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| Hey all,
Planted 19 beautiful wintergem boxwoods recently. We put down weed fabric and mulched on top of it. Came out awesome! While doing some research today, I discovered my error in putting the fabric down :( Is it best to pull up the fabric? There is about 76 feet of it. Should I leave it? Whats the next move? Thanks all!
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, Oct 15, 12 at 16:12
| it is my position.. that almost all weed seed is air borne [and i include the far end of a bird to be air borne.. lol] .. and as such.. it started accumulating .. ON TOP ... of your fabric.. one second after you put it down ... if you think a dandylion is impossible to pull out in soil.. try doing it thru fabric ... i would call it exercise.. and get it out.. before it becomes hard to do ... right now.. you could probably grab it.. yank it out.. and re-fluff the mulch ... in no time at all ... [ i am picturing the old dinner service-tablecloth magic trick in my head ...] and next time.. ask first.. lol .. not helpful.. eh??? ... lol ... well .. you found us ... so you ought to be all set next time ... did the nursery guy/gal also sell you amendments and fertilizer to go with them??? ken |
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- Posted by stslimited84 none (My Page) on Mon, Oct 15, 12 at 16:18
| They tried to sell the amendments/fertilizer but we did not bite. Ill try to take up the mat in the next few days. Call it $26 down the tube and a lesson learned. Guess the best way is to cut the fabric in sections before and after each plant. Then remove each section and re-fluff the mulch? With the rain today, it looks especially good! |
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- Posted by lisanti07028 z6NJ (My Page) on Mon, Oct 15, 12 at 20:07
| It will still look good without the fabric. |
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- Posted by stslimited84 none (My Page) on Tue, Oct 16, 12 at 12:51
| Considering leaving the mat in place until early spring. Thought being this will kill the grass beneath it while weeds are not a threat due to the upcoming colder months. Then once early spring arrives, remove the mat and add some fresh mulch. Thoughts? |
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- Posted by Blossom_Designer 5 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 16, 12 at 22:38
| It won't hurt to leave the landscape fabric in place over the winter. It'll be too cold for weeds to grow anyway. |
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| The shrubs should not go unmulched. |
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| Take it out. I made a mistake and used it a few years ago and had to pull it out recently when I discovered that plants were bone dry even though we'd had several days of heavy rain. A layer of leaves and mulch on top of it were blocking any moisture from getting to them. It was just about impossible to remove, and I had to cut it with a serrated knife, in pieces, and rip it out. The weeds and young trees that were growing above it had roots that penetrated it and it was really hard to remove it. It looked good for a couple of years, but I'll never do it again. |
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- Posted by purpleinopp 8b AL (My Page) on Wed, Oct 17, 12 at 14:26
| Did you put the landscape fabric over live grass? If so, I would leave it until lawns are well green and growing next spring. Then expose a small section first and leave it exposed for about 10-15 days to confirm the grass is dead before removing all of the fabric. Next time you want to change an area from grass to mulched bed, try smothering with cardboard, which does not cause the problems of the fabric, can be found for free, and decomposes, so it just disappears after a season or two, depending on climate and soil. Most folks would cover that with mulch and/or leaves so it stays in place and looks better. Wait at least 2 months (during growing season) before piercing it to add plants. Some grass is extremely tenacious and patient. I would also urge you to investigate and consider different borders for keeping the grass separated from your mulched area. If you don't have some type of barrier, the grass will creep in/around/under/over and take over, no matter what fabric, mulch, cardboard, etc... is there. |
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