some major universities, when they add a new classroom building, they don't put any paths or sidewalks around the building for a couple of years and just wait for the students to beat the paths in the dirt. Then, when they know where the students are going to walk, they add the sidewalks to keep mud out of the buildings.

I love to build woodland paths and I hack new paths in the undergrowth all the time, but I never improve the paths until I can see that I am actually using them on a regular basis. That just takes a while.

Jim Garlits wrote:I'd heard about that type of path planning before, back when I was at Ball State in the mid to late 90's. Design thinking in action.

Thanks!  

Cade Johnson wrote:at some major universities, when they add a new classroom building, they don't put any paths or sidewalks around the building for a couple of years and just wait for the students to beat the paths in the dirt. Then, when they know where the students are going to walk, they add the sidewalks to keep mud out of the buildings.

I love to build woodland paths and I hack new paths in the undergrowth all the time, but I never improve the paths until I can see that I am actually using them on a regular basis. That just takes a while.

I never heard of them doing this on purpose; rather, this meme...

...is sort of a cliche example in the User Experience field of the principle that it's better to learn how to design something from observing users rather than to impose a design based on what you (the designer) think is right. If universities are actually waiting to install paved paths based on observations of where students walk, that's interesting. And surprising.

Anyway, I like the mulch idea, especially since it's free! (Now I've gotta look into that too!) I do recommend lining the sides of the path with something, maybe even plantings.

[edit: changed the word "fact" to the word "principle", above, because that is more accurate.]

Jim Garlits wrote:I'd heard about that type of path planning before, back when I was at Ball State in the mid to late 90's. Design thinking in action.

I actually saw it in action at a new building my father worked in. There was a main sidewalk, but eventually, there was a sidewalk diagonally across a large grass area. It was a direct route from the bus stop to the front door!

I’ve been pretty happy with the path to my front door. I definitely wouldn’t do it for all my garden paths, but it does look nice and performs well. It’s easy to shovel, melts quickly in the winter. I seeded it with clover and creeping thyme. It’s nice barefoot.

I piled all my somewhat flatish rocks for a long time and then did this path.