I am making 5 paths and borders. Here are my choices:

Weed block and river pebbles

or

Weed block and bark

or

Bark on dirt paths

I am making the out side of the garden and under the fence river pebbles to keep the rabbits from digging. So was thinking about extending the river pebbles throughout the garden for paths.

Let me know which one is best.

Thanks

How big are the pebbles? Sounds dangerous when wet, as in turned ankles. I use straw or free tree trimmers chips

I'm slowly making my paths from 16" exposed aggregate "pebble top" concrete pavers over weed block fabric, and then I am sort of "grouting" between the pavers with 3/4" gravel/pebbles. It gives the look of river pebbles but it's more stable under foot.

Up here lots of people use pebbles of different kinds.

I don't find them ankle twisting at all.

BUT, those darn things migrate everywhere! So try your best to corral them. Little ones will stick in the treads in your shoes and get tracked into the house (to destroy your floors), and if they are too big then they are harder to walk on (but they also migrate into non-pebble areas less).

I would think bark would be safer from a 'traveling' standpoint, in that it would be less likely to damage interior floors, and would decompose in the lawn, less likely to destroy a lawnmower, etc. But it might be muddier wet and maybe slippery footing.

I just use dirt paths, covered in weeds.

I've had trouble with pebbles migrating, too, and up here in the rocky mountains, the last thing I need is more rocks in the vegetable garden. Bark would migrate as well, so I avoid that, too.

I leave the dirt bare around my beds. It doesn't retain water on the surface inspite of the fact that it's pretty compacted, but we don't have heavy clay soils up here. There are always a few cosmos growing in the paths, some of last year's carrots that popped up again, whatever.

What I have done in my fruit beds and my perennial beds is place flat-sided stones or flag stone pieces in various places, so I can step on the stones to plant and weed, without compacting the soil.

quote:

Originally posted by oh2fly:
How big are the pebbles? Sounds dangerous when wet, as in turned ankles. I use straw or free tree trimmers chips

About quarter to half dollar size. Something like this stuff.

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg-Worbarrow/3WB-pebbles-middle.jpg

You may be right with slipping. I'll have to test it. I wonder if pea size is better?

http://www.turkelcorp.com/files/Pea_Gravel.JPG

I like wood chips myself for the main "avenues" through the garden. This makes it easy to wheel loads of mulch and compost, even in the rainy weather.

For the narrower paths between the beds where most of the work gets done, I like to keep it bare, sandy soil. (I like to work barefoot in the garden.)

Wayne