No doubt you've seen black fabric laid over bare soil with holes cut out for plants. It's meant to stop weeds from coming up. How important is such "weed barrier fabric?" What are the do's and don'ts? Find out in this recent exchange in my Pests and Problems Forum. And if you have experience with the product yourself, do let us know!
Weed Fabric? Absolutely!
Reader comment: "I am a huge fan of landscaping fabric for weed control. I have never noticed any adverse effect on the health of my succulents. In fact, the succulents in the area I covered with landscaping fabric (and rock cover) look better than those planted in soil with only rock cover. I suspect this is due to better water retention in the fabric-covered soil. And saving irrigation water is crucial in California these days, as always."
DLB: Not in MY Yard!
My response: I know professional landscape designers who use weed barrier fabric routinely, others who don’t like it, and others who use it in specific circumstances. Here’s my take on it.
The previous owners of my home (where I’ve lived 30+ years) installed weed fabric beneath gravel pathways and in some planting beds. Where the fabric has seams or has worn through, it pokes up through the soil and looks messy. Burying the exposed edges doesn’t help—dirt just slides off—so I take a sharp knife and slice the fabric back as far as I can. Even then, gravel or soil gets under it, causing it to lift again. Aargh.
Weed fabric fail: Despite being buried, it still comes up.
When I've looked at the ground underneath, it’s hard-packed---not an environment conducive to earthworms and other beneficials that need a friable, oxygen-rich environment.
I’ve seen weed cloth in friends’ gardens installed on slopes…oh, don’t get me started! The topdressing—whether bark, mulch or crushed rock—eventually slides off due to gravity. Double aargh!
As for holding moisture in the soil, keep in mind that barriers work both ways. Rain and irrigation need to percolate downward, and a barrier fabric diminishes its ability to do so. Moreover, healthy soil needs to breathe.
What I recommend
Hence my preference for using crushed rock topdressings to cover bare dirt. They stay in place, reduce evaporation, discourage seeds from sprouting, make weeding easy (if seeds do sprout), and lend an pleasing finishing touch. Not to mention they're less work. Installing black fabric—although I’ve not done it myself—looks like a pain.
Landscaper Steve McDearmon chose not to use weed barrier cloth in this installation.
How to prevent weeds?
I try to avoid putting chemicals on my garden, and I won't use Round-Up, so I'm glad there's a less controversial option: pre-emergent herbicide. It’s a powder that stops weed seeds from germinating. It needs to be applied in fall or winter, ideally before the first rainstorm. One brand is Preen. (Affiliate link.)
Pre-emergent herbicide
After adding gravel topdressing to a newly planted area, I sprinkle it with "weed preventer" powder. Watch landscape designer Steve McDearmon do this at 5:05 of my video: “See a Succulent Collector’s Garden Redo." Btw, in the video, Steve talks about weed barrier fabric.
Every spring, thanks to applying pre-emergent herbicide the previous winter, I have fewer weeds than the previous spring. In March and April, my gardener spends about an hour weeding my half-acre’s exposed, sunny areas. However, next door—for that matter nearly every yard in my ‘hood—it's a different matter: Weed removal requires a day or more of labor, after which nothing is done to keep weeds from coming back. Triple aargh!
So, what say you? Tell us in the comments below!
Related Info on this site
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