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hank_b

Landscape fabric mulch - dos and don'ts?

hank_b
12 years ago

I'm planning to use landscape fabric from 3' wide rolls in my garden this summer. My primary desire is to help control weeds but if it will help conserve soil moisture and warm the soil earlier, that's good too. (I'm not sure if the fabric is helpful for warming. I think that clear plastic may do that better.)

We have a clay based soil but luckily our house was built before the practice of removing the top soil was established. We have what looks like decent top soil that supports a very healthy crop of weeds. ;)

I plan to use a fabric around tomatoes, peppers and bush summer squash. Can I use it between rows of stuff like beans? Carrots? Peas? I also grow vining winter squash (Waltham Butternut) and allow them to wander around the garden. I think they may root along the vine. Will I cause difficulties for them if they are not allowed to do so?

How about around rhubarb and asparagus? Maybe not. the rhubarb seems to do a pretty good job of crowding out weeds and the asparagus does need to come up in a larger area than just a single stalk. Maybe once the asparagus is up, I can surround it with fabric to suppress weeds and then pull it up in the fall or winter so the shoots can come up unhindered in the spring.

If you have any particular success stories or attempts that didn't work, please share them with me so I can be more successful with my application.

Thanks!

hank

Comments (9)

  • rnewste
    12 years ago

    I strongly recommend the use of the 15 year DuPont Landscape Fabric, sold at Lowes. I tried the (cheaper) stuff sold at Home Depot and it was a failure. The DuPont material was clearly superior in my situation. This fabric is water permeable so rain and hose watering will not be negatively affected.

    Raybo

  • mustard_seeds
    12 years ago

    Hi Hank!
    There is a great deal of info on here about landscape fabric if you do a search you may see some helpful stuff. Are you planing to take the fabric up after a season of gardening? Organic matter from your garden will pile over the fabric and eventually many seeds will be germinating in the later above the fabric and you will still have the fabric "down in there" causing headaches for stuff you want to plant in the future. Consider some other ways to reduce weeds. Reduction in tilling is helpful. Layers of newspaper around your plants or sheets of cardboard, covered with leaves or shredded leaves, is great to block sun that is needed to germinate weed seeds. It will help preserve moisture. It breaks down so it is something you do every year. But I can't imagine placing the fabric and taking it up every year in a bed I am using.

    I have some rocky landscaping around the house that was there when we bought our house. I am glad there is landscape fabric under the rocks. But I am super glad that there is no fabric in my garden beds. I hope that helps.
    Rachel

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    12 years ago

    I used landscape fabric, cheaper stuff. I was very happy with the results. The only think I wasn't happy about was the price. This year we are putting down more plastic mulch, but I bought a 6,000 foot roll for the price I paid for the 500 feet I put down last year.

    Sweet Potatoes on Fabric
    {{gwi:18739}}

    {{gwi:18741}}

    Okra on Fabric
    {{gwi:18742}}

    Good luck!

    Jay

  • wisbill
    12 years ago

    I use fabric every year and will continue to do so. The cheaper fabric tears easily and is not really reusable. The heavy duty woven can be used for multiple years. I don't use it around asparagus and potatoes, my onions, radish etc, I grow in a raised 4x8 cedar box for ease of knees. I highly advise soil test and OM as I have the same (or worse) soil. You will get some weeds growing thru any holes or in dirt piles but they are easy to remove. My biggest challenge every year is the wind! Use no shorter than 8 in landscape pins. I have a fence around most of the garden and I put that on top the cloth also. Good luck.

  • hank_b
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Hi folks,
    Thanks for the additional info. I did do a search and found lots of mentions of landscape fabric without much detail on how it is actually used. maybe it's just not that big a detail.

    I should probably have mentioned a couple things that probably matter. My garden is about 15'x23' so it is relatively small compared to many. Labor intensity of application is less important as is the cost of the material.

    I do not expect that this is going to be a long term installation. I plan to pull it up either at the end of this season or the beginning of next. I don't want to plant things in the same spot from one year to the next so that necessitates moving this stuff around anyway.

    I have a roll of the cheapo fabric (5 year rating) rather than the film I see in the pictures. My sister (organic farm in New York) uses the film and also has a drip irrigation setup for watering, but she has acres of land under cultivation compared to my square yards.

    thanks again,
    hank

  • Duncan Edwards
    8 years ago

    Hi guys,

    From previous experience I would always get the heavier duty stuff. The mulch fabric like this - http://www.qvsshop.co.uk/landscape-fabric-115-c.asp always seems to break down. I only really use the leftovers I have for small flower beds. The woven i use for all other jobs. with the weed cloth you do get what you pay for.

  • drmbear
    8 years ago

    I completely hate the use of landscape fabric. It completely blocks the connection between the organic mulch I pile on top with the soil underneath. Considering that my yard was of lot of weeds a little over two years ago, and now I have nice garden beds everywhere, you'd think that maybe I'd have a weed problem, but I don't. I just ground up leaves and piled them on top of the soil everywhere - thickly. The soil underneath has improved immensely over those two years, to be an active vibrant soil. I've seen soil under landscape fabric, and for the most part it has been a horrible thing. Except when new seeds are sprouting, I just don't leave bare soil in my yard. It stays covered with a thick layer of mulch. Things that are really bad, like the sedges, and even bermuda grass or crab grass, will just grow through or around landscape fabric. Other seeds start sprouting in the mulch you've piled on top of the fabric, sending roots into fabric. Although for the most part I like pulling weeds, because I don't have the fabric, I can easily walk through my gardens with a hoe to knock down weeds quickly and effectively,

  • Charlie
    8 years ago

    I have never liked landscape fabric in permenent beds due to the need for maintenance as frost and heaving exposes it. I use cardboard on top of grass for my raised beds then add the various layers of soil, manure and compost, lean another layer of cardboard toped with a mulch that looks nice (ussually leaf mulch). The card board decomposes and attracts earthworms.

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