When is it okay to use landscape fabric? 🪴 In gardens under mulch? Under rocks or gravel?

When is it okay to use landscape fabric (aka weed barrier, or weed block)? Is it really all that bad? What if I want a low-maintenance landscape? What about landscape fabric under rocks or gravel mulches?

Learn when landscape fabric is helpful and when it actually INCREASES maintenance in your landscape, and the best mulching practices for different situations.

This is the fourth video in a series about MULCH. 🌱 You can watch THE WHOLE MULCH PLAYLIST, here!

Here are some ways you can get involved and learn more!

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS!
🪴 Design-Your-Own Landscape Layout ONLINE COURSE
...is now OPEN for enrollment!
For do-it-yourselfers who want to create their own landscape design, but just need a little extra guidance.I’ll walk you through the design process, step by step, so you can create a practical, hand-drawn "layout plan"(a landscape design plan that shows the layout of the finished design).
Learn more and sign up, here!

Here are some related videos that you may find helpful:

🌱 PART 1 OF THIS SERIES… Critical mulching tips every do-it-yourselfer needs to know!
(How much mulch do you need? What about mulch maintenance? Does mulch really bind up nitrogen?)

🌱 PART 2 OF THIS SERIES… What is the best mulch to use?
(Learn the upsides and downsides of different materials, like wood chips, bark dust, bark nuggets, arborist chips, landscape fabric, rubber mulch, cedar chips, fir vs. hemlock bark, allelopathic wood chips, and more.)

🌱 PART 3 OF THIS SERIES… How to use cardboard as mulch in your landscaping:

🌱 Landscaping Mistakes that Lead to More Maintenance:

And if you’re new here, hello! Welcome to Garden Project Academy, where I offer online courses and resources to help you with your garden project! My name is Eve Hanlin, I’m a certified horticulturist and landscape designer from the Pacific Northwest corner of the USA.

You can also follow on social media:
Tag me in your projects @gardenprojectacademy. I would love to see what you’re working on!

Remember that everything in my videos are for informational purposes only: It is entirely up to you to decide what is best for you, and your landscape.

©2022 Garden Project Academy LLC

[gardenprojectacademy]

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS!
🪴Design-Your-Own Landscape Layout ONLINE COURSE 🪴is now OPEN for enrollment!
For do-it-yourselfers who want to create their own landscape design, but just need a little extra guidance.

I’ll walk you through the design process, step by step, so you can create a practical, hand-drawn "layout plan" (a landscape design plan that shows the layout of the finished design).

Learn more and sign up, here!

[ExamineLife]

This lady is very intelligent and informative... Uses for landscape fabric? Preventing cats from using my bare ground as kitty litter. In my case, I'm allergic to cats. When spring fever strikes, I cannot have bare ground in my neighborhood as the neighborhood cats seek it out for kitty litter. So, I roll out landscape fabric to prevent kitty action in my yard. The odor in my yard was off the charts because the 30 plus cats in this neighborhood were using a sand patch the previous owners had converted to under a pergola from having been the base for under a swimming pool in previous years. That created a perfect environment for all the neighborhood cats to come in and utilize the giant kitty litter. I wonder if this is why they sold the house. Anyway, I donned a respirator, dug up the sand and removed it and the countless yards of kitty litter from my property. Then, I covered the space with landscape fabric since the cats were still trying to use it. They couldn't scratch and claw at the fabric. I purchased pea travel for some sections and am still working out what I want to do with another space of my yard. Decisions, decisions.

[janitapanos]

I placed landscape fabric recently around a large/mature maple tree and around my AC. I placed river rock on top. I did this because I was tired of digging out all the river rock that settled down into the soil over time.

[Silverhaired]

At my last house, broken concrete was used to make foot-high gardening beds in the front. The concrete was from the 1950s, with lots of pretty, colorful stones throughout the broken edges. In this house, flat stacked stones are used for the garden bed edging. In both cases, I expanded the beds and added height to them. In order to keep the dirt from seeping through between the rocks, I use landscape fabric to line the inside of the rocks or sidewalk pieces.. I shoveled away the dirt, lined the inside of the rocks, and continued the fabric a few inches along the ground at the bottom. This works extremely well at keeping the dirt out, and therefore, the weeds from growing between the stones.

