As I've been experimenting on Willow Acre, David the Good sent me down a path. Oh wait, that was funny. And I think he was channeling Sepp Holzer or maybe Joan Nassauer. I wanted paths in the backyard. It is a big back yard with lots of zones, and I was thinking of putting in wood chip paths around zone edges. And then really good permaculture advice came to me. Why waste all that energy and all those wood chips and then be hamstrung if you don't like them where you put them? Electric lawn mower to the rescue.
Lowest setting. Sketch your plans out in your head. Where should the path go? Mow it low! Mow in all the paths in your head. Then admire your handiwork or your disaster. Either way, it'll grow back and you will have lots of opportunities to correct mistakes and relocate paths to better areas. Maybe create even more zones between the paths.
The rest of the yard I mowed at the highest setting, around 4 inches. Nice and lush. Weed suppressing. Except for that big area in the center that I'm going to let return to meadow and see what happens.
I've made a couple of adjustments. I've trodden some of the paths, which are just wide enough for me to run the wheelbarrow down, so often that the grass in places is pretty well trampled down. But it is turning out beautifully. I have a path all the way around the perimeter of the yard. I have one down the middle that splits and goes to the herb spiral on one side, and between the row gardens and the willow circle on the other. I have an oval around my orchard. It looks intentional. It is its own brand of "wild nice." And I didn't have to move a single stone or toss a single shovel of wood chips to build them.
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