The SFG Journey - Mulched pathways and cinder block/brick SFG beds

I decided to  cover my SFG pathways with mulch. I noticed almost no grass growth in my flower beds around the house, so I'm extended it around the SFG beds. I placed a layer of cardboard from walmart ( night run about 1:30-2:30 AM) because they're free and easy excess. I haven't finish because I didn't have enough mulch and cardboard. My bermuda grass is very tough, aggressive and invasive. so is the nut grass. it will punch thru weed cloth if it can be exposed to full sun. they came up in my beds after traveling 13 inches to get to the top. Amazing! 

I had punch holes in the weed cloth later when I was doing the worm experiment to give them a escape route if the soil became to hot. which it did. I removed the all grasses and roots  from the beds.  I use round up for the grass, then cover it with the cardboard after the so call kill zone was in effect. These grasses are very tough. I wasn't worry about the plants in the beds since the roots go 6-7 inches deep, max at 10" with swiss chard. also I remove the grasses from the bed. Did I want to use round up? Nope, but I have had many years battling them with vinegar and so on.Ineffective.
anyway, here's the pathways being developed. we'll see how it goes this year.

That looks fantastic, has. You sure put a lot of work into it. What is that that you are using for mulch?

My SFG is surrounded by grass with pine needles always falling all over it. So I just mow and weed wack. It hasn't grown up through the beds... yet.

CC

Good for you, Has55!  Have been thinking about mulching in the open areas in my garden so I don't have to mow & wack. 

Thanks for the motivation!

Very nice, Has

Beautiful work.  I love to look of wood chip mulch too.  It looks so finished.

You've burned a calorie or two on that project 

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:Beautiful work.  I love to look of wood chip mulch too.  It looks so finished.

You've burned a calorie or two on that project 

calories burnt-laying cardboard. laying the mulch-hired help. this is not my favorite work like it used to be when I was in my 20's - to 55. I said they're a easier way. thus was born hired help. My children had left me alone several years ago and the muscle went with them too.

It looks great. I hope that the grass has a good mind to not grow there anymore after all the work you did.

Has, what hard work you did!  That looks great.  I'm impressed by the amount of cardboard you were able to acquire.  

For me, sections I want to overwinter are naturally covered by the enormous amount of pine straw from our trees.

mschaef wrote:It looks great. I hope that the grass has a good mind to not grow there anymore after all the work you did.

Thank you. that's makes two of us. it been doing great in the flower and herbal beds. that why I escalated it to this level.

Windmere wrote:Has, what hard work you did!  That looks great.  I'm impressed by the amount of cardboard you were able to acquire.  

For me, sections I want to overwinter are naturally covered by the enormous amount of pine straw from our trees.

Windmere, I noticed almost nothing grows where there is pine needles. Is there something in the pine that causing this reaction?

Thank walmart for the cardboard. It wouldn't have happen without them.

has55 wrote:

Windmere wrote:Has, what hard work you did!  That looks great.  I'm impressed by the amount of cardboard you were able to acquire.  

For me, sections I want to overwinter are naturally covered by the enormous amount of pine straw from our trees.

Windmere, I noticed almost nothing grows where there is pine needles. Is there something in the pine that causing this reaction?

Thank walmart for the cardboard. It wouldn't have happen without them.

If the layer is thin enough, plants are able to peek through very well.  This has been my experience.  As you say though, a thick layer of pine straw is not conducive to plant growth in my yard. 

Also, some layers around my house have been untouched for about a decade.  The result is pretty nice underneath layer of soil combined with GA red clay.  If I supplement this with 5 combo compost, the result is a very fertile area.  I am in the process of doing this in select areas around our house.  I cannot afford to also add the peat moss and the vermiculite for all areas, but the SFG principle of 5 combo compost does work well for me.

update: I loved the mulched for my walking path, It has relieve so much unseen anxiety from preventing grass (nut grass and bermuda) from getting in my beds despite weed cloth. Nut grass is so challenging to keep out. Basically, the mulched pathway extended the SFG idea of o-almost no weeding idea to the garden area around the beds. It also allows me to put items on the top of the ground mulch like EMT, PVC, blocks, hoops, etc.. that I needed for a project, without the fear of grass growing thru or around the item causing me to move it to another place or store it  and remove it each time I had to use the item, because i would need to cut the grass in that area.

