Weed Cloth-Anybody Use It?

[ducks4you]

I have reused broken pieces of stall mats to cover areas to keep weeds down. I even used two clear plastic shower mats around one of my hydrangea--still there 5 years later--and they have kept the weeds at bay, while the plant still flowers every year.
If you can dig them out, bindweed is not impossible to get rid of. You keep digging until you get all of the runners, then toss them in the trash so that they won't regrow. ALWAYS clean up where bindweed has created any seed pods and throw Those away, too. Landfills probably need something growing in them and weeds work well there.
My research suggests that you can cover the areas with clear plastic, but in my zone it will need 6 months of strong sun to kill the weeds AND you don't want to till the area afterwards bc you will bring up any old weed seeds that can live decades without any sun.
I still have some henbit growing in my stone bed around the house. I intend to put down plastic, as soon as I get some more, and leave it there until the summer, or later. I only walk on this bed to turn on/off the water hose, and I cleaned it out almost completly last spring. It travels around the south side to the east side of the house. The only things I want growing there are the evergreen bushes and the columbine, which is now green, thanks to a so far mild winter.

 

[flowerbug]

I don’t want to pollute my soil with carpet and crap like that. I plan on rolling up the weed cloth at the end of the garden season and storing it. Then I can amend the soil over the winter. In our climate the soil never freezes. I’m looking out the window now at a green patch of lambs quarters in the garden. The weeds never stop! I’ll let the Sheep on on it before I till it under. Going to transplant a bunch of it to pastures and fence it for a weed seed garden. They love the stuff, might as well protect it so it can go to seed and spread it around-jus not in the garden!

@catjac1975 does water go through the weed cloth?

for sure i don't either! i don't even want weed barrier fabric let alone the rest of it.

some weed barrier fabrics let water through and they may even have a pore direction so that you don't want to put them down the wrong side up.

 

[baymule]

Bay, I wonder if the black surface will create too much heat for your garden plants? It would be nice for early spring planting, but I don't know about the rest of the season.

That is a good point. There are LOTS of commercial nurseries here and they all use weed cloth. I’ll give it a whirl.

 

[catjac1975]

we put a few layers of overlapping cardboard down over areas of grass or other weeds that we cover with landscape fabric. we don't notice anything coming back up through that. by the time the cardboard is eaten up by the worms/other soil creatures the grass hasn't enough energy to keep going. we'll also use old blankets, towels, carpet chunks, bags from mulch, etc. to add another layer of resistance under the weed barrier. eventually i may have to get all that stuff out of there including the weed barrier.

Cardboard is a great help in controlling weeds.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I used black plastic last year and didn't have any trouble with the heat bothering my veggies, but I pinned it down over my fall layer of leaf mulch...there was quite a bit of space between the plastic and th ground. Also I don't think my summers get nearly as hot as yours, bay.

 

[Collector]

We have been thinking about switching to woven weed barrier also to cut down on the hours spent weeding and maintaining the area between rows and plants. We used a woven product used in road construction last season in the melon patch and it worked great for keeping down the weeds, we just picked the few weeds that sprung up around the individual plants . Also we are thinking of switching over to the drip tape irrigation system, we currently have a mixed system of soaker hoses , 1/4” drip lines, and hand watering. Gardening is the never ending search for new ideas to cut back on the not so fun gardening chores so you can spend more time on the chores that we enjoy. I am also a sucker for every new gardening gadget I see , most of them are all hype though lol.

 

[ducks4you]

Cardboard has become my #1 Best garden buddy. I have a good selection of it, bc I didn't use it all last year. I am waiting until it gets a little warmer, then DH and I will be out with the tractor. I have patches of 2019 year 1 burdock that are growing where the horses roam. Make sure there are no burr seeds there, then cover comPLETELY with cardboard and dump used stall bedding on top. I have done this before, but with my tractor, I can scoop up and move piles SO MUCH FASTER!!. No poison there and hardly likely those burdock will go to seed in 2020.

 

[flowerbug]

Cardboard has become my #1 Best garden buddy. I have a good selection of it, bc I didn't use it all last year. I am waiting until it gets a little warmer, then DH and I will be out with the tractor. I have patches of 2019 year 1 burdock that are growing where the horses roam. Make sure there are no burr seeds there, then cover comPLETELY with cardboard and dump used stall bedding on top. I have done this before, but with my tractor, I can scoop up and move piles SO MUCH FASTER!!. No poison there and hardly likely those burdock will go to seed in 2020.

just have to keep an eye on it to make sure none can sneak up through a seam or hole, but for the most part it does exactly what i want it to do and then best of all it goes away all by itself too.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

I have battled weeds since we moved here. I have big, tall, strapping, healthy weeds that take off and grow taller than I am. Plus I have all their smaller cousins that take up space down below, then I was cursed with wild or burr cucumbers that are on a mission to take over the world. I have laid down cardboard, mulched with wood chips, hay, chopped, pulled, and given up when the temps hit 100+ degrees and I lose interest due to impending heat stroke. I turn the sheep in the garden in the fall and they eat it down to nubs-to no avail.

So I am going to try weed cloth. I have studied the pros and cons and decided to spread sheep and chicken compost, till it in, smooth out the soil and roll out weed barrier cloth. I will burn holes in it to put plants in the soil, to prevent raveling. I will not put mulch over it, mulch decomposes, turns to soil, soil catches weed seeds, they sprout, puncture the weed barrier with roots and turns it into a mangled mess. I'll roll it up in the fall and store over the winter. meanwhile, I'll spread out sheep and chicken compost again, sow clover and turn that under the soil the following spring a few weeks before planting.

That is my master plan. I know plans can go awry, so does anybody have any pointers? Anybody ever use weed barrier cloth? Love it or hate it and why? My garden is 100'x70' I won't cover all of it, probable 1/2 to 2/3 to see how it goes.

We use to use them.
a definite improvement overlaying plastic down as garden weed barriers. A fabric weed barrier is also biodegradable and resists deterioration from sun exposure. I highly recommend it.

 

[baymule]

We have a section of the garden that we are going to use the weed cloth on. We got a huge load of triple thick pumpkin boxes that we are going to lay down and cover with mulch, it's our 3rd year to get them. So we are not going to cover the whole garden, just a part of it to see if it is going to work or not.