Landscape Fabric Defends Your Garden Against Weeds By dsnygrl on - Updated Oct 15, 2011
In our garden no matter how much mulch or pine straw we put down, weeds still pop up. I hate pulling weeds and since both my cat and my 6 year old spend lots of time in out garden area, I like to limit the amount of chemicals I use.
It took me a while but I finally talked my husband into spending even more money on garden supplies and purchasing landscape fabric. Landscape fabric is a fabric type material that comes on a roll and is usually black in color. It forms a barrier that allows water and light in but prevents weeds from coming out. To use it, you roll it out over the top of the soil and cut it to fit the shape of your garden. They sell special pins that can be used to hold it in place but we use heavy wood mulch in our gardens and that is enough weight to hold it down and keep it in place. To add new plants simply cut a hole in the fabric large enough to add the plant and then put the plant in in the hole. I then pull the fabric back as close to the base of the plant as I can to prevent the weeds from finding the hole. If you are adding it to a garden with existing plans, it is a little harder to install because you have to cut around the plant to put it down, but the extra effort is worth it for the protection it provides. The only parts of my garden I do not use the fabric is in my bulb garden. Since they spread and multiply each year, I am never sure where they are going to come up and I don't want to risk missing any holes and loosing plants.
In years past we have gone with the cheaper Walmart brand of fabric but found that it is very thin and tears easily. Last year we invested a little extra money and purchased the DuPont landscape plus advanced weed dense fabric from Lowes. It is much thicker than the Walmart brand and you can pull and stretch it much more before it begins to tear but is still easy to cut. From what we have seen so far this year, it seems to have held up well and we have detected no holes that have formed. It did a better all round job of preventing any stray weeds from making their way through like the Walmart brand allowed.
If you are looking for a way to prevent weeds before they have a chance to get out of control and spread and want to do it without chemicals, weed control fabric is a great option to check out.
About The Author:
DuPont Landscape Plus Advanced Weed Dense Fabric Purchased at: Lowes Price: 15.97
We have this as well & my husband said it's one of the best lawn purchases he has ever made! I'm so glad you're enjoying your's too!
Good to know. I will definitely consider using this product.
We used three packages of this last year and had great success with it. The big thing we didn't do was to make sure it stayed down. We put four rocks on the corner, and weeds would sprout up under the fabric. If we would have bought the pins they sell, or put heavy mulch onto like you did we would have avoided this problem.
The gardeners at the town home where we used to live put this stuff down when they landscaped. I HATED it. It was such a pain to have to cut a hole every time I planted a plant. Well, fast forward quite a few years; the kids are more active (baseball, guitar lessons, etc)..who has time to plant? Now every morning I drive away looking at the weeds in my front gardens. And every night it's the first thing I see when I pull in the driveway. Oh how I WISH for this stuff now!
Dsnygrl, since I have such a big lot, I was hesitant about buying this pricier brand of landscaope fabric. But I do see your point about wear. Question: Does it give you an idea on the packaging about how long it will last before needing to be replaced. I'm thinking for my lot I would require 7-10 rolls of this. So if it has to be replaced very often, it would be impractical.
I love this product but like you said, the bulb garden is hard to place this material on. I try to add it to the area around my deck. Those plants are mostly ones that only bloom once. It is a great idea to put something heavy on top of this fabric. If you dont...you might find it has flown over into your neighbors yard!
This is the kind of stuff the pros use, but be sure you get it down tight to the soil! The cheap stuff just makes people think that it doesn't work... it's too bad!
This does last for a very long time! I had it down for years before I had to take it up and replace it, just because it was getting torn up from all my new plantings over the years.
never tried the fabric before, never even knew there was stuff out there like that! Probably because I am no gardener ;) Some things you need to spend a little extra on and go with the brand name --- this sounds like one of those items. Glad it is taking care of those nasty weeds for you
We have had no weeds whatsoever in our new flower beds, we used this cloth as well. It sure makes a difference.