Does anyone have Pictures of mulched pathway around SFG beds? any type is ok.
Here's my mulched pathway.

That is one BEAUTIFUL garden!  Nicely done 

Gorgeous!  Nice work.

I appreciate the work you are doing has55. It looks lovely.

I have put a layer on the sloping bank that leads to my garden from the driveway and it is so much easier walking up and down  a layer of wood chips than the slippery grass that has been there since I moved in. 

I have bags of mulch left over this year after covering my existing BTE garden so I am going to cover certain areas of lawn (grass) that are awkward to mow.  My aim to to have a nice patch of grass that I can mow in straight lines without having to twist the mower to get at those pesky areas and that take so much time  to mow and then edge.

It will take time, but for once I have spare wood chips to further advance the ease of looking after my garden.  I am also going to sieve some the wood chips first so that the finer stuff can level the ups and downs in the remaining lawn so that my hand mower will take less energy pushing it.  Also to lesson the risk of spraining an ankle when my foot goes into a dip that I am not expecting.

Laid newspaper and wetted thoroughly then dumped mini pine bark nuggets on top.  Stays fairly nice.  Still have to pull a few weeds from seeds blowing in.  Occasionally a torrential rain will move the nuggets around.  I just kick them back into place.

Wood chips have redefined the definition of "weeding".  See a weed, pull it.  Before, it meant hours on the knees.

Add: I can walk around the beds after a rain!

Love it.  The cinder blocks with caps makes it attractive.  I assume the first photo is from the public view.

Excellent, that is spectacularly done with the cement bricks. I usually don't care for the look of cement bricks, but that is VERY organized and wonderfully done.
Rock

sanderson wrote:Wood chips have redefined the definition of "weeding".  See a weed, pull it.  Before, it meant hours on the knees.

Add:  I can walk around the beds after a rain!

I added wood chips to my paths this year and I know exactly what you mean about now being able to walk around the beds after a rain! After I wore the grass out in the centers of the aisles, mine tended to be messy even without rain due to the amount of clay in the dirt. It took a lot of waiting/watching online for free woodchips to appear, and then 5 trips in the station wagon with two rope-handled buckets, 2 shovels, and a brigade of ten plastic 5-gallon buckets. I keep telling my husband (who was kind of grumpy that we were shoveling woodchips two evenings in a row, long past when we should have been eating dinner) how grateful I am not to have to take my boots off at the door every time to grab something from inside.

Thank you everyone. I appreciate the positive comments about the cinder blocks/bricks/cement bricks. 
I searched twice to see if anyone had pictures of a mulched pathway thread. Somehow my brain didn't get it when I posted in the "Pictures of mulched pathway around SFG beds", because I see now several pictures of mulched pathway and would loved to see more. 
I guess this post should be " Pictures of cinder blocks/bricks/cement bricks SFG beds" , but I don't know how to rename it. Administrator can you help? Would love to see pictures of cinder block beds too. I hope I haven't started a thread on that topic. It's get embarrassing sometime. Oh well, I'm with family.

yolos, great pic. Does anyone else have pictures? The benefits expressed by Sanderson, Yolos, Kelajan and BeetlesPerSqF ( great name!) is so true.

Has, I merged your new topic with this older Journey topic you started in Jan 2015. Brainchasm in Las Vegas has cinder block beds and gravel. I love seeing photos of protected walkways and beds, they look so tidy.

sanderson wrote:Has,  I merged your new topic with this older Journey topic you started in Jan 2015.  Brainchasm in Las Vegas has cinder block beds and gravel.  I love seeing photos of protected walkways and beds, they look so tidy.

Thank you.