Dog-Path Garden Path
When I first created the Dog-Path Garden I built up a small stone retaining wall, then levelled the waterside ground below it, and covering this with smaller stones. It was called a dog-path, in memory of my first country garden dog, Taj.
This Dog-Path is Underwater
In the early days it was possible to walk the whole length of the garden by using the dog-path, which ran right along the water race between Middle Bridge and Willow Bridge. Weed maintenance wasn't all that easy, though, as the water level rose and fell. Some months I thought I'd got it well weeded. Then soon after I'd realise I was wrong.
Dog and Man on the Dog-Path
I tried laying weed mat over the path and covering it with small stones. Not really the answer - the weeds just grew happily on the top. I tried more stones, even sneaky applications of weed killer. But the water level in the race would often rise when the Waimakariri river was in flood. Then silt would wash down the water, cover my path stones, and provide a great germinating ground for weeds and seeds.
Dog-Path Garden Path - 2003
And then there was the small matter of plant size miscalculations. Oops. That was totally my fault. My earlier plantings along the Dog-Path Garden path allowed a walker (whether human or canine) clear access. Tussocks used to flop over the small stone retaining wall, and the Phormiums were modest in size. But things changed. Many of the Phormiums (which love being by water) bulked out and blocked the path. And they are so gorgeous...
The Dog-Path Garden
So now the dog-path exists in small, discrete sections. The dogs don't mind - they just jump in and out of the water. Every now and then I'll dig out a Carex which has just become too old, or a Phormium which has got too big and messy.
Warning about weed mat...
And just a personal observation, which anyone reading this can take or leave. The weed mat was a dreadful idea, and I wouldn't ever use it again. I've ended up ripping all of it out. I've gone back my natural weeding regime, sloshing down the water race slicing out offenders - with just the occasional application of weed-spray, when things get too far out of hand.