A firm hand

Last year I experimented with a new bedding layout, having just two long beds extending across my long allotment with a path between them. I had previously a series of narrow beds facing south. They were easy to manage, but it was impossible keeping the weeds down on the numerous paths separating them.

I wanted a flowing organic feel in the allotment with everything growing freely in an unstructured manner. The two long beds certainly gave me that, but they had their own problems. The first was the constantly varying width, so at times there was just one path dividing them, and at other times there were two, and even then some of the beds were too wide to be managed easily.

I ended up totally giving up on weed management, so much so that on Google Earth it looks like half of the plot has been given over entirely to grass. Rather embarrassing.

So I've learnt the hard way that vegetables need structure, rather like small children.  This year I'm going to be slightly more firm.  I'm going to divide the very wide far side of the growing area into four with a path in the form of a cross.  I think I may recreate the narrow south facing beds in the centre of the plot, but I don't really want to lose the flowing feeling of just the two beds.  I can't really afford bark for the many paths I will create, and there's no way I'm going to turn them into grass.  I'm sure the answer will gradually unfold, as that is the way of my allotments.