15/05/2024
Hey everyone!
Warmer climates are here, and with that, lots of us are looking forward to beautifying our lawns and gardens; but one thing we’re not so excited about is w**ds. While there are plenty of methods out there for handling w**ds, I wanted to take a minute to discuss one particular approach – and that’s Landscape Fabric (also known as ‘Weed Barrier’).
**** So what is Landscape Fabric?
Landscape fabric is material designed to act as physical barrier between the sun and the soil and is used to prevent unwanted growths. It typically consists of woven fibers or a non-woven material and comes in rolls.
Pretty nifty right? Roll the stuff out in my beautiful garden, and w**ds won’t be able to get any sun, and new w**d seeds won’t be able to root themselves in the soil. ezpz… right? Well, unfortunately, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. There are some Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to deciding where you can lay out your Landscape Fabric.
**** Let’s start with the Donts.
My rule of thumb here is to avoid landscape fabric where visual aesthetic is a priority. A couple examples would be flower gardens or decorative trees. While it may be tempting to lay down fabric to keep w**ds away from your flowers, the fabric itself isn’t made for looks and will detract from the overall aesthetic of your garden.
So, what if you lay down fabric, and then cover it with some pretty mulch? You get the w**d-deterrent benefit of the fabric, without the downside of its appearance. We get requests for this exact solution almost every week. While it sounds like a great long-term solution to save you from unnecessary w**d-pulling, It’s actually a short-term fix that ends up creating a an even bigger problem in the future. The issue with this approach is that mulch, by design, is intended to become part of the soil. After 1-2 years, mulch decomposes and is just loaded with nutrients that plants love. So, once your mulch starts to break down, you’re going to end up with another growth bed that rests on top of your landscape fabric where w**ds *will* grow. The big new problem that you’re going to have is when the w**d roots pe*****te the landscape fabric, and continue growing into the soil below it. This pins the fabric into the soil and does two things: 1) Makes your garden more difficult to work in. 2) Makes the fabric *very* difficult to remove.
What a nightmare.
**** So where *Do* I use landscape fabric?
My favorite place is in vegetable gardens where output is more important than appearance. By laying the fabric on the very TOP layer of your growth bed, you can very effectively keep w**ds away from your fruiting plants, and as an added bonus, help keep moisture retained in the soil by slowing evaporation. Just make sure that you’re diligent about keeping your fabric layer *clean*. If the fabric isn’t maintained periodically, soil can begin to collect on top of it and result in unwanted growths. If your fabric is secured with pins/stakes, you hit it with a leaf-blower for an easy clean-off. Landscape fabric also helps with stability and offers a measure of erosion control in areas that are prone to washout with heavy rains. It works great as a barrier beneath hardscaping and prevents inorganic mulch like rocks and pea gravel from sinking into the soil.
If you have a garden project and you're not sure how to manage w**ds, give us a call at (586) 339-5883! We'd love to help!
