Salty Thumb wrote:

...
I don't mind having bits of black
fabric peek through.

Personally, most of the time I'd find the green of the weeds to be more
atractive than bare, black fabric.


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.

I use shreded bark mulch because it takes fewer bags to fully cover the
same surface area than nuggets. I can completely hide my newspaper with
less than an inch of shreaded. It would take at least 4 inches with the
nuggets. I know this because I started with nuggets in my first bed, and
quickly realized how much I'd need. (And the nuggets are usually 25 to
50 cents a bag more than the shreded.)

It doesn't take much to create a medium that weeds will grow in, and
their roots are going to work downward in search of more water. No
topsoil production is involved. I'll concede that if I went with 4" of
nuggets, there'd be far less of that, but many of my lower-growing
perenials, and all of my annuals deal with an inch of shreded mulch than
they would 4" of nuggets.


I had not bothered to weed the bed for 3 months or so, and
the 3-4(?) weeds I had found were about hand sized.

How big of an area are we talking about? A mere 25 sq. ft., maybe? A
much bigger area than that, and I'd have to start thinking you're
exagerating.


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.

Okay. I'll give you that it's not very expensive. And that's exactly why
I don't try to get my money back. It's not worth the effort.


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

Assuming that you're only replacing 1" with that bag, it only covers 25
sq. ft., which is consistant with your comments about the number of
weeds you found. For an area that small, no, you're not going to have
much of a savings in time or money by using the method I outlined.
However, as one gets closer and closer to the bed space of a typical
suburban home, the differences in time, money, and effectiveness become
more apparent.

But then again if you don't mind the black fabric showing, then your
method may be less expensive. But I'm guessing that most people don't
find landscaping fabric to be very attractive.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
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