Paths

A path is a made route for people on foot and for a wheelbarrow, surfaced and graded so that traffic keeps to one line. The reason to build one rather than let a track form is what walking does to soil. Weight on the ground squeezes the grains together and closes the large spaces between them, and those spaces are what roots push into and what rain soaks through. Roots then grow short and thick, and water sits on the surface. A fixed path gathers all of that damage onto ground nobody is trying to grow in and keeps it out of the beds on either side.

The line is held at a grade of 10 percent or less, and the tread is tilted no more than 5 percent across its width so that water crosses it rather than running along it. Where a steeper pitch cannot be avoided, a waterbar turns water off: a log or rock laid across the line of flow and buried about two thirds of its depth. Width follows use, at 0.6 to 1.2 m (2 to 4 ft) for a general route and 1.8 to 2.4 m (6 to 8 ft) where traffic is heavy, with a firm 0.9 m (3 ft) minimum anywhere a wheelchair has to pass and a 1.2 m (4 ft) main run where a wheelbarrow does. Beds are then laid out so the harvest is within arm's reach, because a bed nobody can reach across is a bed somebody walks into.

The characteristic failure is that the path becomes the drain. A route laid straight down the slope gives water a channel, and the tread ruts and then gullies. A tread with no cross slope holds water and softens, and a soft tread is walked around, so the path widens or splits into two tracks and spreads the compaction sideways into the beds it was meant to protect. Bark, mulch, chips, sand and gravel are all replenished rather than laid once, since organic surfacing packs down and seals within a couple of seasons. Maintenance is annual at least: cut back what grows into the route, repair waterbars and crossings, and top up the surface.