Garden Fabric pro and con

I did not realize it until just now but the preponderance of gardening evidence is pointing to one slumbering conclusion, I have not defeated the weeds in my garden. I have most likely made them stronger. Or more proliferate in another measure. Once again the green fuzz is out there growing. I have a library of mental videos of all the things I have tried to slow them. Flamethrower? Check. Poisoned paintbrush? Check.

Well this year has gotta be different.

Plus every idea I have always works but I do admit it is a question of degree. Especially later in the season when the heat and humidity have long sunk in and the malevolent momentum of organic pestilence has entertwined its roots into and about my vegetables.

So my neighbor put out this cloth in his rows some 2 years or so ago. He never took it up. Its heavier than a cloth though. It kinda looks like a conveyor belt material. B worries about water infiltration. I worry about the mess it must make to ever take it up and find all those soil pins used to hold it down before they wrap themselves permanently around my tiller tines or poke through my stylish rubber gardening clogs.

Any thought on weed control in this manner before I probably go off and try it anyway? I am a sucker for a learning experience. I have heard that one may make it all day without kisses but never without a good rationalization.

Thanks in advance.

 

I just try to keep ahead of the weeds. Hoe, hoe, hoe where ever there's room for a hoe. Loosen up and pull out the taprooted gnarly suckers that grow rampantly in the cool seasons and over winter. (Winter is the worst here for weeds sprouting).

I put down two layers of the cheap landscape fabric/ weed block fabric near the foundation followed by pebbles, but nothing stops a weed that is fully determined to grow. They're the Schwartzeneggers of the plant world: they can muscle their way through whatever you do to try and stop them.

I just resign myself to the fact that they will always be there and I just need to keep ahead of them as best I can. Just part of Gardening, they are.

 

I say Noe,Noe,Noe! I am already subject to the occasional arthritis pill. Be nice!

Think like Bill Gates, weed once, read many!

 

Occassional ?

Oh my...I broke my back in 92 sciatica and arthritis are almost daily occurrances with me.

Motion is Lotion.
If you ache, move more. Your circulatory system does the healing.

 

Haha Keep working? Now THAT reminds me of my good friends over at the Revenue Office!

 

I had weed fabric down in my old yard, years ago. I didn't keep up with weeding what grew on top of it. Roots grew through the fabric, under and on top. What a mess. It was a major job getting them removed, and disposing of it.

That said, I'm using some now, carefully. I also use the woven plastic chicken feed bags, cut to lay flat, and covered with arborist chips. Only way I can keep up with weeds. I learned my lesson to remove anything on top of it ASAP.

 

I was looking closely at the pictures on Amazon as I am sure we all do, and saw the woven nature of this prospective polymer "cloth". I felt like it was designed to fail in the UV light over time and the black color concerns me for heat reasons in our subtropical clime. It is hard to express to the uninitiated how the high humidity acts as a tariff on transpiration and is multiplied by a hot root that slows the vertical ascent of fluid not just via the difficulty of evaporation into wet air but also the temp difference where warm fluids rise to the top of a plant by the same principle used to make hot water for your shower this morning from your water heater

 

I keep the weed fabric covered with arborist chips. They hold it down, and keep sunlight from reaching the fabric. They don't last forever either, so need to be replaced after a couple of years.

For pathways in the kitchen garden, I don't worry about letting the water run through, so use plastic sheeting covered with arborist chips. The sheets are small, so water does get through at the edges. That works pretty well for me there.

 

That is interesting to think about 2 different materials, one near the plant and the other could literally be organic matter. I have done that before, with hardwood bark chips, but they did not compost before the next season a so I dug them out (ouch!) and spread them elsewhere. Perhaps I should have covered them in compost in the fall so they would stay wet.

 

I put weed cloth between and around my raised beds. I then put leaves on top. Fingers crossed it will deter the silly weeds.

 

Silly weeds? I follow internet advice and the weeds in my yard have these tiny little battle medals hanging from their leaves. They have become militant because of my attacks.

 

The definition of a weed is 'a plant in the wrong place'. I read a most interesting article a few years ago about the uses of ground elder, which is just about impossible to eradicate. My small rear garden is full of it! The article suggested using this plant as a ground cover - or living mulch. It can help to retain moisture in the soil by making a lovely green carpet for shrubs and roses until it goes to seed and shoots up in an ugly way as it sets seed late in the year. At this point it is easy enough to just pull up the excess growth about ground and just allow the roots to rest over 'til the spring.
As @Daniel W suggests, using this membrane sensibly and in the right places can certainly help -for pathways and seating areas maybe, but used on areas where crops are grown it is awful. I agree with Annie Kay and am in favour of the hoe. Weeding can be a very relaxing part of gardening.
@Dirtmechanic you'll have to learn to spend more time doing a bit of weeding (good for old arthritic people, especially men) instead of reading up about technology.

 

That's a very obnoxious weed!

At my old house, the chickens liked eating it, and eradicated it.

The sad thing is you can still buy it here to plant in your garden.

 

I've used landscape cloth with variable results in the past. I recently read an article about PFAS entering the soil through the use of these plastic woven garden fabrics. As the plastic fabric breaks down, micro plastics are released into the environment. Or so says this article. It's not a scientific study, so who knows. But if you've ever gardened a property where someone else had laid down this fabric & left it..... It's the devil to remove. Back breaking.

What do you all think about using a layer of cardboard? I've heard it recommended at times and criticized at times due to the glue in the cardboard. Any thoughts? I'm about to renew my garden paths with wood chips. Trying to decide if I should put a layer of cardboard down first. This is in my community garden plot where I grow food.

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-home/landscaping-fabric-soil-plants-garden-home/

 

I was running into some similar objections with my own internal conversation. Usually there is not more than two of us in here at the same time, thank goodness. Anyway, self told me to remember that time I bought sod and it came with this very robust plastic netting. He pointed out that people who plant grass where grass does not want to grow get what they deserve. In my case it has been a decade or so of pulling out plastic netting that has tangled weedeaters and mowers. So taking good advice I have been angling a different direction. I believe one of @Zigs surnames is jute, or he uses it a great deal for a variety of projects. In this case it seems to be the netting for straw. I see most of these bioegradables indicate they should last about 90 days before breakdown. I sure would not want to pull jute twine from my tiller blades in the fall .