Starting a new garden project is incredibly exciting. After planning where to put your vegetable patch, native plant meadow, and outdoor seating area, it's time to get to work.
But for one garden renovator, the task was made more difficult almost immediately.
They posted a picture to the r/landscaping Reddit community showing the layers of fabric they found after digging up an area to prep the soil for their native plant garden.
"I knew there was landscaping fabric next the rock but then layer two was more fabric followed by shredded mulch," they captioned the image. "I'm hoping there's some soil under here somewhere!"
They also noted that landscaping fabric, river rock, and rubber mulch will not help to prevent weeds, with some of the little devils bursting through what the previous homeowner likely thought would be a protective barrier.
Fellow Redditors had similar tales of woe regarding misguided attempts to keep weeds at bay.
"At least it's better than the bubble-wrap my cheapskate neighbor got when he paid a lowball bidder to do the same," one user said.
"We found plastic sheeting under 5 or 6 inches of mulch around pine trees when we caught our house," added another. "They had also topped one of them which is another no no. We eventually had to take them out because they weren't doing well."
Landscaping fabric might do a preventive job for a short period, but it won't work forever. If it's thin, it will likely break apart and allow spots for weeds to pass through easily. But even with thicker materials, some weeds are resilient, and they often find a way to survive even in the toughest situations.
Then, you're just left with a useless fabric that will make landscaping tasks much more difficult. If plastic is used, it will just leach harmful chemicals into the soil, making future growth tricky. Cardboard is a soil-friendly, degradable solution to start a new grow patch and scupper the growth of annoying weeds, and it's far cheaper than landscape fabric.
"I hope one day gardeners will change their attitude against weeds as unwanted and horrible because some weeds can be good looking and very useful," one Redditor noted. "But this garbage in the garden with shreds of stinky landscaping fabric look horrible and disgusting."
Indeed, what some people might consider weeds might actually be native plants, which are beneficial for the local ecosystem, require much less water and maintenance, and can deal with local soil and weather conditions.
Or perhaps you've unknowingly got an edible plant in your garden that you can use in a variety of recipes. Just keep a look out for invasive plants.
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