Landscape Fabric

[digitS']

I've never used it but see that there are gardeners here who do NOT like it. In my yard there are places I don't want anything to grow. I've got plastic film covered with bark.

Here's the deal: My new protected growing in the neighbor's yard. His garden hasn't had any care for 2 years. It was in kind of a sorry shape before that. I've just discovered that there's yarrow all over the place! I knew about the bindweed, fireweed, quake grass . . . you get the idea .

I just need to hold down the weeds and I'm going with another hoophouse - this time, under UV-resistant plastic film so I won't pull it down every summer (12' by 16', with an attached 4' by 8' shed ). I'll have things put together before having much of a chance to kill weeds by tilling. I can't use Round-up in there. The floor needs to drain so putting down a plastic fabric makes sense. But, what I'm reading is that the weeds will come up thru it anyway!

How about a couple layers of newspaper with the landscape cloth over them?

I've got the shed's foundation blocks and 4 by 4 sills down, leveled and screwed together . Going after 2 by 4 studs tomorrow!

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Steve, I don't think you'll have a problem with that plan. While I think landscape/weed barrier cloth is a horrible idea in the ornamental landscape, and in that application it's the mulch over it that allows weeds to sprout,
( although there is a real light duty type that you can rip with some effort that I can imagine weeds growing through ).

I think if you could find the "geo-textile" fabric you wouldn't need to line it with paper. It's very tough, you see it used at some nurseries to keep their container stock on to prevent weeds growing up and around the pots.

I'm pretty sure that one of the nurseries that cater more to landscapers would carry it.

 

[lesa]

If you were thinking of using this in anyway in your actual garden- I would be screaming"NO"! In the application you describe, I think it will work out fine. If you have really determined weeds, they might push up the cloth- but if you are in there walking around, I think you can keep the weeds down. Sounds like your project is coming along- is your snow gone?

 

[897tgigvib]

The kind my boss switched to just as I started working at the greenhouse nursery was a brand called TYPAR. It is definitely not uv resistant, but when covered lasts years. She had been using the kind with a wide flat tight weave, and at places that was set there were weeds growing through it. Also, it was harder to cut the X's in it for planting. It also cost more, so the typar was a better deal all around. Pretty sure it weighs less too.

Here's how my poor brain works! When I first started working there she was telling me about the products and calling it TYPAR of course. But my poor brain thought she was saying TYPE R, which seemed to make sense since she was also saying she just switched to a new TYPE of ground cover..

 

[digitS']

I'm still walking thru snow to get to my egress thru the fence, then, it's clear and the ground has thawed!

I know because I over shot my depth on each of the 4 holes for the block and had to refill. Even after tamping those 2" down, I'm afraid I'll have one corner of the shed UP and the other 3 corners down after a couple of months. Level for the moment and square! 107 1/8 inches between corners!

I just realized that this little hoophouse will be larger than my greenhouse or the other temporary hoophouse! The little 4' by 8' shed will admit nearly 100% of the spring sunlight, also! I may set up a heater in there.

Geo-plastic . . . 3m has some info on it. I guess they are the manufacturers. Oh hey! There's a page in Farmtek with greenhouse flooring! I should have figured that I didn't come up with this idea on my own!

I don't think I'd need to have it down for more than 12 months. Never can tell, tho'. I just pulled out 3 century plants to make room for the shed!

Wait! There's Marshall and google search: Dupont geotextile, TYPAR!

Steve

 

[bobm]

I baught ( very cheap) about 130'+ x 12' of a black plastic with permiated micro holes for water to go through, that is used under road bed rock fill, then asphalt. It is UV resistant and weeds don't grow through it. I got it from a guy who hauls rock for roads and parking lots. I put it down under crushed rock for walkways, patios, and parking area. It should work just fine under mulch too.

 

[digitS']

I just might consider mulch over the top of this . . . gotta think about that.

Bark would compost and it would be spreading mold spores. Pea gravel is out. Access isn't the best. It is kind of an escape route for me, the "gate" is reached by narrow garden paths. First is thru the carport so as to avoid my excavated "vestibule" for the existing hoophouse door. Yeah, 2 steps down there. If I fall in . . . Pea gravel is heavy and also kind of expensive.

There is a film with holes used as a plastic mulch on farms for things like melon fields. I suspect that it might be easily damaged by being walked on. It seems like something a little heavy-duty is a better way to go.

Yeah, this neighbor has always been a little hard for me to keep track of . Not only is he a guy who sleeps late but I have to stand in precisely 1 spot in my backyard to be able to see over the fence. Either that or I have to press my eyeball against the fence to see thru the boards! We have always gotten along well and I was glad to see the previous owner rebuild the fence and leave. He had done a lot of damage backing his pickup into the fence! Yep, part of this "garden" served as place for that guy to use for parking! I'm fairly sure that he had a drinking problem.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I got some last year that didn't get unpackaged. I bought it to use in my beds next to the house. I severely pruned the arber vitae, there are stones that were put in many moons ago by somebody else, and I get lots of nasty weeds there. I'm tired of deweeding it, so, since I have to dig there anyway this year, I'm gonna put down the landscape fabric, and cut holes in it for the surviving bushes, the hydrangea--here's a picture of it last summer, in the corner of this bed (see thread)
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33539
and the lavendar I'm planting there this Spring.
I'll remove the rocks and set them aside. Then, I'm gonna pull out and use a weed killer on them, then the fabric, then replace the stones. This is NOT a filled in, ornamental garden, and it will look better after I'm done.
Re: the previous posts, don't think I'd use it in, say, my Herb garden.

 

[digitS']

There are mushrooms under the plastic and bark in my yard!

Fifteen years ago, there was a small tree at the northwest corner of my house. I mean, right at the corner! I knew it had to go but the roots are now sending up mushrooms - or, the fungi that are living on them are. There was this bulge . . . and then the bark kind of slid off! I have stepped on it . . . repeatedly!

I don't think anything is of a permanent nature as a weed barrier. I have weeds in the greenhouse! That isn't good news . . . oxalis, mostly and they are so small that it is hard to pull the entire plant. There's also an iris at one end. I seem to have trapped it there and it is the darkest corner so, after 10 years, I'm pretty sure that it will never, ever bloom. Sure, I should be nice and move it outdoors rather than just tolerating it where it is . Probably one of those oddly colored ones Olive had planted in the yard when she lived here .

Steve

 

[digitS']

Now . I . know .

My workday started about 1:30 after my neighbor went off to his afternoon shift. It was a day to start emptying his boxed beds and ready them to be moved in line with the shed and its attached hoop house.

This garden was neglected the last few years but Ken put a lot of effort into that little garden several years ago. Flag stones everywhere! Three screws on the end of each board - 3" screw in the middle, 2" screws on either side . . . and landscape fabric under all the store-bought soil !

The flagstones didn't suppress the quackgrass and bindweed. In fact, there weeds growing right over the top of the stones! I've been over there for weeks and didn't know there were that many stones! Scrape them off with the hoe, pry them out of the ground and carry them out of the way. Wish the box beds had been so easy!

I am sure that the bindweed and quackgrass roots reached all the way to the center of the 60" beds and I bet they went all the way across the 2 at 40"! Every break in the fabric - and there were plenty - up came the roots. What a mess! Rotting fabric entangled in weeds. Three of the 4 beds have been dealt with but we haven't seen the last of those weeds!

Steve