Good feedback on all of this, thank you.
Regarding the layout, you will see that I do have 3' between most of the beds. The only 2' path is the one between the 4x8s and the more narrow ones. In real life it's actually a very small area that is restricted to 2' and you don't spend time working in those areas. It restricts to 2' but then opens back up because you have the pathway behind you. I'll try to get some actual photos of the real beds soon. I'm open to making the pathways bigger, but it just expands the size of the garden significantly, which expands the amount of black fabric, amount of real estate used, amount of wood chips to get, etc etc. This is why I planned it the way I did. Calculated risks. I'm working in a fixed space here and even a few feet added to the overall footprint makes a pretty big difference.
We'll be creating more gardens like this in other areas in 2025 (long story on that) and we might standardize on 3' pathways for the entire thing. I'll contemplate this a bit more.
dyzzypyxxy said: I'll bet all your kids are getting pretty big now, Dave? But I know you have some girls in the family . . . are they all gardeners like you and Trish?
Of course!!
Our youngest is 7 and our oldest is 25 and they are all committed gardeners.
dyzzypyxxy said: At the school garden we put in 4 x 8 beds originally and we found they were hard to reach into the middle of the bed even for adults
It can be but 4x8 is a pretty standard raised bed size and if you can access it from either side then really you're only having to reach 2 feet into the bed. That really is doable, and the sizable benefits of a 4' bed are enough to warrant the slight inconvenience. That's my thinking, anyway. I have always used 4' for all my beds. I do admit that those 2.5' wide beds are pretty nice, though! I have four of them going in and I'm looking forward to seeing how well they do.
