Landscape fabric, weed barrier and weed barrier fabric are names for the same product. It is a black mesh type of plastic that is used extensively in landscaping to keep weeds out of your garden. Does it keep the weeds out? Does it let water through to the plants? Lets have a look at the effectiveness of landscape fabric.
Landscape Fabric – Weed Barrier Cloth
This is how landscape fabric is advertised to work. You place it on the ground and cover it with mulch. Weeds already in your soil can’t grow through the cloth so they die. Weeds can’t grow on the cloth, so any sprouting seeds also die. Voila! No weeds.
Don’t Buy Into the Landscape Fabric Myth.
It is true that seeds sprouting under the cloth will not grow through it. However, strong perennial weeds will eventually grow through or around it. Many perennial weeds can grow quite a distance under ground and since landscape fabric comes in 3 and 4 foot wide roles they only need to grow a few feet to find an opening.
If you use a thin cover of mulch, weeds do not grow in the mulch because it is just too dry there. But in no time at all you will see the landscaping fabric stick up through the mulch and then it looks terrible in your garden.
If you use more mulch to hide the weed barrier, wind and water deposits soil particles and plant remains onto the cloth. In no time at all you have the perfect seed mix sitting right above the weed barrier, and weeds start to grow. Believe me when I say that plant roots can grow through the holes in the landscape fabric.
Weed barrier cloth is no better for controlling weeds than a 4 inch layer of mulch.
Landscape Fabric Stops Rain
Weed barrier cloth is porous (ie it has holes in it) and it is advertised as ‘letting the rain flow through’. This is mostly a gardening myth. The reality is that some rain will go through the holes, but much of it flows over top of the cloth and away from your plants, which remain dry.
Weed Barrier Sucks the Life out of Your Soil
I’ve talked many times about the importance of life in the soil. Landscape fabric reduces the air reaching the soil, and prevents any new organic matter from getting to the surface of the soil. It does not take long and the dew worms, microbes and other soil life, which depends on air and food, either leave or die. When this happens, there is a reduction of nutrients for your plants, and soil structure starts to degrade. Neither is good for your plants.
Permanent Plantings are Damaged
In permanent landscapes, plant roots will grow into and through the landscape fabric. At some point in the future when it is replaced (needs to be replaced every 10 years or so), you will damage the roots.
Is There a Good Use for Landscaping Fabric?
Maybe. If you are planting trees in uncultivated land that is very weedy, there is a benefit to using the weed barrier around the tree for a few years in order to keep the weeds down, and give the tree a chance to get established. The tree roots have less competition for space and nutrients. The loss of water due to the weed barrier is offset by the fact that the weeds are no longer using the water. The landscape fabric should be removed after a couple of years once the tree is large enough and strong enough to compete with the weeds.
Recent scientific findings, reported by Dr Linda Chalker-Scott, suggest that a 6- 12 inch layer of wood chip mulch is just as effective. I have used the landscape fabric, as described above, for trees planted in fields, but have now switched to using just mulch.
More Reasons for NOT Buying Landscape Fabric
- it is a plastic and we don’t need more plastic in the environment
- plant roots growing on top of the fabric can’t withstand a drought as easily
- moving plants, and dividing plants is a nightmare because the weed barrier prevents you from digging new holes
- if you do get weeds they are near impossible to pull out
- it is relatively expensive for a product that does almost nothing!
References:
1) Photo Source: Two Women and a Hoe
I found this to be true, after years of nightmare with weeds and fabric barriers proving totally ineffective. Eventually I put down steel plates and concreted EVERYTHING. It was the only way. I now have no garden, but I also have no weeds.
I agree that it’s best to avoid this plastic for most landscape uses. But one use in vegetable gardening seems worth trying. I’m talking about landscape fabric as a temporary weed barrier, laid down in our community garden raised beds, with plants grown through slits. We’ve had terrible weed problems, largely because of weed seeds in the soil we had brought in. There isn’t enough labor available to keep 30 beds well weeded.
Drip irrigation lines run under the fabric. At the end of the growing season, the fabric is removed and stored for reuse the following season. At that time, organic matter can be worked into the soil or left on top as a winter mulch, or cover crops can be sown.
This article is based on very limited knowledge. Yes, if you buy cheap landscape fabric, it might not do what you want it to and in many cases will not last a single year, but this is not because of landscape fabric in general.
“Landscape fabrics are classified by weight (2 oz, 3 oz, 6 oz) per yard or by thickness (mm). Both non-woven and woven materials come in a range of weights. Heftier fabrics resist punctures, are more effective and tend to last longer. They’re are also more expensive, but the investment can be worthwhile. Heavy weight professional grade landscaping fabric, for example, is extremely durable and will last up to 20 years in the right application.”
They do last longer – but they still do not stop weeds from growing.
I, too dislike landscape fabric but have found one good use for it: Under a fence. I put a 12″ strip directly under my wire fence so weeds don’t grow up and intertwine (and we all know how hard it is to hand weed right on a fenceline). Would you support this type of use?
Goodday
Im from SA and when I want to use gravel or even laying down pavers I put seasalt (you buy it in bulk) on the soil that work wonders for years
How? Sea salt is toxic to plants?
I use window bug screen fabric and put 2-3 layers around plants, flowers and shrubs. It is not known if weeds will grow through topsoil placed on top of the fabric but it works wonders if you add lava rocks, rocks, gravel, bark mulch or drain rock on top.
This Canadian is not a garden expert but we have window screens on the exterior of windows to stop insects from invading our home while fresh air flows through. The same concept is used to prevent weeds with unsightly blight and air and water goes through for flowers and plants while weeds struggle to poke through. Seventeen years later, I rarely pluck weeds after placing lava rocks on top of the hidden fabric. Soil does not mat to the window screens and does not rot the material unlike garden fabric which is not cheap. Thinking outside the box, I went to window screen companies and got free defective rolls as they were collecting dust in the warehouse and were happy to reduce, recycle and reuse. Again, check with the experts but even garden shops liked my idea as with strangers. Good luck…
Thanks to Kerwin for the window screen idea.
Thank you! How did this awful technique become so popular?! I help my mom with her garden, but finally had to insist she allow me to remove the awful landscape fabric base that was making everything more difficult. What a relief to be free of that!
Landscapers love it because it looks great for a year or two.
Look the fabric is no good but cardboard is the best way any if you think about the weed guard next time time start a charcoal fire and get a steel poker a poke holes in it 3/4 to a 1/12 inch ohole and water will get threw
poking holes in weed guard will let even more weeds grow through?
I moved in to a home with a garden that is covered in 3 layers of weed barriers! I’ve already removed all barriers but what can I do to begin healing the soil? Should I just mulch it heavily and wait? Thanks for all your wonderful content!
Two options:
1) mulch and wait
2) Start over again. Dig it up, and 6″ of compost. Then mulch.
My neighbor had fabric under mulch. Deterioration of mulch and soil particles from the air alllowed total weed growth on the entire area. Weeds will even grow in lava rock pores.
I’m doing a pea gravel patio….I’ve already removed the grass from the area….before I put down the gravel do I really need anything underneath it?
no
I would recommend using a paver base (fine crushed stone).
I recommend a layer of crushed stone under the pea gravel instead of landscape fabric, especially if the ground underneath is sandy or loose. I think a thick layer of pea gravel can be difficult to walk on, so if you use less of it along with a layer of crushed stone which can be tamped down a little firmer than the fine gravel, it makes a path or patio just that much more pleasant. One thing I wish I’d done with my paths is use a wider edging to keep the gravel where it should be and out of the lawn where it shouldn’t.