I'm posting this on the Antique Roses and Roses forums as well as on other forums because, though perhaps some might consider it "OT",I think that some of you on the Rose forums know the many challenges that I face in my wild garden in the woods here in Tuscany, Italy.

A brief description of the situation: My garden is a very steep landscape. Trucks , etc cannot arrive close to it to unload material such as mulch, sand and gravel, so I have to bag the stuff up on the main "driveway" (unpaved, flat road above garden) and carry it down with my small car (in summer, when it's dry) or by hand, with a wheel barrow. I do almost everything myself, not having the means nor the inclination for employing help (it would be so hard to find "the right sort of person", lol!). I've made this garden from scratch; it was abandoned, eroded land before, and has by now been cultivated by me for only about 20 years,with me learning as I go, so progress is slow. The garden is very large, way too big for one middle-aged woman to keep up with (what can I say? I'm stubborn!)

The weeds are out of control,and I think the whole situation would be much helped if I could manage to create decent garden paths that would be (relatively) weed-free. I see so many beautiful garden paths in photos posted here, and would like to hear some opinions as to what might be the best approach for tackling my difficult situation.

It seems to me I have 3 options. 1) solarize paths with plastic sheeting; sow with dwarf clover to create living mulch (but would it work in the long run?) The other 2 options seem vastly more difficult, but might be more effective in the long run 2) dig out paths, lay down sand (one site on Google says you need 3-4 inches of sand) ,lay down stones embedded in sand 3) dig out paths, lay down sand, make cement pavers. Options 2 or 3 would take a long time for me to complete, especially considering the vast ares to be covered, but I am looking for a solution that would require little in the way of future maintanence.

Obviously I'm asking a lot, but I think hearing other people's opinions will be very helpful, so thank you in advance.