Planting Beds with Grassed Walkways



Photo 1



An unexpected benefit of having a grass walkway between planting beds is the direct addition of mulch and organic matter to the planting bed every time I mow. Looking at the bed on the left in photo 1 you can see that the discharged grass is scattered evenly across the width of the bed. The beds on the right have not yet had any clippings added this mowing. It may not seem like a lot of material being added at each mowing but it is a substantial amount over the course of an entire growing season.

While the beds were originally pure bluegrass you can see that time and lack of chemical control has allowed dandelions and many other weeds to flourish. Although I don't like blowing all those weed seeds into the beds I do like having a multitude of plant species being chopped up and each adding  their own particular nutrient makeup to the mix. I don't believe a single species would be as balanced a diet as is a mix. If I were to start from bare ground making new beds I might be inclined to seed in some legumes but would be wary of the invasiveness of anything added to the mix.

These beds were made in an area previously seeded to bluegrass and used as a soccer training area. The beds are 4' wide by 140' long with a 2' grass strip (every 4th bed is followed by a 6' grass strip for easy machine access) between beds. The width of the beds was determined by 2 factors. The first was a desire to be able to comfortably work the beds from the sides without having to step in the bed itself. The second determining factor (and probably most important) was the 4' width of my tiller.


Photo 2



The grass strips provide a firm, dry area that allows me to work the beds without muddy feet or compacting the soil in the growing area even during a rain. At 4' across, I can easily plant, thin, weed, and harvest the entire bed comfortably from one side or the other.

The walkways at 2' are a comfortable width for working while standing or kneeling. As photo 2 illustrates however, it takes two passes with my push mower to completely mow a strip. This is twice the time and twice the gas. For a one-man operation such as mine the time factor is huge. In fact, when adding additional beds I will make the grass strips the width of my rider. While that will triple the area in grass it will save me a bundle of time each time I mow. In my case space is not the limiting factor, time is.

At approximately 600 square feet per bed these beds will pack in a lot of produce in a year. I plant successive plantings of the same crop in a bed and rotate the crops to the next bed the following year. My rotation takes into account plant families and the degree of soil nutrient depletion or addition. I also include cover crops and green manures as a regular piece of the rotation. At 600 square feet, this size would also work nicely for intensive planting style of community gardens.