[Community_garden] path construction

[Vinnie Bevivino]

We're redoing our paths at the Master Peace Community Garden, and I  
wanted to ask what people have had success with.

Last year, our first year, we made woodchip paths, both wide "main"  
paths for wheelbarrows, and woodchip "secondary" paths to divide the  
plots.  We had a hard time fighting bermuda grass, and the problem is  
that it just grows through the woodchips and when you weed them half  
of the woodchips ends up underground.  We wasted a lot of expensive  
woodchips this way last year.  We have rebuilt out "main" paths using  
landscaping fabric with woodchips on them, and then lined with brick.   
But we're scratching our heads about the "secondary" paths that serve  
as borders between the paths.

Our best idea is to use 10x2 lumber, laid right on the ground.  We  
have a local store that sells reclaimed wood from deconstructed  
buildings, and its great hard wood, not treated.  It would presumably  
last for a long time (5 years?).  It gives us the weed protection, and  
the semi-permanence (we can move it around if we want, but it isn't  
going anywhere).  Its also fairly cheap.

Does anyone else have any better ideas?  Has anything worked, or not  
worked, in hotter areas that have horrible weed problems?

Thanks a lot,

Vinnie Bevivino
Community Garden Educator
The Engaged University
Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program
University of Maryland

The Center for Educational Partnership
6200 Sheridan Street
Riverdale, MD 20737
301-405-0656
engagedu.umd.edu