A Redditor wanted to know if it made sense to temporarily use landscaping fabric to cover a section of cleared lawn, but the r/vegetablegardening community was largely opposed to the idea.
"I'm not planning to garden at all over the winter, so I'm wondering if it would make sense to just cover the whole area with landscape fabric to prevent the grass seeds/roots from growing and start fresh in the spring. … Are there any drawbacks to this?" wrote the original poster. "I guess my question is will fabric actively harm my soil somehow? By not letting it breathe for that long or something."
The general consensus among gardening experts is that landscape fabric isn't effective at its stated goal of blocking weed growth. Weeds will routinely penetrate landscaping fabric, making it harder to remove both the fabric and the plant later. The barrier can equally entangle desired root systems.
Worse still, landscaping fabric sheds microplastics over time. They can find their way into edible plants in your garden and pose endocrine, immune, and reproductive health risks to people eating them.
Sticking with natural lawn management strategies is generally more fruitful. The Reddit community was consistent in its support of using cardboard instead of landscaping fabric.
"You are better off using cardboard boxes with tape removed," said the top-voted reply. "My experience is that weeds and grass just grow right through landscape fabric."
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"You won't hurt the soil, no. However I do agree with what others have said- use cardboard, if you can!" said one commenter.
"Not only does it decompose into the soil over time which is a win, you don't need to go out and buy anything fancy. The landscape fabric will not block weeds all winter as well as you'd like. Cardboard is thicker and will keep out more light."
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