I would have thought the cardboard would degrade in a few months and then you'll just be walking on gravel on top of soil? I see the benefit in suppressing weeds to get it all in place but would think you'd end up with lots of weeds once the cardboard gone, and a layer of soily gravel at the bottom. I've got gravel on top of weed control fabric in my garden and even then I've had a few determined weeds getting through after a year. I've also tried to clear areas of gravel where weed fabric wasn't used (previous resident!) to make planting areas and I've had to do raised beds instead of dealing with the 6 inch deep gravelly clay soil 😐
I would have thought the cardboard would degrade in a few months and then you'll just be walking on gravel on top of soil? I see the benefit in suppressing weeds to get it all in place but would think you'd end up with lots of weeds once the cardboard gone, and a layer of soily gravel at the bottom. I've got gravel on top of weed control fabric in my garden and even then I've had a few determined weeds getting through after a year. I've also tried to clear areas of gravel where weed fabric wasn't used (previous resident!) to make planting areas and I've had to do raised beds instead of dealing with the 6 inch deep gravelly clay soil 😐
At least I'll be able to see any weeds against the white gravel to pull up . In time I might put a weed matting or tarpaulin sheet down under the gravel.
Would a cardboard>weed matting>gravel approach be more likely to stop weeds?
Gravel is terrible for pulling weeds.. a number of my areas in my garden are landscaped in gravel over thick heavy duty landscape felt. I end up spraying weedkiller, as it's impossible to weed out the tiny ones.. and large ones grow on top and send roots down into the felt, so break off when I pull.. and you can't rake up leaves, blown bits of plants, etc from the surface. It just sort of breaks down and forms a layer of soil on top of the weed fabric, giving seeds a place to germinate.
And once your cardboard breaks down, this winter the gravel will sink into the clay and squish up between your stones.. needing more gravel on top. The landscape fabric stops this from happening, which is why people traditionally put it under. Stop the weeds, stop the gravel from sinking into the soil.
I guess if your set on gravel, put down two or three layers of cardboard, cover in the thickest most expensive weed fabric you can get - since you are walking on it AND you want it to last forever, THEN gravel.
At our allotment there are two solutions to the paths between beds;
1) Weed suppressing membrane, covered in bark chips. Which is what we have on our plot, and which works very well (except against bindweed and brambles)
The membrane is quite pricey. There is a thin, fleece-type membrane that you see around, and it is rubbish, and tears and breaks very easily. The better type (although it is plastic), is thicker, woven and much, much tougher.
2) A grass path, which looks great, but needs to be mown, and sometimes also needs to be weeded. Most new plotholders don't go for the grass paths.
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Would a cardboard>weed matting>gravel approach be more likely to stop weeds?
1) Weed suppressing membrane, covered in bark chips. Which is what we have on our plot, and which works very well (except against bindweed and brambles)
The membrane is quite pricey. There is a thin, fleece-type membrane that you see around, and it is rubbish, and tears and breaks very easily. The better type (although it is plastic), is thicker, woven and much, much tougher.
2) A grass path, which looks great, but needs to be mown, and sometimes also needs to be weeded. Most new plotholders don't go for the grass paths.