At the beginning of this growing season, a relatively new gardener took to Reddit to ask a simple but fraught question: "Wood chips or black plastic?"
As they detailed, they were in the second year of using an 18-by-40-foot community garden plot. In 2023, they had put down burlap coffee bags on the pathways to hold back weeds. But the bags didn't hold up, and by the time the season came to a close, they had become one with the soil.
"Yay for the Earth but not for me," they wrote in the r/gardening community.
Luckily, a handful of experienced green thumbs pointed the poster in the right direction.
"I avoid plastic like the plague it is," one commenter said. "Local bark shed and mulch is my go-to for that situation."
Another offered: "Cardboard with the tape/etc removed. They also eventually break down but usually last the whole season. I grow potatoes in cardboard boxes, for example. By the end of the season, the boxes just fall apart with a slight tug."
The advice highlighted the need for gardeners to stay away from unnatural materials, especially in a food garden. Plastic, or landscaping fabric, is petroleum-based and sheds microplastics when it degrades. It can also leach chemicals into soil, which can then be absorbed by plants.
These products, usually marketed as weed barriers, don't do that job well, either. Since they're covered in organic matter, seeds carried by the wind or animals sprout on top of the plastic or fabric, defeating its purpose.
They're also cost-prohibitive, whereas cardboard is free if you reuse boxes you already have. Other natural options, such as wood chips, can be free, too, if you sign up for ChipDrop or another similar service.
Check out this guide for other ways to maintain a natural garden or yard. Not only will you be helping the environment and crucial pollinators, but you will also need to spend less time maintaining and watering your lawn, reducing your landscaping bills in the process.
"I know someone who tried black plastic once and eventually it got holes and the weeds grew through anyways," one Redditor said. "It was apparently quite an ordeal to remove it after that."
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