A home gardener sought advice on how to deal with weeds, crowd-sourcing in the Facebook group Raised Bed Gardening to ascertain if landscape fabric was worth putting down.
Landscape fabric, which has been called a "gardening myth," has many downsides. It's intended to prevent weeds, but weeds often persist anyway via seeds that blow into topsoil or break through the fabric.
Mulch is a much better alternative, according to many landscapers. "It reduces soil moisture evaporation; conserves moisture; moderates soil temperature; reduces weed growth; reduces soil loss due to erosion; and improves microbial activity due to all the listed benefits and the addition of organic matter to the soil profile as the material breaks down," the N.C. Cooperative Extension states.
The website also explains that landscape fabric can detrimentally affect soil temperature, water infiltration, and gas exchange between soil and the atmosphere.
Worse, landscape fabric is often made of polyester or polypropylene. As it slowly breaks down, it can leave dangerous microplastics in soil, destroying the health of the soil and contributing to a host of health problems for humans.
Landscape fabric often squanders gardeners' time and money as well as their well-being.
Upgrading to a natural lawn or native garden can help homeowners save money and beautify their gardens. Native lawns and gardens need less maintenance and less water, and landscape fabric does them no favors either.
"Many natives propagate by self-seeding," the Kentucky Native Plant Society explains. "Landscaping cloth makes that close to impossible because the seeds never make contact with the soil underneath the cloth."
Native lawns and gardens also invite pollinators such as butterflies and bees, which are necessary to ecosystems and to keep humans' food supplies intact.
Commenters agreed that landscaping fabric is more trouble than it's worth.
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What's the hardest thing about taking care of your yard? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Mowing the lawn 🏡 "Did use it my first season and pulled it all out the next season," one wrote. "It's a pain in the butt."
Another said: "I never found a use for landscape fabric. The last thing I'd want to do is disconnect the bed's soil from the earth's natural soil."
Another person detailed some of the stuff's pitfalls, writing: "Landscape fabric doesn't work. 'Weeds' come in from either runners (grasses) or from windblown seeds, which the landscape fabric wouldn't have helped with anyway."
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