I think it depends on the type of grass. And since you will be sowing the seeds, you can decide what type of grass you put in. Be sure to leave enough room in between your beds to run a mower down the paths.

A couple more ideas: If you have the money, or easy access to some old brick, or like to make concrete 'stones', paved paths would be beautiful. I'm not familiar with your area, but something planted intertwined with the pavers, like thyme, could give more interest, some green, and use fewer pavers.

I use pine straw. It decomposes too, so I refresh at least once a year.

Your garden is beautiful catalinagrey! Love the pic of the purple Alliums.

Could you maybe put some pea gravel in? It likely won't be cheap, but at least it would only have to do it once. I think it would look very nice with your raised beds too...
CMK

I wouldn't recommend grass since this would be a high traffic area. You'd have more to manage in order to maintain the area.

best to use straw.

I use straw. It lasts all season and is light weight when hauling in and spreading. Really helps hold more moisture in the beds too. Pretty garden!

MeMo

Grass, pea gravel, brick - are all going to be more work with weeding than replacing wood chips once every year or two. The grass will want to get into your raised beds and that will be a lot of work.

I wouldn't use grass mainly because it'd be a pain to cut the bit that would grow tall against the edge of the raised beds - the mower can't reach that stuff so you'd have to use the string trimmer as well as mow. Pea gravel is hard to walk on. I'd go for the fine gravel that packs down hard (not sure what it's name is) that gets used on paths in public parks around here. Compacted, it's smooth, easy to walk on, takes heavy traffic easily, discourages weeds (but is fairly easy to remove any weeds that do appear) and looks good.

with straw,or anything that is organic you have the option of changing your garden when you wish.

I use pea gravel. I layer corrugated cardboard onto the ground/grass, and then the gravel. I have lots of rock around here to edge with, and put the occasional attractive rock in like a stepping stone. The only grass I get is the occasional bit of seed that blows in!! Under the window boxes where some pansy seed fell I have pansy seedlings growing in the gravel, which I think will be very attractive!!

Nancy.

Thanks for all the great ideas! I never thought about using pea gravel.
I used straw between the beds 3 years ago, but my neighbors called the police and complained that it looked 'messy'. They complain a lot :(

...my neighbors called the police and complained that it looked 'messy'.

You're kidding, right? You have a privacy fence and it's your own backyard. Hope you don't share your harvest with those busybodies. ;)

Pea gravel is very expensive here.

For our French drains (that are wide enough for one person to walk on), we used the cheaper, blue drainage small rock (not screenings-- one to two inch sharp rocks).

Then, we put the "pretty" gravel on top -- again going a size up from the smaller pea gravel to the one to two inch round rocks.

Using the sharp rock, topped with the decorative round rock, makes it very stable for walking and it doesn't shift like the small pea gravel. The wheelbarrow rolls on it without sinking down.

That said, i don't see a problem with wood chips or straw!

Cameron

Just the mention of straw makes me itch. We used copious amounts of straw as mulch around several shrub rows and in a few flowerbeds because it was cheap and easy. Unfortunately, a nasty little invisible critter called a straw mite moved in. Those nasties nibbled on us and those bites lasted days...in some easily irritated areas, I might add. So, no straw any more at our house.

I go for wood chips. You can refresh the paths every other year if you use coarse mulch. I use pine nuggets a lot. From time to time, I scrape off the paths and use that good stuff on my beds, starting over on the paths.

Check with big box stores after a busy weekend. Sometimes they will have 'broken' bags of mulch at a discount. It's messy to bring home, but way cheaper.

it doesn't have to be straw if that's the case. Mulch - especially cedar mulch will do just as well.

AS for pea gravel. I liked them. Had them before as pathways in my raised bed front yard garden. I love the crunch.. however just some points to consider. You need to lay down a layer of lime screening and perhaps landscapers fabric to help keep the soil level. During winter, the ground tends to swell up and own because of the freeze and thaws. This layer helps to keep the pea stones from 'disappearing' into mud. Second, pea gravel never stays in place. As you move around, so does it. It gets messy that way. It will flow out into the driveway or into the sidewalks unless you set up barriers to keep it in place. It is not a good surface if you need to bring wheel barrows in. It will not prevent weeds. I've had to deal with dandelions despite the seemingly impenetrable layer of screenings.

i've seen some stuff on hgtv called decomposed granite??? i think that packs down well.
you might inquire about bulk mulch, pine straw (prevalent in the south, not sure about your zone) or other shredded or chipped wood. they can even deliver a big load, and it's cheaper. you could rake it all in one day.

I use layers of cardboard to smother out the weeds and weedy grasses and lay down free wood chips from the tree man. I have wooden raised beds just like yours.
I think your back yard is lovely, and it's fenced in so nicely that your neighbors should be for shamed that they tisk you for straw. Straw is currently affordable, and it is amazing for soil building. We mulch our veggie bed areas with it.

I can get wood chips for free, but it just takes loads and loads to cover all the paths. Hmmmmm
Does anyone use those rubber stepping stones in their paths?
Or I guess I could make some cement stepping stones - that will only take a few hundred hours - LOL!

Yes it takes a lot of chips, it takes me very little time to cover my garden with a wheelbarrow and some trugs it's done in no time and I can forget about it all season long.