[snow white]

I have a brand new allotment plot. 250sq metres of wet soil at the moment.  I want to make some membrane and woodchip paths.  Do I need to dig some of the soil away first or can I just tread the soil firm then lay the membrane?  Does it work better if I can line the sides with old pallet wood? (This would take ages and would be an ongoing project).  Intend to make some areas slabbed or bricked as well depending on what cheap/free material is available.  The same questions apply to these as well.

Any pictures would help greatly.

Thank you for your input.

[sunshineband]

Just tread the soil down hard and reasonably level, put down the membrane - use decent stuff or weeds force their way through - plus about four inches of woodchip. It would be just fine

You do need to make some sort of edge though to contain the woodchip or you will be constantly trying to stop it wandering into your growing area.

It doesn't take too long to peg in pallet wood, and if you look around you can get this about 1.5m long, which speeds it up a bit more.

[snowdrops]

Be careful when laying the membrane,dig a trench at the sides & make sure the membrane lays flat down the side of the trench & then backfill with soil. I made the mistake of letting it just curl up onto the growing area & then I couldn't weed & so the weeds grew through the membrane & caused a problem.Si I redid it all when the beds were clear.

[Kleftiwallah]

Builder's bags (no deposit) may make a suitable material for the substrate.

Cheers,   Tony.