Don't Use Landscape Fabric or Weed Barrier

Landscape Fabric / Weed Barrier does not work to control weeds

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Don't Use Landscape Fabric or Weed Barrier

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[jacquelynnice]

I just spent the last 3 months pulling out 2 layers of landscape fabric out of a large garden. Stuff is a nightmare!!! Everything this gentleman is saying is 1000% true.

[ericfleet]

Interesting. I've used it for three years and it reduced weeds almost completely. Yes, of course, weeds will try to grow around it, but that is so much easier than dealing with weeds coming in everywhere. And yes, if you cut holes in it, you will need to weed in these spots well, but again so much easier that weeding everything. And no, it isn't solid plastic, the water will run through. Heck I just watered my plants an hour ago and the water soaked right in. And no, mulch doesn't get rid of weeds, I used that for years before the fabric and while it may help, it is still a chore to take care of weeds. The fabric has saved me many hours of weed pulling.

[MsBL]

I don’t know about you guys, but the weed barrier is a life saver for me. Yes the weeds are gonna grow on top of my mulch and rocks but 10 is better than 100!! That’s all I have to say.

[thetexasboys.]

I’ve had it for 12 years and have no problems, where I don’t have it the weeds are out of control.

[AHMStudiosllc]

My uncle was an amazing gardener he didn’t use plastic yet he used egg shells nutrient rich soil and hay, literally his plants grew higher than his home, it was absolutely beautiful, but gardening was his life, if I have time to plant anything for the spring I’m lucky but I don’t have the time nor the passion to have plants grow talker than my house so I do use plastic, RIP Uncle and sorry I didn’t get your green thumb I hope your still proud of me in other aspects ❤ You are missed❤

[pragmatic]

I agree however.landscape fabric has worked well for me in the bed around my house.i covered it in river rock. That being said after 20 years ( and kids running on it) weeds started to grow. Being 68 it was a huge deal to remove, replace it and clean and replace the rocks. Also replaced a couple plants.. Took me a whole summer!! Looks great again. I figure in another 20 years I'll be 88 lol wont be doing it again lol. But the rest of me yard around trees and flower beds i put down cardboard/ newspaper under bark mulch. Works better as I love to change out plants often.😅

[icefire]

I am a landscaper In Ontario Canada. Everything this man says is 100% correct. Geotextiles as they are more technically called are not supposed to be used for this application at all. They are in fact meant to be a barrier between two or more different materials. They are most commonly used for separating gravels from subsoil or behind retaining walls to stop silts and soils from seeping through. The only surface application we use it for is ground covering and then applying river rock or decorative gravels on top in thick enough coverings, so you never see the fabric, and so even if soil gets in on top of the fabric weeds don't grow or if they do they are easy to remove. The notion that it should or can be used for mulch is a marketing campaign by suppliers of the fabric trying to break into retail markets. One last note, don't use the plastic tarp like fabric for any applications. The end strings come out and pollute your yard. Use the actual fabric type material, it's far more permeable to water.

[alycewhittico]

THANK YOU. 3 years ago my husband and I bought our first house. I was so excited to finally have my own front flower bed to landscape and play with my plants in (it's quite large). I am STILL removing torn, decayed plastic lining and crumbled, seed infested lava rocks. I have many well established weeds growing on top, through, and under this weed barrier. I'm not sure how old it is, but at some point it's developed many small holes weeds love to grow through. I can't get control of it. It's impossible to remove it since falls apart in my hands. Looks terrible. It's literal trash in my garden. I will never, ever use weed barrier after this experience.

[catiesmith]

I am a newly retired landscape contractor who specialized in garden maintenance. Your explanations about the pitfalls of weed barrier fabric is spot on! Yes…you might suffocate the underlying weeds that haven’t germinated yet but no matter what…you have to put something on top of the weed barrier to hide the ugly, black plastic look. You might use rock, mulch, bark….and THAT material is what the new generation of weed seeds will grow in. Pulling weeds out of the weed barrier is far more difficult than pulling a weed out of soil. There IS a horticulture reason that you touched on where the weed barrier is harmful to your garden. People cut Xs in the barrier to plant. As plants get rooted and expand over the years the ‘X’ that you cut is not big enough and chokes off the plants. In garden after garden that we maintained I found plants girdled and their growth inhibited by the weed barrier fabric. If it harms your plants what possible use does it have. I use it ONLY if I am building a dry creek bed because it prevents the rocks from sinking. Nicely done video. Gardeners…quit using this nasty stuff. Use compost, mulch, tree chips. These materials are the organic materials that will make a healthy garden.

[Dodge]

Weeding, watering and tending to your garden is the whole love of it for me. All naturel and organic.

[cindymorris]

This is absolutely true! I am in the process of removing mine from my landscape, not only b/c weeds grow on top anyway, but because where I have it down, my plant roots are being smothered as my plants mature. The areas I did not put it down, the plants are thriving and doing very well.

[jaskaranshergill]

Im in that 3rd group that absolutely hates this cloth. Just got done removing this from my garden and there were so many weeds i didn’t know it was there to begin with. This man is absolutely correct. The mulch decomposed forming a soil layer on top of the cloth and weeds grew crazy for about 2 years. Great informative video 👍🏻

[doryman]

Landscape fabrics worked well for me in Southern California. We watered the plants via a drip system and weeds from seeds landing on the shredded bark material were easy to remove. It is still working 20 years after install.

[marcyking]

Cardboard and brown paper bags work really well as a landscape cloth that can be worked back into the soil, or otherwise composted naturally adding carbon back to the soil. I bought a new mattress a few years back, and the cardboard that it was packaged in was worth its weight in gold to me. It was thick enough to last two full seasons before being replaced and it covered the majority of my garden. It was easy enough to poke holes in where I wanted to plant my veggies. Win, win, & win! .

[robertcotrell]

I'm coming into Year 2 of my garden. The previous owners had this stuff all over, and it's been a giant pain to remove. You described the situation perfectly.

Everytime I think I've gotten the last of it, I find more!

It instinctively felt limiting to me, and I'm glad my intuition was correct!

[lorimiller]

That was EXACTLY my experience a few years ago when I had to pull out landscape fabric the previous owners put down. It had inches of soil and gravel on in and weeds embedded in it. It was hours of hard, sweaty work.

[Carson_Van_McUber]

I tried this fabric last year in my garden. It worked awesome. I only had to weed the around the plant and in the gaps in the fabric where they grew out. I took in consideration water not getting to the ground because of the fabric so I poked a lot of small holes in it. Yes I did get some weeds growing out of a few holes, but it wasn't common. The problem I foresee though is when I tear it up so I can till the soil how much of a headache it will to remove and put back down. I work 10-12 hours a day 5-6 days a week and drive an hour to and from work so without this fabric my garden would have been a nightmare with weeding. Now if I actually had time to do it I wouldn't use the fabric, I just don't have time so I do.

[ascricco]

100% agree with everything you said! When I moved into my home, this was already in the garden, and it took forever to remove… What a mess! Just when I thought I had it all removed, I would find pieces of it in another area. 🤦‍♀️

[deborahbuege]

Thank you. This is the best educational garden video that I seen. I just finished taking this kind of cloth out and it was exactly as you said. I just used it to get a garden bed ready. The cloth was only down for a season, I had crab grass and other weeds having a party. I have subscribed and made you my teacher.

[elian]

It's very useful for landscape beds that are covered in for example river rocks. It will keep the rocks from migrating down into the soil. This is the true use case for installing landscaping fabric.