Moving into a new home and discovering that there are native plants on the property is a welcome bonus.
Unfortunately for a Redditor posting in the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit, those natives were planted over two layers of landscaping fabric, prompting an angry response: "Welcome to your own personal hell. My flower beds had 3 layers!"
It's tough dealing with landscape fabric, and the OP is dealing with two layers, essentially offsetting one of the major benefits of fostering a native or natural lawn — water usage.
Native plants don't typically require that much water, or maintenance, for that matter. As native species, they've adapted to their local zones, capable of surviving, even thriving, with the bare minimum.
Landscaping fabric presents several problems, especially when it's been in the ground for a long time. Despite its entire purpose, weeds eventually break through the material in the long term, as the fabric decays and its structural integrity weakens.
Non-woven and plastic-based varieties disintegrate into microplastics, poisoning the surrounding area and effectively inhibiting plant growth and new plant life.
As a thick fabric, it also creates a sort of soil compaction, restricting water flow, hence the OP's need to water the native plants extensively. It's also incredibly difficult to remove. Since it falls apart, it often breaks into thousands of tiny pieces, and it's difficult or impossible to get them all.
In fact, some people have to resort to removing sections of their topsoil just to get the stuff out of there.
Without the fabric, native lawns thrive with minimal maintenance and minimal water usage. That means savings on water bills and an overall improved local ecosystem. They also bring in pollinators, which are crucial to our food supply and plant growth in general.
It's not difficult to sympathize with the OP's struggle, as it will either take a lot of time and effort or the additional expense of having it professionally removed.
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Mowing the lawn 🏡 Comments on the OP's post reflect the shared dislike for landscape fabric: "I removed the rocks, pulled up the tarp, and found another layer of rocks. Beneath that layer was another tarp hiding a layer of dirt-packed river rock."
Another comment remarked on the amount of labor that goes into removing it: "I removed two layers of weed barrier and a massive amount of landscape rock before even planting."
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