Seems to me the permanent solution is to improve the drainage. I remember your pics from another thread and wonder if you can direct the flow of water into a public drainage system if there is one. Otherwise you may have to install a drywell (rock pit) to solve this problem.

Continuing to add shavings is a temporary solution altho certainly less expensive.

The local authorities often solve problems like this with boardwalks. Sometimes they are elevated on post, but sometimes they are simply laid on top of the squish. There is some compaction, but the weight is distributed.

I don't know if you can find it, but woven polypropylene weed barrier laid down along the path ways, maybe two layers thick, then this covered with your wood shavings, might do the trick.

I do this between my raised beds, the walk-ways get awfully wet.

I am still trying to figure out what boggy clay is. I know what clay is and I know what bogs are...I figured that the two would never meet. Now Ireland has a lot of bogs [peaty].

Probably here we just have lowish wet soil?

I'd try arborist wood chips, the type that come out of wood chippers the tree service companies use, rather than wood shavings. You can build up a nice stable base with them and they won't degrade as fast as shavings, but they'll still degrade eventually, and they drain well, and they grow very interesting and colorful types fungi this time of year.

OK - I live in the desert, but one way of making paths through a swamp (what we call bogs here) is to lay down log chunks across the line of the path and top them with boards along the desired path

Or line the path with parallel logs and nail boards across them.

Or lay down a path of thick log rounds from a decay-resistant species, like stepping stones.

Because mulch will just be eaten by the swamp things.

Thanks you guys. I have used wood shavings because I get them for an extremely low price. I had believed that eventually they would began introducing enough OM to break up the slippy, hyper-saturated clay.
In other parts of my garden the gradual introduction of various forms of OM over the last three years has made a significant difference.

Wayne - boggy clay is a type of hypersaturated clay soil. Despite its fertility it will drown most plants. I have a small area in my garden where I am happy to grow bog plants but I intend to grow veggies also.

I like the boardwalk idea as a temporary solution. I may acquire wood if I can get it cheap. Wood is much more expensive here than at home in the states.

If youve more ideas please keep them coming.

M

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By "wood" I mean anything larger than a shaving.

You can lay down bundles of chopped brush, chunks of saplings and branches ... it doesn't have to come from a lumberyard.

mirendajean - I am always interested to hear about your garden. I think you will need to do more than just put something on the surface to treat the symptoms. Adding wood chips will not dry the path out, it will just turn it into garden soil, as you have discovered. As a short term measure you get down to Homebase or B & Q and buy a few paving stones to step on. But we haven't seen pictures of your entire garden, just little bits. Is there no way of rejigging the design so you don't have to walk on the boggy bits? Moving your composting area uphill to a drier area or something? And introducing some drainage? You seem to be trying to have fiddly little beds and a bitty little compost heap rather than looking at all your piece of land as a whole and using each bit in a way which suits its nature. I get the sense that you are fighting your garden rather than working with it. For example, you could have a bed in the boggy area with plants which would appreciate the conditions. In the winter you would not have to go near it and it would be fine. I always get the feeling that you are working with American conceptions of what a garden is and I have a feeling that this will never be really successful in your climatic and soil conditions. The idea of laying down brush or woodchips and 'chunks of saplings' is fine in a US context but to me would look out of keeping in a built up area. Plus I get the feeling that some US posters can't quite conceive of how microscopic our gardens are here. Can you show us a photo of the whole garden (and I mean in the UK/Irish sense, not the American sense). We might be able to give you some ideas. For a start, from what I've seen I would want to make your beds and paths much wider. Good luck with the bog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some winter reading.

Hi Flora. Thanks for that. It's a dangerous thing to ask for photos of my garden because I LOVE to share my garden :-)

The pathways I want mulch mostly run behind the garden beds at the bottom of my slope. I have about 2' between those beds and the fence.

I don't feel that I'm fighting against my garden so much as im fighting the poorly planned layout of our estate and the refuse left in the soil by the builders (I've pulled copper wire and other rubbish from my garden). Also, my neighbours gardens on both sides drained into my garden.

I understand why you think I have small compost piles. The picture I posted previously is after my heap had significantly reduced in size (and id robbed it for mulch) My current pile is 10x4x4.

I've raised beds on the borders of my neighbours garden (with Thier consent.) and have stone lined French drains into the field behind my garden at the bottom of my slope (with the estates consent)

This is a bed I amended by digging up the stones and builders rubbish and adding my cold compost. I usually have my container roses here but I am going to plant them in the spring...

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I have two areas of the garden where I grow a few ornamentals mixed with native flora...

Many of the native plants have been cut back already for winter ...
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The other half of the bed pictured above...
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I have my compost heap on the bottom of the slope because I plan to grow veggies there and I've had great success creating beds on sites of previous compost heaps. I've cold composted previously with smaller piles but have been excited about my first year hot composting.

I am straw bale gardening in the spring and the next compost piles will be built in autumn 2013 on the site...

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There is a cold compost pile underneath all the containers. I should be able to plant them in the bed in the spring

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I raised this area (again on cold compost) and used stones from my garden. I have creeping thyme planted. I'm hopefully the thyme will fill in between the stones by next autumn...

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I've just expanded the beds on this side of the fence - again, cold composting topped off with leaves. It may be next autumn befor I sink the container plants ...

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I don't have any more winter pics but will post photos the garden when it's all colourful in the spring

M

This post was edited by mirendajean on Mon, Dec 10, 12 at 14:22