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This video is the Pros and Cons of using weed control fabric. Weed control fabric only temporarily reduces the number of weeds. It prevents soil improvement and keeps the soil to wet. It is useful when making decorative stone paths.
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How to plant in clay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c2Zjfc9z74
How to plant in clay. Short video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whntkSCQ8QM
How to plant in sandy soils. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpoevoqHG0A
www.wholesaleplants.biz
30 Allen Rd. Clayton, NC 27520
45 Comments
the pathway is 3.5 feet wide as a semi circle around an existing stone edged garden which is about 25 feet in length.
I have a job at a preacher's house where his had rotted. That stuff went everywhere when the wind blew. I cleaned all the Virginia creeper and poke berries out. Wasn't that much grass in it. I restoned it today with a chalkline. I need to get the good dirt out and load it into wheel barrows & trashcans. Then I need to tamper it. It's a 45⁰ garden, 8×8 long. 12' corner to corner. After the paper's down, I need to put all the dirt back in. He originally only had 2" of dirt over the paper. He cut holes in the fabric for each plant. When the flower dies, you have a weed hole. Is it better to go 4" and not penetrate the paper? I'm sorta new at this. Any bushes naturally, you need to cut a hole. He may do a mix. I've used this under mulch for dressing next to the house, but never as a weed barrier for planting.
It's great to use in places you never intend to plant anything. I use in some areas where I have only mulch and no plants, and use the highest grade, as I'll be 80 years old by the time it starts tearing up like the stuff your showing. Also good under pavers as I bought a house with a ton of pavers and Bermuda peeping up through every crack. Threw down a layer of the "30 year fabric" and put pavers back over. Not a single penetration in years. It does hold water and prevent airflow like you mentioned though. Cardboard is the best in a bed with plants!
our former owners obviously didn't want to garden, they put down 2 layers of plastic like weed barrier, it's been quite the task to pull it up….
I wanted to buy it but…..thanks
Thanks for reminding me about the cardboard trick.
I use that when I am sleeping 🛌 with my wife accidental pregnancies is not good for life planing 🤓🧐🤨
Thank you I was given some. And now I won’t use it for that.
I agree in Clay soils it does not work well, but if you live on a (temporate)sand flat like me, landscape fabric is ideal.
I'm 36 years old and landscaped my entire life in a family landscaping business my father started in 1978. Landscape fabric is a good product in many different applications, where nothing else will work even close to it. The worst con I noticed was soil enchantment not taking place. However trees and their debris are not always a factor in many applications , so I feel thats a quite selective approach to a con as a whole. Good video though.
Holy moly, have I got a comment! Do not, under any circumstances, put this stuff down near raspberries. The fibrous root system of the plants will become enmeshed in the fabric, and will spread EVERYWHERE. Takes a whole lot of effort to effectively remove the roots/sprouts/fabric, much like the pear tree in the video. There's even a warning about it on the package.
Newspaper and cardboard for the win!
I wish I hadn’t bought that roll! Could have used newspaper!
Common Sense prevails
Seeds are blown around, if you put this down then mulch. You just making a playground for seeds that are blown in on top of the fabrics
I just use that stuff for lining pots and forming live wreaths. For lining my flowerbeds it's more trouble than it's worth.
Thanks for the video AND for the info on using newspaper and cardboard. I was actually looking for info that would clarify whether my plan to use cardboard and newspaper was a good idea or if I should purchase the fabric. Now I can proceed with my original plan. Thanks.
Thanks for the info. Glad I watched this video!!!
After a while weed come through the weed barrier and it becomes a mess better off without it
This is the first video where I didn't learn something. I hate the stuff. I have only been in this house about 6 months. We have a terraced side yard that has a slope above the brick wall that creates the terrace. The house is 35 years old and everything above the brick line is covered in a double layer of landscape cloth. Not only does it prevent the mulch from amending the soil but also prevents gardening augers from doing their job. Once the auger hits the fabric, it grabs and fabric wraps around and stops the drill. Removing it has to be one of the dirtiest jobs I have ever done.
You are the best. No drinking coffee and eating donuts while you talk. Just the facts. Very professional . Much appreciated 👏🏾
What's the deal with the professional yard guys not being able to rake the leaves off their fence he's got about 18 in of leaves back they're up against dispense lazy
I use Hoople brand weed barriers, it’s much thicker than the one sold at home depot. Keep my garden pretty.
