How do you keep a garden from becoming a sea of mud in the winter?

[fivemack]

The path from the back gate of the garden to the back door of my house is a single line of trampled grass and mud. Mostly mud, this time of year.

Having dug a very large hole in one of the beds and half-way across the path to remove a tree-stump obviously doesn't help, the packed earth is converted into loose earth which turns rapidly into the finest grade of mud.

Is there any good way of keeping this from happening? It's a rented house so I'm not willing to spend very much on things like gravel; are there decent matting materials that I could get at reasonable price and just unroll across the garden, or would that be expensive, ugly and ineffective? The grass is already pretty ruined so I wouldn't mind too much about matting killing the grass under it, but I'd want matting that would survive a couple of years unloved outdoors.

With about half a cubic yard of builder's sand, a couple of square metres of paving stones and a quantity of plastic liner, which looks like about a hundred pounds in cost, plus a large amount of healthy shovelling and rolling, I could actually build a proper path of paving stones laid on sand; maybe this is something to discuss with the landlord.

Comments

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

I really doubt that matting would be advisable, effective, or cost-effective when compared with paving or gravel (though it depends whether you're doing the work or somebody is being paid to).

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

The outdoor carparks where I work are surfaced with something looking like the top one of these over grass and seem to work; the grass grows through the holes.
Starting with something that's not a morass and that is basically reasonably-drained would seem to be a prerequisite. An advantage would be that they can be shifted away relatively easily if your landlord gets snotty about them.

[aldabra]

Yes. Something like this: http://www.arch.si/plasticne_resetke_ang.htm

Either B&Q or Homebase sells this stuff by the yard, go out into their outdoor garden section and turn left and it's over there. But I can't remember which and both their webpages have defeated me.

[antinomy.livejournal.com]

You can do worse than a couple of big bags of chipped bark laid quite thickly along the path. It will tread into the ground eventually and the mud will come through, but should last at least a year or two. You can help it last longer by laying some weed resistant membrane (the black porous stuff) underneath.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

The other option usually used is straw/hay. Should be easy enough to get some around here (just ask a farmer!), it absorbs water without going soggy, is cheaply replaceable and biodegradable.

The other answers sound good too!

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

1. Don't keep ducks or geese. They are passionate about mud creation.

Once you have achieved 1) your options are less obvious. We have had some success at limiting the swamp with very coarse gravel and with some kind of thick plastic matting (kind of like this that we bought very cheaply at a farmer's auction - the grass grows up through it and swallows it in summer, in winter they protect the soil from being churned up). I should think a few bags of gravel is your best bet.

Otherwise I recommend putting down a few bricks as stepping stones, and waiting until Spring.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

So you transferred the elegant goose in your icon onto someone else's beautifully thick lush lawn before taking the photo?

I put down bricks as stepping stones, but I laid them flush with the ground to avoid breaking my neck in the dark, and they've rapidly become extremely muddy.

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, my icon is a real photo, but taken in the summer.

Every winter (around January, depending on weather) they churn the lower parts of the field to mud, but despite their best efforts, it turns back to grass by early May. Also they don't bother with the high-lying parts as they are a) drier and b) a long way from the people house, and thus boring.

So I think your grass will come back, if that's any consolation.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

I'd go for bark as the cheapest solution, and the one easiest to undo

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Duckboards?

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

You probably want to start with decent drainage - if you've got access to a spade, are confident you won't hit any important things underground like pipes and don't mind putting in a couple of hours, a shallow ditch at the lowest point could probably serve you pretty well, or maybe on either side of the path, if you plan on making the path more substantial. Then, as someone suggested, bark chips could work. You could also pretend to be doing permaculture and lay down cardboard from boxes and layers of newspaper over the grass, weighted down. This'll give you good earth to work with if you feel like planting anything in a couple of months, too, or roll out turf on top of it. In the meantime, some planks will serve for walking on.