Should i use landscape fabric with mulch

Landscape cloth makes your garden look bad. It seems everywhere you look; you see unsightly landscape cloth that is flapping in the breeze in someone's garden. When it comes to weed control, use " of shredded bark, organic natural non-dyed mulch. Mulch keeps the soil cool, allows moisture to reach the roots of your plants, decomposes about 1 inch of thickness each year and adds organic matter to the soil.

Weeds that do grow are easily removed. Refresh your mulch 1" each year to help keep the weeds down. Never use more than " of mulch and don't create "mulch volcanos" with the mulch piled up against the base of plants and trees. To view a PDF of this article, please click here.

Linda K. Some will use landscape fabric under the mulch, in the hope that it will help prevent weeds from growing in their Gainesville Landscape beds. One common type is a nonwoven textile made of plastic fibers, often black, that may be perforated with small holes.

The use of landscape fabric is based on the idea that it will either physically intercept weed plants, or that it will keep seeds in the soil from sprouting by blocking sunlight.

The bigger concern is that fabric itself may lead to problems down the road. For example, it is designed to allow the passage of both water and air, which are critical for the roots of trees and other plants; often there are small perforations for this purpose.

But in practice, the openings may clog up with soil and organic matter from the decay of the mulch. HOWEVER, we do lay commercial-grade weed fabric underneath our river gravel products for projects like the one you see our team member, Valeska, working on here.

In this type of application we do suggest the use of fabric specifically designed to prevent future weeds from invading your yard. Weeds are much less likely to germinate in the rocks and the preferiferral fabric stunts any weeds from growing and penetrating through.

For those who lead active lives, spending a few hours on the weekend pulling or digging weeds out of a garden or flowerbed can quickly become tedious. Landscape fabric is constructed from woven fibers or manufactured as a solid sheet with perforated holes to allow water to soak through. Some brands offer UV protection to maintain the life of the fabric. It comes in rolls view example on Amazon , typically at least 3 feet wide and anywhere from 50 feet to feet, or more, in length.

Thicker fabric typically runs a bit more. Note that virtually all landscape fabric can be covered with mulch of any type—wood chips, gravel, recycled rubber nuggets, etc.