A homeowner found themselves in the weeds with their lush landscaping and turned to Reddit for advice, looking for good options to control the weeds and a way to avoid landscape fabric.
"Weeds are a HUGE issue and I've tried to do the cardboard box method and mulch over that," the Redditor wrote above photos of their rock gardens in a post to r/NoLawns — a forum "devoted to alternatives to monoculture lawns, with an emphasis on native plants and conservation."
"I'd like the area to be flexible so that I can plant stuff in pockets between rocks if I want to. Won't weeds just fill in anyways in those pockets?" the OP further wrote. "Please give me the excuse to not mess with landscaping fabric and what I should do instead."
The OP is right to beg for any excuse not to use landscaping fabric, too. While a common material used to prevent weeds in gardens, example after example warns against it. Not only do many say it isn't effective at preventing weeds, but it's also made of plastic that breaks down, poisoning your soil and eventually making its way into our waterways. Once there, it harms both humans and wildlife.
Gardening and growing your own food are great ways to stay physically and mentally healthy, but they can negatively impact the environment when done wrong.
Opting for materials like cardboard or wood chips instead can help keep your lawn natural while preventing weeds, saving you money, and protecting our planet. Companies like ChipDrop will even deliver wood chips to your door for free — just be aware that some users have found themselves in over their heads with this, too.
Thankfully for the OP, commenters on the post were more than happy to advise against the material and offer other options.
"Landscape fabric should be illegal," wrote one.
"Everyone who uses landscaping fabric later regrets it," said another. "You will still get weeds, and it's a nightmare to remove, once you realize it didn't work."
One suggested cardboard and newspapers, while another said, "I have been using pea gravel and bark chips."
Although there may not be a consensus on the perfect replacement, the consensus is resoundingly to keep it natural and forgo the fabric.
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