Hi all,
I am very new to native gardening but I’ve decided to give it a go and create a little native corner in the front garden.
I am in the middle of prepping this space, I’ll add my edging and soil but I’m wondering if I should use some weed mat before I putsome red gum chips on top? If anyone has any advice or suggestions on what they would do with this space, please feel free to share.
Thanks!
by indigo_october
6 Comments
I would, especially if you are woodchipping around your plants. Eventually weeds will break through but it helps while plants are establishing. That’s what I did
Weed mat is the worst.
It seems like a great idea at the time, but it doesn’t even block the weeds that much. Seeds blow in on top and the roots of the grass and weeds grow downwards through it. Eventually, you end up with a mat of weeds intertwined with plastic.
Weed mat, not even once.
Nope!!!
Type it into the search bar here and read first hand experience with old weed mat.
I’d go cheap Bunnings potting mix as a thick base layer, topped with a reasonable 2ish inches of mushroom compost, a good sprinkle of slow release fertiliser, cardboard (free from Bunnings and Dan Murphy’s.
Then mulch with leaf litter, pine bark, sugar cane or another organic mulch. The bed will be well cultivated, well fed with good drainage. The decay of mushroom compost, cardboard and the chunky elements of the cheap potting mix will feed it well into the future.
Weed mat is terrible. If you feel the need to lay something down, at the very least get some Geo-fab.
That’s an amazingly clean prep job you have done so far, but having a garden directly behind the mailbox is going to invite people to step in it to check the mail.
As others have said, avoid the weed mat. The biggest pita is going to be couch runners working their way into the garden, but you can manually remove these.