{"id":13810,"date":"2025-03-21T02:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/?p=13810"},"modified":"2025-03-21T02:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:17:14","slug":"5-reasons-to-have-living-pathways-on-a-small-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovenfreshflowers.com\/5-reasons-to-have-living-pathways-on-a-small-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons to Have Living Pathways on a Small Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Living<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was recently asked to chat “on the record” about my use of living walkways at the farm<\/a> over on No-Till Growers podcast.  In preparation for that, I jotted down some notes on a discarded brown-paper bouquet sleeve while I ate my (always hurried) lunch and then realized this would make a good blog post.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we can really dive into five reasons to have living walkways on a small farm, we have to address the alternatives to living walkways. Other options for maintaining the walkways on a small farm are to cultivate aisles regularly, to mulch pathways heavily, or to lay down large swaths of plastic\/landscape fabric, all in the name of suppressing weeds and making life \u201ceasier\u201d on the farmer. But I\u2019d like to challenge those approaches and ask you to consider putting in living walkways at your small farm (or home garden).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Reasons to Have Living Walkways at Your Small Farm<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

1) Living Walkways on a Small Farm Feed the Soil<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the alternatives (listed above), having living walkways means there are living roots in the ground which ultimately feed your farm or garden\u2019s soil. Weeds pop up in walkways because Nature always (ALWAYS!!!) wants something growing on every centimetre of soil surface because ultimately the vast universe of life under the ground is highly dependent on the life above the soil.<\/a> Roots from plants, be it \u201cweeds\u201d or your desired vegetation, give off sugar exudates and sloth off \u201cskin\u201d that feed all the microorganisms in the soil. In exchange, those hardworking little soil guys mine minerals and draw up water for the plants. It\u2019s a beautiful barter system! Farmers who support this magnificent trade route going all the way from plant leaf tips down to fungi and vertebrates in the soil will see an increase in production and a healthier ecosystem at their farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above is in contrast to the other ways of managing walkways that leave barren strips of \u201cdesert\u201d between your planting beds, which makes it challenging for soil life to migrate and thrive. When you\u2019re microscopic in size, crossing two feet of the Sahara wouldn\u2019t be top on your list of things to do on the weekend, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Living<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2) Living Walkways on a Small Farm Reduce Runoff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picture a torrential summer rainstorm. Now picture your walkways between planting beds while those buckets of water fall down out of the sky. If you have landscape fabric down, those walkways become gutters gushing with rainwater hurrying off your field. Do you really want rainwater leaving your field? I sure don\u2019t! All that runoff also overburdens local waterways and may take too many nutrients with it, polluting the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have cultivated aisles instead, you\u2019ll likely loose a lot of soil with the runoff and your plants will get splashed with a lot of mud, making your job harder when it comes to processing for market. Also, the impact of all those rain drops will create even more compaction in your soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mulched aisles are pretty decent at mitigating some of the problems created by landscape fabric and cultivated aisles during heavy rain. But, the downside of mulch is that mulch itself can get washed away in a heavy downpour. D\u2019oh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living walkways create a naturally absorbent surface that\u2019s attached to the ground by the roots so it\u2019s not going to wash away. Those roots also hold all the soil in place during the downpour so you don\u2019t loose a single aggregate. And all that rich soil life I mentioned in Reason 1 is quick to soak up the rain water and provide an absorbent sponge that will slowly release water back to your crops\u2019 roots as they need it over the coming days. Team work makes the dream work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Living<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3) Living Walkways on a Small Farm Are Relatively Easy to Maintain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when I mention living walkways to other farmers, the major gripe I hear is about how hard it is to maintain them. Well, I\u2019m here to tell you that\u2019s a myth! I\u2019d much rather pull out my push mower once a week and spend about 30 minutes zipping up and down the walkways than I would spreading a lot of heavy mulch, scuffling with a hoe, or pulling weeds out of landscape fabric (when they ultimately show up in the heat of July, which they always do).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to maintaining living walkways on a small farm with relative ease is to be consistent with your mowing routine. We mow once a week, religiously, at my farm. We\u2019ve created aisles that are 21\u201d in width, which is the exact width of the push mower. We use a mulching push mower with an adjustable height deck and strong (for a push mower) engine. Sharpening the blades a few times a season really helps too. With this system, mowing the aisles is a breeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But word to the wise: NEVER SKIP A WEEK OF MOWING!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Living<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4) Living Walkways on a Small Farm Provide a Cooling Effect<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the world of small-scale flower farming, carpeting an entire field in landscape fabric somehow became a big trend. Perhaps this works well if your farm is in a cool temperate climate. But here in Hades-hot and rivaling-the-tropics-humid Philadelphia, all that black landscape fabric turns into a frying pan on a bright sunny day. Even cultivated or mulched walkways tend to create a heat sink, particularly if your soil is dark or you\u2019re using a dark compost for mulch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the green of the living walkways creates a cooling effect that brings down the overall temperature of your field by a few degrees. You\u2019ll appreciate that and your crops will appreciate it too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5) Living Walkways on a Small Farm Beautify the Farm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, this one is pretty straight forward but one that is very much worth mentioning. I\u2019ve tried other systems for walkways and none have made me feel quite so happy to be at my farm as living walkways have. It just feels natural, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Living<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So now that I\u2019ve hopefully gotten you thinking about creating living walkways on a small farm of your own, here are a few tips\/thoughts to help you along the (walk)way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 If you\u2019re starting from scratch with bare soil, sow clover seed to start. In my experience, the clover won\u2019t hold its own for very long, but it at least gets something growing on your soil surface to discourage any truly beastly weeds from showing up and hogging all the space. Eventually the \u201cnative\u201d grass just took over our walkways here and that\u2019s been great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 As I mentioned above, but I\u2019ll repeat: mow religiously once a week! Even when your walkways are just getting established and the vegetation is patchy, run that mower real quick and get in the habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Make your walkways the width of the mower you plan to use. For us, that means 21\u201d for the narrow walkways between our annual beds and 60\u201d for the wide grassy aisles in our woodies\/shrubs field. Make sure your mower(s) are a fairly standard size because eventually they\u2019ll wear out and you want to be able to easily get a new one that matches your walkways perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Use a MULCHING push mower for narrow walkways. Mulching mowers drop the clippings straight down on the ground rather than spitting it out the side and dirtying your crops. Mulching mowers are usually a little bit more expensive because they need a stronger motor but it\u2019s absolutely worth investing in one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Living<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Living walkways work in beautiful harmony with deep-mulch no-till planting beds<\/a>. We\u2019re able to run the mower right up to the edge of the bed without fear of catching landscape fabric in the blades. It\u2019s easy to pull creeping grasses off the deep-mulch no-till beds and lay them out in the walkway for the mower to zip over to quickly terminate them. When you have landscape fabric on beds and living walkways, the creeping grass (i.e., crabgrass) can get really ensnared in the fabric and even when you get it off the fabric, you can\u2019t run a mower along the edge because the fabric will catch. So, yep, big thumbs up for a deep-mulch no-till system in this regards (and many others)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, who\u2019s going to consider living walkways on their small farm after reading this? Hands in the air!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was recently asked to chat “on the record” about my use of living walkways at the farm over on No-Till Growers podcast.  In preparation for that, I jotted down some notes on a discarded brown-paper bouquet sleeve while I ate my (always hurried) lunch and then realized this would make a good blog post.   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