[kansasxx]

I use landscape fabric underneath rocks in the areas that don't have any plants and where the rocks are larger than 1.5" across or so. Under smaller rocks I could see where it makes sense that a thick layer of smaller rocks this would be adequate, but under larger rocks it seems like you would need a layer 8+" thick to prevent too much dust and soil and organic matter falling into the crevices and creating a soil on top of the fabric.
I must say - The areas in my yard that do not have landscape fabric underneath the same river rock, they absolutely get more weeds. The areas with landscape fabric have zero weeds, except for along the edge where it has maybe pulled loose a bit from whatever is next to it, like a sidewalk.
I believe you that it only helps for the first few years (i am only on year 3) but I think that help is enough to be worth it, but on year 4 you could shovel the rocks aside, replace the landscape fabric, dust or rinse rocks out, and put them back down for another 3-4 year help.
Also you can get a leaf blower+vacuum and stay on top of keeping the rocky areas clean in order to prevent soil from forming on top of the fabric.
That being said I do think that small rocks are much lower maintenance than the larger rocks regardless of landscape fabric or no. I'd love to see a video about the use of mulch and specific types of rocks in a xeriscape area of ones yard.

[jamesbennett]

I have used fabric and vinyl ply 6 ml. Fabric allows for weed roots to penetrate thru from the surface. Vinyl stopped all weed growth from above and below. I watched this process for 30years. I just removed both types of weed barrier and the vinyl was the best and easiest for preventing weed growth and their removal as well as cleanly removing the weed barrier when I redesigned the entire landscape after 30yrs.
I live in Lawton, Oklahoma zone 8. I also agree with deeply mulching to prevent and ease the removal of evasive weeds. I had 5 mature cottonwood trees in my front yard that I blew the leaves into piles and mulched them into dust and spread back thru out the garden bed which returned the nutrients into the soil, controlling moisture, temperature and made perfect planting soil! 30yrs later, this August 2024; I had all of the cottonwood trees and stumps removed! 🎉
I’m putting in a modern minimalist low maintenance landscape design!🎉🎉🎉🎉
I’m using, rock, rubber mulch, dwarf mondo grass, crape Mertle trees and a variety of colorful sculptured shrubs and everblooming roses with a water feature.
(I enjoy sculpting the bushes.)
I enjoyed your video.

[lisaphillips]

I completely agree that landscape fabric has no place around plants. Several years ago, landscapers laid fabric under a large mulch in the section of our yard that was meant to be planted with shrubs and perennials. For 2 years, I tried and failed to get shrubs established. Even the hardiest, most "drought tolerant" species failed to thrive, despite drip irrigation. In desperation, I pulled up a section of the fabric to see what was going on down there. To my horror, I found "dead soil". I could hardly even call it soil. It wasn't quite sand, but it was completely devoid of moisture (despite the drip irrigation) and life. Nary a bug, worm or beetle. So I started working on the mulched area in sections, removing the fabric and adding lots of organic matter (partially rotted logs, manure, compost, leaf mould). I topped it with shredded cedar mulch and let it sit for a year before planting. I finally finished the last section about 2 years ago and couldn't be happier with the results. Everything is growing beautifully, weeds have been kept well under control by the mulch (even when they do grow, they are easy to pull), and I have never once missed that fabric.

[daisykreates]

That velcro reference… 😅 I totally agree 😂 I so regret using landscape plastic in my yards, looked and seemed good first, then after a very wet winter, nightmare everywhere 😢

[jesskelley-madera]

We bought a house that had a ton of cheap DIY work done, including landscape fabric around some garden beds. It’s awful - it’s coming up bit by bit and it gets grabbed and shredded by the lawn mower. We can’t pull it up without pulling up literal tons of dirt and plants, so we are just saying good bye to it one chunk (and eyesore) at a time. It’s a corner that the previous owner cut and now we’re paying the price. Not the end of the world but you’re totally right that it’s not aging well!

[Logiwonk]

Agreed - vastly prefer to use cardboard under wood chips to smother lawn or weeds and the cardboard is gone in a few months. I've had to pull a lot of landscape fabric and plastic out of my yard and replaced it with thick mulch, and it has been very effective and I'm building soil at the same time.

[lukejohn]

I've recentltv purchased a property which has had 10cm / 4 inches of river rock dumped directly on the soil, to look nice for sale. What a nightmare. Weeds grew like crazy in a few months, I've had to spend days hand digging and removing these rocks, as they have sunken very quickly into the soil. In the parts of the garden where I'm reusing the rocks I'll be using weedmat - to give myself a break for a few years before I plant out the whole garden.

