Beds or paths

I've been having a nosey through some of the garden/allotment images and wondered when you were planning your spaces what was the driving factor when determining your size of beds. There's a huge mix, some with smaller beds and some with massive beds, some raised some just edged, some more free-flowing. 

I remember when I had my allotment, my paths were quite narrow only about 500mm wide, too narrow for a wheelbarrow for example. I had 12 beds, in the cross of St George, with a couple of extra vertical dissections on all 4 white corner squares, the red cross was paths. My beds were long about 14 metres in length and about 1.5 metres wide too wide to reach the centre when casting seeds, for example, so I had to trample the beds, and too long when I needed to fetch water. My plot was bordered by raised planters in an L section which were 500mm high, I did this to minimise weeding the path edges, but it also only gave me three access points as one end of the cross was against a fence. It was like being trapped in a maze!!.

I think I was influenced by my father a bit too much to be honest when I was setting it up as he thought raised beds were a bad idea he preferred open ground to turn over but, as I was set on beds as I wanted to break it down into manageable sections that I could recover bit by bit, he did, however, influence them being very long.

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 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 

Where I am at the moment the garden was already laid out by the owners. 6 x 24ft vertical bed of various widths with various path widths. Some the wheelbarrow fit, some don’t. 1 x 20ft horizontal bed slap bang in the middle of the garden with the most ridiculous wide path. 3 passes with a 19” cut mower ! And the other side of this bed was all soft fruit and the far end was a pointless little glass house, 1 standard greenhouse pain of glass high. ( that I got bored of crawling into to reach anything or weed ).

Since I’ve been here one polytunnel has gone up over the 1st vertical bed. The little glasshouse has gone and been replaced by a second small 10 x 10ft polytunnel. Most of the fruit has been removed and 3 more raised beds have been put in. Some other fruit has been moved to make space for my 3rd polytunnel.
I still have the ridiculously wide path. It’s not quite wide enough to fit another bed in.

Now the planing of the new veggie garden from scratch is a brain melter !!! The only thing I’m 100% sure of is there will be no grass paths! And it’ll have it’s own water supply not take water from the house.
Other ideas kicking round are : Think I’m going with shorter beds and narrow enough to reach the middle.
Thinking I want all the tunnels directly behind each other (obviously facing north to south) so from (hopefully ) the front it’ll just look like 1 tunnel. From the side it’ll look massive! The rest of it is a blur. That changes almost daily.

When planning my paths I had one main aim - to avoid walking into a tree! I also like to be able to come back on a different path to the one I used to go down - preferably a choice of paths at every junction.

However, I have been reducing the number of beds this year by removing the paths between them - making each bed larger. They're "edged" with tree branches that are easy to move and reposition as the fancy takes me.

Its not an allotment plot though and I probably couldn't get away with my garden style in a public place!!

Paul would have a fit! Not a straight line in sight, but beautiful nonetheless I expect.

I hate straight lines!! Nature doesn't garden in rows and she's been doing it that way since time began. Who am I to argue with her?

I am a regimented gardener...straight edges and neat rows. I have paths for a number of reasons, ifyou have edged beds you create paths, formal or otherwise. In my opinion thereis nothing worse than trying to garden with six inches of mud on your boots. Paths give me unfettered access and allows that sense of dig a bed and move on.

I do use straight lines on the allotment, but no raised beds, and one bed runs the whole length of the plot - 60ft. Then the tunnel runs along that, and a bed towards the front of the plot for the rest of it. The paths are in an odd H shape and are very wide, but it allows lots of space for wheelbarrows etc. I tend to throw all the weeds on to the path, so they provide a mulch. That suppresses weeds.

At home I have one huge growing area which is essentially a raised bed, and two pallet collars along the other side of the path, and again in the greenhouse. That's the best setup I've ever had at home

6 x 24ft vertical beds SC, are you really tall, or are you currently in a block of flats?

Are we confident that it is actually Mother Nature then V, not Father Nature? Do we think if it was Father Nature, it might be more predictable.

Where did I put my tin hat....

I am doing a 360 degree about  turn and airing on the side of randomness similar to veggie.

I inherited beds on my plot which were wooden sided and not very well sited. The sides are starting to rot now so will soon be pulled out and the beds amalgamated into the randomness of it all. Think of it as traditional gardening, but random.