Magali Ryan said: We have a lovely > community garden on East
> 6th Street in the East Village in NYC with a gravel path
> and some of the > gardeners would like to see it replaced with mulch (wood
> chips).
Megali,
Interesting turn of phrase. If the people who would "like to see it replaced"
will actually do the removal and are psyched for its maintenance, too, that
would help.
What is the source of the objection? If people find it uncomfortable to kneel
on it to work in a raised bed, it would be possible to make kneeling boards or
newspaper available.
In terms of cost, everything has its price. Unless the city provided the
gravel free, somebody paid for it. The payment for gravel is cash but little
labor to spread it; the payment for "free" mulch often is the labor needed to
make it usable. Every garden has more of one than the other.
Thew wood chipse received for a school garden in Stamford, CT were
rough-chipped trees from tree takedowns or fallen branch cleanups, and
contained numerous unsightly branch fragments of a foot or more in length and
green whippy branches that didn't chip, plus bunches of leaves on twigs. All
this had to be pulled out of the free mulch and disposed of. Every time one
renews the mulch, same process must be repeated if the source is not
fine-chipping for you (I have yet to find anyone who is). If you have the
labor and enthusiasm for spending time on dealing with this, then great. It's
not going to be tiny, neat little chunks of evenly colored bark unless you buy
it. As long as people understand what they are going to get.
If gravel must be renewed, the spreading will be much quicker and easier, but a
delivery of stone which may not be locally sourced and will require cash
expenditure likely is required.
If the gravel needs light weeding, I find a stirrup hoe dragged down into the
gravel quickly keeps them under control. (However, if there is severe weed
pressure, often the gravel is not thick enough or a good deal of dirt is mixed
into the gravel, sometimes via washouts or erosion.)
Wood mulch cannot be stirrup hoed.
If you can identify other NYC gardens using mulch paths, comparing notes with
them about their weed pressure and what they do about it (some good suggestions
in here) as well as any considerations as to how it behaved in the nearly
constant rain would be useful for comparison. Do you have a bulletin board or
email network set up to make comparing notes easier among NYC gardens?
I hate kneeling on the angular gravel paths I work near; rounded pebbles are
far easier to take. However, I, too, love the aesthetic of gravel. I'll
take gravel plus kneeling pads any day.
Good luck in your deliberations!
Chris Reid
Stamford, CT
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