Alottment beds - paths

[Noosner]

Congrats on your new plot!

I use lots of different things for paths on my lottie. The main path is a grass ring (I don't have a conventional layout) and it is quite well behaved with regular mowing, although there is some couch grass in there, which I have to keep an eye on as it likes to build its empire in all directions.

In other places, I use weed suppressing fabric covered in gravel or bark chippings/wood shavings (you can often get these free - I got a gargantuan bag of wood shavings from a local carpenter - just ring them, they will probably be grateful to you for taking it off their hands). Also I throw all my fruit bush prunings on top.

Then I have planks and bits of wood laid like gangways or stepping stones across my bigger beds (they do get slippy, alldigging, but I don't walk on them often so it isn't an issue) and also have put down some old roof tiles to make paths across other beds.

I really like all the contrasts of texture, colour, etc, and it all seems to work fine. So my advice is to try some different materials and see what you like best.

Oh, and a friend of mine has brick paths that she made from some salvaged bricks. They look really lovely.

[Peony]

This is a really helpful thread as I'm trying to make paths this year. I'm trying to go cheap and cheerful so either free paving slabs if I can get them or grass. My only concern with the latter is the need for a non-electric lawnmower and storing it as we are not allowed to store expensive tools on the site. I presume that grass can also become slippy when wet. I do have some pallets so breaking them up to use for the smaller paths was another thought.