Great channel and no nonsense advice, thankyou. And surprisingly relevant for me considering I live in Melbourne Australia.

[jessicadecuir]

There's no mention in this video at all of using landscape fabric with rocks to control drainage issues. That's the number one reason we created a river rock garden around the front and slope side of our house (after soil grading). We had to put geotextile landscape fabric underneath the river rock and put edging around it so the rocks wouldn't slide down the slope or disappear into soil. I do have a holly bush in the rocks and it's doing just fine. I'm more concerned about my hydrangea tree, but we made sure to cut a hole big enough in the fabric to not have any rocks or fabric touch the trunk of the tree or the root flare. The same with the Japanese laceleaf maple. The previous owner had wood mulch everywhere against the front of the house and it did nothing to help drainage, looked ugly, and attracted pests and critters. Another time it's appropriate to use landscape fabric is when you're digging a Swale in creating a dry bed creek. This not only helps with soil erosion but in directing the water away from the house.

[SteakNAleOrPonderosa]

As far as maintaining rocky pathways and whatnot, I lived in the desert at an apartment with lots of rocky walkways that would get occasional plants growing up in the rocks. My landlord would take a small blowtorch to it (!) every once in a while to burn off the organic matter—It sounds bananas, but the torch was tiny thing for searing steaks and he'd do it in 2-second bursts. Seemed to work pretty well, too!

[deejoseph]

I hired someone to do my garden after a hurricane in our area destroyed it. We had some shingles left from the roofing job and decided after watching a you tube video that we could use the asphalt shingles as well as weed barrier fabric as weed barrier in the front and back gardens I have noticed that my lemon tree is loosing leaves, my crepe myrtle trees that usually bloom by now are not blooming and my hawthornes are slowly dying. Also there are areas where anything I plant will die after a couple of weeks or so. I spent a lot of money and now after listening to your advice, (soil respiration) I am going to have to dig up all of those roofing shingles. SMH!

[blktiger]

Hey Eve. Thanks for the advice on landscape fabric.
As far as mulch goes, here in the PNW we have chipdrop. I'm on the east side of WA. I got 4 pickup loads of aborists wood chips from someone in my local area that got more than they could use. Its all free from chipdrop. So now my front yard is 1/2 wood chips with blue rug juniper and, a couple trees I planted a few years ago.
I did use fabric under the wood chips but now I'm considering removing it because there are 2 very large trees (a Hawthorn and Pine) on the east and west sides of my property and I don't want either of these trees to be impacted by the fabric.

More of my lawn will come out and eventually I will have zero turf grass in my front yard. I just recently I bought 3 Artemsia Tridentia and 3 Rhus Trilobata for different areas of my front and back yard. My plan is to have a mostly maintenance free/xeric outdoor area on my property.

[jensmith]

I totally agree. I am constantly pulling out chunks of fabric many inches below good soil.

[kathygrieve]

I totally agree Just bought a house with thick landscape fabric and rock. Plants are 18 years old and they’ve not spread or grown. Ugh now I’m removing it and just using compost and mulch

[adzbneweng]

Awesome video Eve! Never again will I ever, ever, ever use landscape fabric in a garden...for all the reasons you mention.
I'm a "cardboarder" all the way.
I'm also not a fan of bark mulch as it builds up faster than it decomposes, becomes hydrophobic. With projects I'm working on, I often find myself digging through 12 or more inches of dry bark mulch before hitting soil. Makes it nearly impossible to plant new plants. And I've seen the mulch getting higher and higher, year after year, around tree trunks and eventually killing the tree. Instead, please choose a composting mulch that decomposes over a couple of years and actually adds nutrients to the soil.

[persephonebasilissa]

This summer, we placed landscape fabric under 6 inches of river rock around our foundation - with no plants - after removing that depth of soil and soaking with a weedkiller. This is in dry southeast Washington State. We'll see how it goes....

[twilde]

This past spring, I used landscape fabric and rock for an area close to a public sidewalk and maybe 5 feet into my front yard. Then I planted 4 boxwoods across the front of the yard in that area. I noticed one is struggling. Next spring I plan to cut larger circles around the base of each of the boxwoods so they can get better circulation. If that doesn't work, I will likely relocate the boxwoods. Putting mulch there wouldn't work since it's public. Depth of mulch is crucial -- in another bed, I didn't use landscape fabric, but used 4ish inches of cedar mulch. It worked beautifully. Do weeds come up? Yes, but as a weed or two pops up, I can get to them easily.