boarding beds

[diggernotdreamer]

I have used both boarded and non boarded beds. I prefer to use boards as it does keep the soil in place. The boards I use are gravel boards (used for fencing) 6″ x 1″ and they usually come in about 10 foot plus lengths. They are treated, these days you are not allowed to use any arsenic and that has been the case for a few years now, you can always check with your wood merchant what they use,but it should be Tanalith E, which is based on copper. I hate grass paths, time spent mowing and edging up is a bit of my life gone I can never get back,if you don’t keep on top of it and the grass grows into your bed, slugs will use that to travel on, so I use landscape fabric on the paths, which if you put underneath the edges of the wood stop a lot of weeds growing up, I put good quality woodchips on my paths which last a good few years and then of course they are useful mulch when they break down. On my allotment I used thick cardboard for the paths and covered with straw which was cheap and available and again once broken down, is great mulch and of course in wet weather, you can still access your plot from your unmuddy paths. My observations over 20 years of gardening on beds is that yes, if you have paths covered and wooden planks you can make hidey holes for slugs – but also this is ideal habitat for rove beetles as well, If I ever pull up the path material and look underneath, there is a wealth of rove beetles running for cover, also if I am not mowing and weeding paths, I have a bit more time to spend hand picking off caterpillars and slug hunting.