[lizw]

I have just recently acquired an overgrown allotment without a central pathway. can anyone recommend what the best type of materials to use to make the path, bearing in mind costs and effort. thanks  

[muntjac]

mud .if you cannot get hold of road scrapings with a wooden edge .woodchip rubbish with a wooden edging is a nice one ( have that in my garden) dont go buying chip from the shop fone the council and get a couple tractor loads of mulch ,.i get it free but pay for delivery ,,then you go into the paying for it stuff .hope that helps regs karl

[Heather_S]

We have grass paths but you have to be willing to have them wide enough for the mower to go down them or else you'll be strimming for ages. I prefer the look of grass paths over the mulch paths.

edited to add that the froggies seem to like hopping around in our long grass.

[muntjac]

wasnt me i was here

[noshed]

I got fed up weeding my paths and I've bought some black mulch stuff from allplas and it's great. I bought wire staples from homebase but you could make some from wire. I bought 1m wide stuff and just folded it to make it narrower because I didn't want it to fray but I suppose you could cut it in half - apparently people iron it to seal the edge but this was a bridge too far for my allotment.
Incidentally my mattock was a boon for levelling the paths.

[Heather_S]

I got fed up weeding my paths

You weeded your paths?  :shock:

oh i thought if you had grass-type path    I don't bother weeding the grass paths. Most weeds are kept in check by the mowing and a little biodiversity never hurt anyone.

[GrannieAnnie]

I'm very lucky, I got paving slabs paths for nothing and OH cemented them in for me (very posh eh? lol)

[ytyynycefn]

I've got carpeted paths  

[Annie]

We have some brick paths but these are v.costly if you have to buy the bricke,the rest  we have dug out any decent top soil onto the beds and put shreddings down,This costs nothing and is an incentive to prune things.We had mud on its own for a while but it becomes quit trecerous when wet.

[muntjac]

trust the welsh to show the english how to do it boyo  

[ytyynycefn]

trust the welsh to show the english how to do it boyo  

If you mean me, I'm English!  All the Welsh old boyos here think I'm potty  

[muntjac]

now come on who else would have a mishapen onion fer a national veggy and wear green wellies hahahha, your bringing  english know how to the valleys  

[lizw]

Thanks for all your replies i'll take them all into consideration and will let you all know what i go for!  

[ytyynycefn]

your bringing  english know how to the valleys  

I do get the p*ss ripped out of me something rotten for my carpets, but they're comfy to walk/kneel on, stay relatively clean (probably cleaner than the ones in my hovel!), keep the weeds down, and best of all cost me nothing as I bin-dived them all out of skips - and they didn't end up in landfill!  All my brick edging came either out of the ground when I first dug it over, or again out of skips.  I'm trying very hard not to spend any actual money on my plot!

I'm not too worried about chemicals leaching into the soil, as they are only on the pathways, which I'm not planning on moving.  There is a strip along the fence which is allowed to grow wild as a habitat for the beasties.

[Jeanieblue]

Oooh, what a posh allotment. I just love all that carpet. And no need to hoover either.