landscape fabric?

kaykarr

Hi all!  I am VERY new to this gardening stuff, but my husband and I are buying a house soon and we went over there today for the inspection.  The flower bed in the front of the house were a total mess because it rained really hard this weekend and the wood chips had spread all over the yard, porch, and sidewalks.  Because of this, I could see that there is some kind of landscape fabric under the wood chips.  I don't know much about it, but I have heard that it isn't a good thing, and it looks fairly new so do you think I should just wait until we move and immediately rip it up?  Any advice would be appreciated!

hoping4septimus

Landscape fabric is good. It stops weeds and water still gets throught.

kylara111

I honestly hate landscape fabric and would tear it out.  It really doesn't keep weeds out for very long.  Weeds will eventually just grow on top of it.  I also lived in a house that had landscape fabric and the roots of a lot of the plants were so tangled in the fabric.  It was a mess.

TarHeels&Rebels

kylara111:

I honestly hate landscape fabric and would tear it out.  It really doesn't keep weeds out for very long.  Weeds will eventually just grow on top of it.  I also lived in a house that had landscape fabric and the roots of a lot of the plants were so tangled in the fabric.  It was a mess.

I agree with pp's points and don't care for it either.  Using it also compacts the soil underneath because not enough air, water and sun can get to it.  I pulled up older (nearly decomposed in some places) landscape fabric from our front beds and we had to take pick axes to the soil to break it up.  Not kidding.

If you want to prevent weeds, use a product like Preen.  It's a granule you sprinkle on that prevents weeds from germinating.  It's worked miracles in my beds.

 

nitaw

I'm not a fan. It's more hassle than it's worth, especially if you want to redesign beds or like planting annuals each year. I plant annuals each year, and it became a giant pain to have to cut/dig thru  landscape fabric. I tend to walk my around my flower beds each day and just yank out newly emerging weeds.

~NB~

Landscape fabric is for use UNDERNEATH HARDSCAPE, not underneath/around living plants. It's what you put down before you lay a patio.

It DOES inhibit water, air and nutrients from reaching roots of landscape plants. *So does deep mulch.

Weed seeds are spread ABOVE GROUND and germinate on the top layer of anything, be it mulch, soil, or concrete pavement or clogged rain gutters. Laying landscape fabric only means your weeds will germinate on top of your landscape fabric.

Use natural mulch made from shredded bark or leaves and the weeds will be much easier to pull up. Keep mulch away from stems and trunks.

* Dr. Ed Gilman, University of Florida http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/mulchcutsoffwater.shtml

 

kaykarr

Thanks for the input!  I think I will probably just pull it up when we move and lay down more mulch.  I don't like the idea of having to deal with it a few years down the road and it being harder to remove.