Question about weed killing plastic.

[flowerbug]

for taking weeds out i use cardboard layers (more than one so
gaps are covered well) and then cover with a good layer of wood
chips. after a year i may do another layer or two of cardboard.
this takes care of the most stubborn weeds. by the time the 2nd
year is done the wood chips are usually somewhat broken down
and can become garden humus (or i just scrape the ones on top
off to be reused). the cardboard is also usually gone by the
spring of the following year (or just bits of it left).

i dislike using plastics in the gardens as they tend to disintegrate
and crumble.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Because I need to keep the garden as dry as possible in our humid and sunny climate, I run a weedeater down paths and fairly close to plants leaving bare earth. I use snips up close to the roots and pull weed between where I have to snip and where I ran the weed whacker. Its a compostable result with a fairly long run in between haircuts except for right the spring.

 

[thejenx]

If I needed to get rid of a weedy area and was in no hurry to get rid of the weeds, I'd go for sheet mulching. cardboard (without color prints) in layers, at least 1 layer without gaps between sheets. then maybe a layer of manure and then a 10" layer of dry material, hay, leafs or straw. Make it wet once after putting it all down, to make it composting faster.

 

[catjac1975]

Because I need to keep the garden as dry as possible in our humid and sunny climate, I run a weedeater down paths and fairly close to plants leaving bare earth. I use snips up close to the roots and pull weed between where I have to snip and where I ran the weed whacker. Its a compostable result with a fairly long run in between haircuts except for right the spring.

I have actually been toying with the idea of using a lawn mower on weeds between rows instead of the endless tilling.

 

[ducks4you]

Before last weekend's snow I cleaned up my outbuilding "the Carraige House", big enough for a 1 car garage, and found 2 packages of weed cloth that is supposed to kill weeds for up to 5 years. I will be laying down a path this summer around to the front of my garage, and I will be using it underneath the pavers and will lay down gravel on top. MIGHT dig a little bit deeper and lay down some cardboard first. I burn my cardboard packaging that I don't use for gardening, but it is an unused resource that you pay to have hauled to a landfill.
Since I don't live in a town where you would see this from the street, I will be breaking cinderblocks into 2 pieces to use for some/all of the pavers. I put two extra 16' x 16" pavers that needed a home down right next to the NE front of the garage where I had (and my dogs and everybody else) had been walking a short cut. I use it, the dogs use it, it defined itself.
Local WM has two kinds of weedcloth on clearance ($3 off), one that lasts 10 years (3'x75'), and the other that lasts 20 years (3'x'100').
I will try to pick up at least a few of them. I could use 6 of the 3'x'100' ones to relay underneath my 16"x16" pavers around my fire pit.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I have actually been toying with the idea of using a lawn mower on weeds between rows instead of the endless tilling.

The disease harbored by grass and weeds are my actual target. Inhibiting fungi with their absence and surface dryness is helpful. This presupposes organic matter in the soil.

 

[flowerbug]

Before last weekend's snow I cleaned up my outbuilding "the Carraige House", big enough for a 1 car garage, and found 2 packages of weed cloth that is supposed to kill weeds for up to 5 years. I will be laying down a path this summer around to the front of my garage, and I will be using it underneath the pavers and will lay down gravel on top. MIGHT dig a little bit deeper and lay down some cardboard first. I burn my cardboard packaging that I don't use for gardening, but it is an unused resource that you pay to have hauled to a landfill.
Since I don't live in a town where you would see this from the street, I will be breaking cinderblocks into 2 pieces to use for some/all of the pavers. I put two extra 16' x 16" pavers that needed a home down right next to the NE front of the garage where I had (and my dogs and everybody else) had been walking a short cut. I use it, the dogs use it, it defined itself.
Local WM has two kinds of weedcloth on clearance ($3 off), one that lasts 10 years (3'x75'), and the other that lasts 20 years (3'x'100').
I will try to pick up at least a few of them. I could use 6 of the 3'x'100' ones to relay underneath my 16"x16" pavers around my fire pit.

i wouldn't put cardboard under pavers as it will rot and then they'll settle uneven. unless you don't mind that they'll be uneven. if you do mind, i'd look into how they do it professionally (i'm sure there are vids on that out there. we have nothing here that is even so it would look strange if we managed to get something done that ways.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The disease harbored by grass and weeds are my actual target. Inhibiting fungi with their absence and surface dryness is helpful. This presupposes organic matter in the soil.

In between my raised beds down here I put down landscaping cloth and will cover that with wood chips to keep the grass and weeds down and provide me a place I can walk when it is wet without getting muddy. I'm waiting on a call to go get the wood chips. They said they would call when they got a clean load of live oak chips but it may be time for a wheel to squeak some.

In Arkansas with a more traditional in-the-ground garden I'd spread wheat straw over several layers of newspaper or cardboard in between the rows to keep weeds down, give me a better pace to walk in wet weather, and to keep the dirt from splashing up on the plants. That dirt splashing up can carry blight and other diseases with it. The paper, straw, and cardboard would mostly compost in place and could just be tilled in the next year. An added advantage was that the areas I actually mulched between the rows like this usually kept enough mulch to stop new weeds and grass from growing until I was ready to till it in the next spring. That made preparing that area the next year much easier since I did not turn it under using a plow but instead used a shovel or mattock if I turned it.

In Arkansas I used wood chips over landscaping cloth in landscaping beds as mulch. Those wood chips were typically whatever utility companies ground up when trimming around utility lines. Those could be pine, oak, elm, maple, vines, or all kinds of trash trees. The chips would rot in place and make a good compost, though sometimes I would get some trash tree seeds. That compost made a great place for my Bermuda grass to spread to and grow in. So every year I'd pull up the landscaping cloth and clean it off, replacing with new chips. I'd use the rotted wood chips as mulch in my rows as the good woods were still in chip form. The following year they were tilled into the garden.

 

[catjac1975]

The disease harbored by grass and weeds are my actual target. Inhibiting fungi with their absence and surface dryness is helpful. This presupposes organic matter in the soil.

The idea of inhibiting surface moisture is so foreign to me. No such troubles in my northern garden.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

The idea of inhibiting surface moisture is so foreign to me. No such troubles in my northern garden.

Back out a ways and look at it through the 1 inch per week rule. Here we are probably past 60" for the year. 52 weeks in a year also gives the nominal number for watering. One day last year we got 4.75" in one day. And...drum roll...we have clay. While splash is an issue, an oxidizing soil surface combined with a thyme oil spray has done pretty well for early blight and other garden nasties. I am on hill rows which helps also.

At this point I would like to introduce you to my problem of an average temperature of 90f for the summer, with evening temps in the 70s at a minimum. Its a fungus party mixture.