Hi all,

I'm looking for advice/experience with ground covers - organic and inorganic.

I have a very small backyard that is mostly taken up with a 9' square patio and two 4'x4' raised veggie garden boxes. The pathways around them are still bare dirt - I've been scratching my head about how to get it covered for a year.

Some options I'm thinking about are: decomposed granite, wood chips, pea gravel, organic mulch. I also have lots of octagonal pavers and one suggestion was to bury those in a pattern and then plant thyme in between, but I've had a hard time getting things established in this drought. So that's a big concern too. There are no sprinklers or drip - so far I've been watering by hand.

There is a giant orange tree that drops leaves - and it seems hard/impossible to rake wood chips/organic mulch so DG seems better in that way. But then I've heard DG gets tracked into the house and scratches wood floors. ?

Mainly I'm trying to tamp down the dust from the bare dirt, and discourage fleas (it's been a terrible summer for fleas here and I'm thinking the bare dirt is not helping).

Any suggestions/ advice?