Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?


No. Compost and mulch. Tried fabric and it was more trouble than it was worth
to use it.
sed5555

On 16 Mar 2003 15:39:45 GMT, (Sed5555) wrote:

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?


No. Compost and mulch. Tried fabric and it was more trouble than it was worth
to use it.
sed5555

I will second that, tried it in Florida and the Dollar weeds simply
ran under it taking over the beds anyway popping up anywhere I had an
opening for a plant of my own. Pain in the neck IMHO.

Dave Fouchey.

In article
87C570433710AB90.45A4F51375B99C2B.3FC093A24749432 , Kevin
Miller wrote:

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?


No. I do use layers of newspapers hidden under a layer of mulch or compost
& soil as weed-barrier, & the paper itself rots into compost but not until
it has smothered anything unwanted that might've sprouted there. An autumn
top-coating of steer manure seems to keep too many weed seeds from
germinating the following year, so only the initial barrier to get rid of
extensive amounts of weeds is needed, & that can be paper which causes no
further disruptions to the area.

This month I for the first time ever did find a use for garden cloth. I
put out some garden fabric in a huge ungardened area specifically to kill
the grass without needing to use herbicides. I'm planning ahead. When the
grass & weeds in that area are good & dead, I'll throw away the cloth,
churn the soil, & begin extending my gardens. I suspect I could've saved a
bit of money using tarpaper for this, but I kinda didn't want the soil to
completely dry out during the grass-killing process, since there are
already a couple small trees growing in that area.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

On Sun, 16 Mar 2003 10:07:46 -0500, Kevin Miller
wrote:

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?


I do not, but my father-in-law did. It kept weeds from growing from
the soil underneath, but, as the mulch broke down, weeds grew in the
compost that formed on top of the fabric. On the plus side, they were
very easy to pull.


Romayne

Kevin Miller wrote:
Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?

I tried it, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I still had to put
on plenty of mulch so the fabric didn't show, whenever I planted
something new, my digging pulled-up the fabric for many feet around,
meaning I needed to mound the mulch to hide it again. Also, weeds
eventually grow thru it from the top down, and then they're ten times as
hard to remove as they would have been if they were just growing in
loose mulch.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.

Once we tried two brands of that in a communtity garden. This was a
big sunny field with weeds so determined they've sue botanists for
defamation. By August the fabric was in tatters and hanging on leafy
staks. It looked like a pirate fleet. Still one brand almost worked,
both helped. Newspaper is cheap but heavy for a large job.

"Kevin Miller" wrote in message
news:87C570433710AB90.45A4F51375B99C2B.3FC093A2474 ...
Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?

No.

I did put some down under a couple shrubs and any weeds that do make their
home there are either really easy to pull or stick like glue to the fabric.


--
Kristen
Zone 6, SE NY

On Sun, 16 Mar 2003 10:07:46 -0500, Kevin Miller wrote:

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?

Nope. The mulch cannot decompose into the soil providing nutrients slowly over time
and the worms and other soil live cannot get proper gas exchange and water.

Also, weeds
eventually grow thru it from the top down, and then they're ten times as
hard to remove as they would have been if they were just growing in
loose mulch.


Exactly what I found out years ago.

Bryan

Kevin Miller wrote:

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?

No. Weed cloth or landscape fabric is best used only for preparing
paths and walkways or other porously paved surfaces. It is a waste of
time and money when used in any type of planting beds. It doesn't work
to control weeds in these situations and it is a pain to try and work
around/through. Mulching is a far better method of weed control in
planting beds.

pam - gardengal

In article ,
Sed5555 wrote:
Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?


Count me in as another NO! I use it under gravel and walkways and
nowhere else.

For perennial beds, if I have to do serious weed kill to start, I use
8+ layers of newspaper and then mulch/compost. I'm always amazed when
two or three months later I dig a hole for the latest new plant I
bought, and there is nothing green under the newspaper (but a lot of
worms).

Carolyn



--
Carolyn Fairman
http://www.stanford.edu/~cfairman/

I have to say that the fabric does have a role in planting.... I use
it in several situations. If I plant/create a bed on the spur of the
moment it grass/weeds from coming back. Around shrubs, since I am poor
and cheap I buy little plants and the fabric keeps things sort of
clean for a while until shade does the job. Finally establishing a bed
of herbacious perenials, I plant plugs through the fabric..... and the
next spring I can pull off the fabric, most weed seeds have germinated
and died most perenial weeds are dead so you have a fairly clean soil
to use the mulch on.
I use/reuse it many times, to do the above, smother bad parts of
the yard, make a temporary nusery for starting seedlings..... on and
on.
Finally mulching takes time and money every year! neither of which
I have enough of!

Pam wrote in message ...
Kevin Miller wrote:

Poll: Do you use landscape fabric in your perennial beds?

No. Weed cloth or landscape fabric is best used only for preparing
paths and walkways or other porously paved surfaces. It is a waste of
time and money when used in any type of planting beds. It doesn't work
to control weeds in these situations and it is a pain to try and work
around/through. Mulching is a far better method of weed control in
planting beds.

pam - gardengal