Hi YouTubers.
I'm Al Gracian from Albopepper.com.
Today, I want to talk to you about: Landscape Fabric.
This is something that is commonly used in the landscaping industry.
We'll often times put it in our beds and we might think that it going to solve a lot of
problems for us.
But sometimes it can cause some unexpected challenges in the landscape.
If you ask a landscaper, a professional landscaper, what they think about it, you'll probably
get some interesting stories.
So I want to show some pros and cons of using this in our landscapes today.
But, quite importantly, I want show you a pretty cool alternative that you might consider
using.
And it might be something that could really help you out just depending on what you're
trying to accomplish when you're setting up a bed.
So let's get in and look at what landscape fabric can do for us and also what it can't
do for us.
"Nature abhors a vacuum."
And so what that means is, if you have a big open area, maybe even disturbed land where
nothing is growing, odds are it isn't going to stay that way for long.
Due to all of the different natural forces in the environment you always have new organisms
coming in.
Plant seeds being blown in from the wind.
From birds.
From their droppings.
And so before you know it, an area is overtaken.
And often times, what it's overtaken by, is what we call "weeds."
Things that we don't want growing there.
So on the edge of my property line, what had been a completely open, barren spot is now
overrun by all types of plants that I don't want growing there, which means I've gotta
keep pulling them out again and again, fighting nature constantly.
Most of us don't enjoy spending our whole day weeding our yards and our landscapes.
Yet, at the same time, we do like things to look nice.
And we don't want them to look messy and chaotic.
You'll especially find that in some urban areas where some people are even forced to
live that way because of the neighborhoods that they reside in.
Sure, we could take the easy way out and just spray a big ol' swath of Roundup and kill
all those weeds just like that.
But I think that at this point, society in general is finally waking up as to the dangers
involved in using chemicals like glyphosate and other types of herbicides and what they're
doing to the environment, to the wildlife.
So we can quickly rule that out as a way of dealing with weeds, which leaves us with the
next option: Weed Suppression.
Often the easiest way to go about initially suppressing weeds is just by adding some form
of a mulch.
Often times, in a landscape setting, you're looking at a wood-based mulch because you
get a nice aesthetic value.
But you also do, at least for a time, have that ability to suppress the things that you
don't want from growing.
And then you can of course have a nicer environment where you retain moisture and you can get
those things that you want to grow.
I know what you thinking: 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know that mulch stuff, by itself, it does work ok at first.
But before too long you have all of these stupid weeds coming up.
And now you're back at it again anyways, having to pull this junk out.
And well, isn't that what the point of weed fabric is all about?
That landscape fabric?'
Sure we could put this stuff down.
Maybe put a nice layer of this first.
And then we could come in and put our mulch.
And wouldn't that help tremendously with suppressing weeds?
Well, let's look at how this fabric actually works and what happens over time in our landscape
beds.
Over time that layer of wood mulch that you've put down, starts to decompose which is great
for the landscape.
It's great for your plants and the different organisms in the soil.
But what that means is you now on top of your landscape fabric are building an actual layer
of top soil on top of that.
So, even though you're stopping plants and weeds and things from underneath from being
able to come up, you're not able to stop them from growing down into it.
So when fresh seeds get blown in, things are still being able to root now in this soil
that is being built on top of your fabric.
And so every year or so as you keep bringing in fresh mulch in order to have the aesthetic
and the practical value of that mulch still working for you, what's going on is that fabric
is getting buried deeper and deeper, under the ground.
And you're still fighting weeds anyways.
So now at this point, after having initially suppressed existing vegetation, you're now
having to fight new vegetation that's coming in anyways.
And that's where you start complaining about this stupid landscape fabric and how it just
doesn't seem to do what you thought it was going to do.
But what we may not consider is the detrimental effects that it's having even though it's
not really working that great at keeping out fresh weeds, it's still a barrier here.
And it's stopping something from occurring.
And often times we don't think about that.
We don't take that into account.
And for this reason alone is why I would non longer would use a landscape fabric anywhere.
We naturally have organisms that are moving from below in the sub-soil up to the surface.
Think about earthworms and the great work that they do in our landscapes, in our yards,
in our gardens.
They tunnel down below, but then they tunnel all the way up to the very surface of the
soil.
And how are they able to do that properly when we have this fabric, this impassable
barrier that is there right below the surface of the soil?
Then too if we have any type of a creeping or a spreading plant, well as it starts to
advance and it spreads out more and more it starts to root into this mulch, this top soil
that your building up here.
But then the roots can't get all the way down like they should.
And so now you have a shallow rooted perennial, something that's a desirable plant that you
may want in your bed.