I used plastic trash bags and over time the weeds pop up! I'm in process of a new home landscape in the country so seeking guidance for a gravel driveway and wraparound driveway / flowerbed in north lousiana clay mud
I’m in my second year covering my vegetable garden with it, with round burned holes allowing planting yet blocking weeds throughout the garden season. At the end of the season, I remove the fabric and till the soil before covering it once again with fabric with no holes. When I till it, I mix in compost and leaves to enrich the soil, too. I’ve not noticed the odor you mentioned. Do you have any suggestions?
I got a massive free strip of this brown fabric for free because of a mixup with shipping. Wondering if I can put it over a large area of brush that I weed whack to kill it and try to plant grass. Thank you.
Thanks!
Great video. Thank you!
Great info. Will definitely give me info for decision to use or not to use, or use temporarily. Thanks!
I use weed fabric for river rock and gravel but not for bark/mulch
I'll be using newspaper and cardboard when I lay down marble stones in the fall. I planted lavender plants and in the fall I'll plant bulbs and leave a gap for each flower for when they emerge in the spring. I think your advice is brilliant. Newspapers! Just brilliant!
My mom uses weedblock in her vegetable garden every year but she tears it up each winter and lays new fabric down in the spring after spreading compost. She has wondeful soil but that's because she let's it breath for 5 or 6 months.
I put down landscape fabric in 2017. In 2022, I've severely regretted that decision. I mulched it for three years, then my mulch contracted fungus that shot little black dots 15' feet in the air all over my house and car that don't come off. So, I decided to remove it and put down river rock over newspaper. My plants had grown roots into the mulch on top of the fabric instead of going into the dirt. What a nightmare to remove.
Very interesting. Your pros and cons video is an eye opener. Thank you!
I've also found, when removing fabric on my job, that the varmints just love tunneling under it, and the ground is inundated with tunnels. They will do that to the extent that when you walk over it, you actually sink in where the tunnels are. People also use very heavy fabric that water has a really difficult time penetrating, except in the planting hole. I actually always make new beds with the newspaper method, right over sod, with a layer of mulch, or better yet, compost to weigh down the paper, then cut holes to plant through. All of that good stuff breaks down and feeds the plants, no back-breaking double digging, and nothing goes to waste! I use several layers of dampened paper, and it smothers the grass and weeds and takes quite some time to break down, while adding organic material to the soil.
I prefer using 2-3 layers of cardboard under mulch. Keeps weeds down while conditioning the soil. Yes it requires maintenance but i like it so much better than fabric.
Thanks, brother, you saved me the expense of buying weed control fabric! My prior owner had used quite a bit of it around my quarter-acre property and it seemed like a good idea to control some other areas where weeds had taken over. I will try rocks, gravel, and cardboard instead!
Am I just missing something?
I really love what was explained but if the cardboard breaks down over time, then won't it be gone eventually? So what then? You're right back where you started, no?
This is the third video I've watched where nobody explains what to do in the long run.
Also, is that why underneath you'll sometimes find mold?
Bow Howdy. I have serious gravel regret — or rather crushed stone regret. I have even more serious landscape fabric regret. It's now impossible to pull up all the weeds that have established roots underneath it. Don't do it. Just don't do it. Cardboard good. Landscape fabric bad.
Having this fabric down is killing my plants and bushes. I have to lift it up so they can come back alive.
I use several layers of wet newspaper or wet cardboard under my mulch. I find far more effective than weed fabric
It really largely depends on what you are doing with it. If you are putting down gravel or stone it's an absolute necessity because of the weight without a barrier the rocks will sink until eventually there is nothing left. If you are religious about picking weeds out and good at keeping up with getting new mulch put in every couple years and using a very good heavy woven fabric not the cheap stuff you showed here in the video I think you will be fine as well. Is it a guarantee? No but it is however a big help in reducing weeds for 10 years or whatever the warranty period is on the fabric you buy, if of course as you said you catch them early and don't wait to pull them up which is basic common sense anyway.
It’s love and hate for the weed fabric. If it works free from the staples, or isn’t stapled in place properly, the edges work their way above the gravel and then the gravel gets underneath the fabric. Frustrating.
Really helpful, Jim. Thank you! I think I may go the newspaper + mulch route!
I watched this and realized the right way to do this was the way my horticulutre teacher did it… a 7" thick layer of pine straw. Anything that can come up through that, run a headgetrimmer over it or pull it up.
I got rolls of the heavy paper they put over you floor when getting painting done. So easy!