With my mother paying we a visit I thought I’d better get the garden looking nice, and if the garden paths look nice the rest of the garden tends to look nice too. So I made it a high priority to pay the rather neglected garden path some attention. In truth I had decided to do something about the path before my mums announced visit, because I was getting tired of scraping mud off my boots, something that I though a path was meant to prevent. Her visit did however provide me with extra motivation and a fixed date to work towards.
After 2 years the sawdust mulch covering the path had finally broken down and needing replacement. It probably was six months overdue, but still 1.5 years I feels is quite a good stint, and allot longer than I thought it would last if you consider how fine it is. Over that time it required very minimal weeding and provided a lovely clean and soft path to kneel on when working in the garden.
Previously I sourced the sawdust in bulk from a wholesaler, and an embarrassing and funny story goes with it. This time I wanted a quick and easy source that didn't require me to hire a trailer or a place to dump it. So this time I sourced it just down the road at the fodder store in convenient compressed blocks. The sawdust itself was allot more expensive - $25 per block and I used 3, compared to $30 for the lot. But when you take into count the trailer hire and the petrol at around $50 it was in fact a pinch cheaper.
I did try and find a free source. Our community has a man shed - a place for man who enjoy tinkering in a shed but don’t have one of their own, maybe due to a need to downsize. I contacted them thinking they would surely produce a large quantity of sawdust and probably would appreciate someone taking it away. And I was right. However they don’t separate the raw wood from the MDF, and as MDF is toxic I didn't want it in my garden.
So once again the garden is looking beautiful, my boots and knees are cleaner, and my mother was suitably impressed. Allround sawdust has turned out to be a great garden path material.
Gee, your garden is looking great Jason, especially for the middle of winter! We use pebbles in our path, which looks nice and wears well, but it IS hard on the knees when we're weeding! (Luckily we don't do it much :))
ReplyDeleteThanks Celia, I believe you have raised beds as well so I would imagine getting on your knees is not required to plant out or harvest. In my garden sitting or kneeling is done often, and the soft sawdust makes it a pleasure to do so.
DeleteI have path envy! I used to have nice neat paths but after all of the rain we had 2 years ago the weeds took over and I gave up. Now I just sheet mulch with cardboard boxes and coexist with the weeds around the edges. How is the fox situation?
ReplyDeleteThe sawdust seems to do a good job at keeping the weeds to a minimum and doesn't take too long to keep in check. I think if I had a large path area I would be learning to live with weeds. I like you idea of using cardboard - quick and simple.
DeleteSince putting the skirt around the dome we have not lost a chicken yet. Touch wood.