And it's being choked by a fabric.
There's gotta be some kind of a way to suppress these things, allowing us to take over our
landscape with a design that we want.
But then going forward, what can we do to reduce maintenance?
Well first, let's look at something that is an excellent alternative to a fabric, that
doesn't interfere on a long-term basis with biological activity of different organisms.
But in the initial laying down of it, it is great at suppressing weeds.
Right here, several months ago, I began putting down layers... of cardboard.
Just simple cardboard.
I pull off all of the stickers.
All of the tape.
And then on top of that, a nice generous layer of mulch to help to hold that in place, to
block out light.
And look at what we've gotten as a result.
In this spot here, without having to rely on landscape fabric, I was able to take a
product that would have been possibly thrown away, maybe recycled.
But even still, rather than sending it off-site, I've been able to turn it into a resource
that allowed me to suppress a whole bunch of weeds that I had in here.
And so after several months they get completely choked out.
And what that does, is that now prepares a site where I can come in and put in things
that I do want, and begin replacing that vacuum, that empty space, with things that are desirable.
Move over landscaping fabric.
It's time to make way for some simple old cardboard.
It's something that does work well at initially suppressing weeds, while later on allowing
the plants that you want to grow to be able to grow properly, to be able to be properly
rooted and to be able to thrive in your landscape.
The biological life in your soil will thank-you.
A couple of quick tips that I wanted to share.
This is a general idea, built around the concept of sheet mulching which is used in permaculture.
Often times, in addition to putting a mulch on top, there will be many more layers of
things like compost, leaves, that are intended to add fertility to a site.
Maybe whenever you're going to do some biointensive gardening and you want to really build up
a topsoil level.
But even in a more simple application, where all you want to do is suppress some weeds,
and start to fix up a bed that you allowed to kinda get overrun.
Well, you can use this stuff and put on a nice thick layer of mulch and it will do the
job.
I recommend getting the biggest pieces that you can possibly get of this cardboard.
If you have a bunch of tiny scraps and you try to piece them together it's not going
to work very well, as opposed to having some very nice, large maybe a nice thick cardboard.
You could do double layers or more.
And if you do get to points where you have overlapping, make sure that you're generous
in regards to how you do overlap that stuff.
Wouldn't it be nice though if you could keep weeds at bay without having to constantly
mulch large areas every year?
Well, as part of a longterm management strategy I suggest looking at what you're doing with
your plants.
Fill in that vacuum.
Put in as many perennials as you can fit, getting as many benefits as you can from these
different plants.
Many flowering and herbal perennials can offer so much to a landscape.
In addition to the general aesthetic value, they can be used perhaps for culinary uses
or as medicinal uses.
And certainly they're greatly appreciated by wildlife, such as our honeybees and other
beneficial insects.
But by having them very close together, what happens is, they completely occupy an area,
out competing weeds, making it so there is nowhere for those weeds to grow.
You might have a couple that are struggling to survive.
They're easy to identify and eliminate.
And other than that, that's it.
And eventually, you don't even have to mulch that area because there is no more exposed
ground.
A very specific type of plant that I am a big advocate for are ground cover plants.
Here's an example of a ground cover plant that I put in a couple years ago.
This is a creeping thyme.
And just look at what this has done.
In a low lying area where you don't want maybe tall bushy plants, you're able to fill in
a spot that no longer needs mulched.
No longer has excessive weeds that you're constantly fighting.
And it looks nice.
So, utilizing various different types of ground covers -that should be on your list as part
of your end game, your final design element that you'll want to use in a landscape.
In between your other plants that maybe are bushes, shrubs, trees, use ground covers to
fill in the rest.
That means no more weeds.
Well that's it for today.
Thanks for taking time to watch this video.
I hope that it's given you something to take into consideration.
Landscape fabric can offer some benefits, but it has definite drawbacks.
And it's good to be aware of those.
That can help us to have realistic expectations.
And maybe we may decide that we don't want to spend the twenty dollars on that roll of
this synthetic stuff.
But instead, you might find that you have exactly what you need already in your house,
ready to go to the recycling bin.
Why not give that a try?
Well, please subscribe if you haven't already.
And as always: Happy Gardening!
It does look like I have one last spot that I want to take care of.
I've been putting it off.
But I've got some cardboard and some mulch so it's time to get back to work.
Oh hey, have you ever seen a tour of my Dad's yard?
He uses a lot of weeping trees and things that work well in the shade.
It makes for a nice contrast.
You should check it out.
Or maybe you just might want to see the playlist that shows the different walkthroughs of my
yard and how things have progressed through the years.
It's your choice.
I won't judge.