In article ,
Salty Thumb wrote:
If the rate of your debris deposition is such that you are developing a
weed supporting layer of humus in a short time frame, then you should
forget about using landscape fabric and think about selling topsoil.

Heh. I wish. The only place that I'm using landscape fabric is under
a gravel walk - and I'm still getting weeds [granted not in vast
numbers, but some] through the fabric and 3-4" of gravel. Life is
persistent.

I don't know what you guys did with your fabric that makes you say that.
My flower bed was over run with all sorts of growth. I just laid the
landscape fabric on top then about 2" or less of large pine nuggets.
Nothing grew from below (aside from the chive things mentioned before)
and anything that grows on top is picked off by hand whenever I feel like
doing so.

What zone are you in, and what are you growing? I've had weeds grow up
through/on top of landscape fabric in zones 6,7, and 11, in very different
environments.

Landscape fabric is hardly expensive at 3'x50' for $10. If you get
minimum wage and save 5 hours weeding, it pays for itself in labor
savings*. It certainly is less expensive than periodic applications of
herbicide. The DuPont landscape fabric package I have is guaranteed for
15 years when covered with at least 2" of mulch. The Weedblocker brand
package has an 'absolute' guarantee. If you had such a bad experience
and paid an exorbitant amount, perhaps you should try to get your money
back.

Landscape fabric is a right pain to pull back out again though. It's all
very well if you don't expect to change what you've got planted, or
the shape of your beds - but if you're moving plants around, or changing
the shape of your beds, you've now got an annoying artificial fibre
tangled through your perennials and being a royal pain to remove.

Newspaper is cheap - but more to the point, it's also biodegradeable,
and comes apart nicely if you start to move things around. You also
don't need to worry about ground stables, or what to do about the holes
left behind after you rearrange plants.

Buying a 2 cu. ft. bag of pine bark nuggets every 2+ years or so is
hardly what I would call burdensome or expensive.

Heh. Your garden area is clearly much, much smaller than mine ; I think
I'm in the 7 cu yd of mulch realm by now - and I've added another 6 cu ft
of mulch to the small [10x6 triangle] bed in the front to top up the mulch
that's settled over the winter.

At any rate, I'd certainly agree that there are uses for landscape fabric -
but in my case, it's only for areas that I expect to remain unchanging
for years - paths and the like.

cheers!
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"A cat spends her life conflicted between a deep, passionate and profound
desire for fish and an equally deep, passionate and profound desire to
avoid getting wet. This is the defining metaphor of my life right now."