Salty Thumb wrote:
Alexander Pensky wrote in
:

Salty, have you personally *used* landscape fabric and had the desired
results, or did you just see it on TV? Landscape fabric is from hell.
Tree feeder roots grow up through it. Turfgrass encroaches over the
edges and then sends roots down through it. Weeds will germinate in
whatever covers it, and eventually send roots down through it also
unless you pull them promptly. [...]

Yes, I've got landscape fabric in two beds in front of my house. They're
covered with pine bark nugget mulch, 1-2" thick. One borders a sidewalk,
so there's no encroachment. The other is next to the lawn and is
bordered with ~3.5" 'L' edging. It's been about 2 years in place now.
Before I installed it, the beds were over grown with weeds and grass.
Now the only problems I have are little onion looking shoots popping
through occasionally on the sidewalk bed, and the occasional dandelion
that tries to squat in holes made for flowers. [...]

Keep an eye on the "little onion looking shoots" and let me know how
they're doing in a couple more years. You may change your mind. My
beds covered with landscape fabric became seriously infested with
those onions. You have to dig out the bulbs which are about 5 in.
below the surface. With the fabric, you can't do that.


I put in some new holes for flowers recently I and did not see any of the
matting you describe. Southeastern Virginia. There are no trees in the
area. North facing.

Yeah, I didn't have those problems along the north side of the building
either. But that's because nothing much grows on the north side anyway;
not enough sun. So it matters little whether you use the fabric there.


- Alex