Beds or paths

I always thought I didn't have enough pathways but, over the 300sqm plot I had 25.8% given up to paths, which really shocked me when I just worked it out, 1/4 of my growing space grew nothing but weeds. No wonder I seemed to spend some much time trying to tend the edges.

So what were your planning thoughts, and if you worked it out how much of your space is actually growing area? Do your best not to guess try and work it out, it's honestly really quite scary.

I know it sounds bad to have 25% paths, but I think it's pretty much unavoidable if you're going to have enough room to move about your plot. OTOH if your paths are growing lots of weeds and taking up your time, that's not helpful either! On our allotment years ago, we used to get deliveries of free wood chips from local tree surgeons, which you could use to cover paths and suppress weeds. I'm planning on doing something similar at home when I replace my raised beds, as I'm currently using loose paving stones which are not great for maintenance, as weeds get established in the cracks and are hard to remove.

I'm also planning on making the paths wider - at the moment they're only about 30cm wide so I keep bumping into my outdoor tomato plant when crouching down to work on the neighbouring bed. In the new layout the total space is 12 sq m, of which 8.64 sq m is covered in raised beds (1.2 x 1.8m each), so I make that 28% paths! That's OK, though, because it will force me to be more efficient with my growing space