Paths

So I have fully bought into the idea of multiple rows side by side and wide defined paths throughout the garden.  As with the asparagus bed I mentioned above, I am going to put defined paths in the bottom bed and edge them with poplar trees.  Poplar grows fairly straight and doesn’t burn well, so I'm free to get whatever I need from my uncles bush.  While it might not look the best, I'm not sure how long this lower garden will be there and the wood is free.  I spent part of yesterday cutting down 7 x15’ trees with a diameter of about 3-5 inches.  The plan is to put it on the outside of the raspberries and along all of the paths.  It’s not going to go on the outside of the garlic, just because it won’t look that great and I might either shrink it or expand it next year; so no point putting something there that I will just have to move. I managed to get a couple trunks in place and hope to get the rest of them in place Wednesday and Thursday night when the weather is better.

The paths are going to be covered in leaves with some cattails on top to keep the leaves from blowing away.  I found that last year the leaves did a good job retaining moisture and decompose pretty quickly adding more organic matter to the soil.  It is also something that needs to be cleaned up anyways, so if I'm going to go to the trouble of raking it I'm going to use it.