We have a new community garden in Mpls this year and so far everything has been going really well. Our garden consists of raised beds with really great soil and I have yet to see a weed in anyone's plot. Our problem is the pathways between the raised beds. We want to mulch them with something, but wood chips are in really short supply this year. In the past, the city would deliver them free, but they've stopped doing that and all the free pick-up sites are continually out of them. I would assume this is due in part to the continued drought.

My question, what other free materials have people used in pathways between raised beds? We want it to look nice, so I don't want to simply put down pieces of cardboard. I was wondering about shredded paper or even sawdust, but am open to just about anything as long as we can find some business willing to part with it. Any thoughts?

Kevin