Just Say “No” to Landscape Fabric
With some exceptions (like a gravel path where you don’t want any plants to grow), today is a great day to break up with landscape fabric. Just say “no!”
Landscape fabric is designed to keep out weeds, but the sales pitch falls short of the outcome.
If you’re also trying to grow plants in the same space, you hassle with installing it around the plants without suffocating them (people don’t like to be strangled and neither do plants), or cutting into it in order to plant something.
After all that work, you put down a nice layer of mulch, and within a few short weeks or months, those opportunistic weeds have found their way on top of your landscape fabric and have started to sprout just like normal.
Over time, more and more dirt collects on top of the landscape fabric, allowing for more and more weeds to grow.
With wear and tear, it often bunches up or tears and looks reeeeeal ugly.
The fabric serves as a barrier to any beneficial elements coming from beneath or above that improve the health of the soil (poor worms can’t come up!). It’s kind of like putting a plastic bag over your mouth and then poking a tiny hole in it to breathe - not fun!
“But what about the ugly weeds?? How do I get rid of them??” you’re asking. Don’t be running for the herbicide! There are several eco-friendly, non-toxic, and plastic-free alternatives that will achieve the same goal if you’re willing to do a little maintenance:
1) Use a barrier that will eventually break down and feed the soil, rather than suffocating it. The name for this method is sheet mulching. There are several different methods of sheet mulching, but here’s a great video showing the important steps (caveat: I don’t spread compost before I put down cardboard; it will all break down anyway). The crucial layers of this method are: cardboard (or other thick, biodegradable layer), newspaper to cover the gaps in between cardboard pieces, a thin layer of compost, and a THICK layer of mulch (3-4” thick!).
2) Don’t mind spending some money and don’t want to hassle with cardboard? You can use burlap instead. It allows water and air through the fabric and eventually breaks down to feed the soil just like cardboard.
3) Regardless of the method you use to suppress weeds, the most important piece is to maintain a THICK layer of mulch, even if you’re using polypropylene! When the mulch is thick, it’s much harder for weed seeds to find root, and even if they do, they’re much easier to quickly yank out by hand. You can often get free mulch delivered by tree-trimming companies. I would say aim to add a fresh layer of mulch 1-2 times a year. Sounds like work? I’d say it’s a lot easier to add mulch than having to weed a ton.
At the beginning I mentioned an exception to this principal: if you’re laying a pathway of rock or pavers and you don’t want any plants growing in that area, definitely do NOT use a biodegradable landscape fabric like burlap or cardboard. It will break down fast and then you will have tons of plants creeping up through your gravel.
Aggressively eliminate any plant that makes its way through the cracks in between the cardboard or on the edges of a bed where the cardboard didn’t fully cover. The best and most effective method of weed control is to remove it by hand! Grab your favorite weeding tool and get that unwanted plant out by the root so it won’t come back.
I got a little lazy this past season with one of my flowerbeds and didn’t apply a fresh layer of mulch. Now I’m paying the price - having to remove all kinds of things that got blown into the bed or planted by industrious squirrels. If you keep up with mulching, you’ll enjoy being able to easily pluck weeds out by hand and cackle at having bested them.
#gardencoach #gardenguru #gardendesigns #gardening101 #gardeninggoals #gardeningknowhow #gardeningtime #gardeninglovers #gardeningaddict #gardeningclass #gardeningforbeginners #flowermound #flowermoundtx #dentontx #highlandvillage #gardeneducation #vegetablegardener #herbgardening #growingfoodathome #plantingseason #plantingseeds #lewisvilletx