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Is Landscape Fabric Even Necessary In Landscaping?
Landscaping fabrics are by no means an answer to a no
maintenance landscape. I know a lot of folks are under the
impression that they can simply buy it, place it, cover it, and
forget it. Forever.
First. There is no such thing as a no maintenance landscape. In
many instances landscape fabric can make your life a lot easier.
However, there is an upside and a downside to using it. And as
with most everything else, proper installation and maintenance
is required if you intend to use it.
Landscape fabrics have their applications. They aren't necessary
in all applications but might be preferred in regards to the
type of groundcover you use.
Our company uses weed barrier in 95% of the designs we create.
It's the nature of our business as we use decorative rock as the
preferred groundcover around here. When using rock for
groundcover and path work, it's necessary to have a separator
between the soil and groundcover. Otherwise, you'll have mud
rocks by the first rain storm.
In theory you should be able to use almost anything as a
separator. I've seen do it yourselfers use anything from
plastics to newspapers and cardboard boxes to old carpet
remnants. Of course, as a professional, I can't use or even
suggest something like this to my clients. You're on your own
there.
Now personally, on any given project, I would much rather do
away with fabrics altogether. I prefer to create living soil
planting areas that are mulched and tended rather than being
covered and forgotten. However, some areas are simply too large
to apply this method and some folks just outright prefer to
cover an area with decorative rock.
Both mulched living beds and rock beds underlain with fabric
will require some work to keep them beautiful. Neither is
maintenance free. As long as there is wind, rain dirt, and blown
in seed, there will be something for you to do in your yard.
When we create a design using landscaping fabric and rock, I
make the client aware of a few things. 1) There will be blown in
seed and dirt. 2) Something will have to be done about it to
keep it from accumulating. I assure them that with the
quality
of fabric we use, nothing will grow in from the bottom. However,
we have no control of what blows in on the top.
Spraying the unwanted weeds with herbicide will take care of the
weed problem. However, this does nothing for the dirt, leaf, and
plant particles that are hiding under your rocks. And if you
allow these to accumulate, they'll continue to accumulate and
you will never get rid of them. So periodic maintenance is
required even if you do use landscaping fabric.
Periodically using a blower on your bedding areas will slow down
the accumulation of dirt and in some cases eliminate it
altogether. How easy and thorough this is depends a lot on the
type and size of rock you use.
Small pea gravel accumulates and holds onto dirt, and is harder
to clean than rock of a 1 ½" + nature. Not only does it hold
onto dirt but has a tendency to be blown all around when being
cleaned with a blower. Pea gravel works well for paths,
walkways, and smaller areas but I don't recommend it for
covering larger areas.
As far as using landscape fabric under bark and mulch covered
beds? In many cases this can actually be easier to take care of
than living beds or rock covered areas as it can easily be
picked up and replaced every few years. This will keep your
landscape always looking new without having to blow dirt or
mulch beds.
Remember. There's no such thing as a no maintenance landscape.
Landscape fabrics can make things easier in many applications
but like everything else, they require a little bit of keeping
up. No, they aren't necessary in all landscaping applications.
However, I believe you'll find them to be your best choice for
many types of groundcover.
About the author:
Written by Steve Boulden. Steve is the creator of The Landscape
Design Site.com which offers free professional landscaping
advice, tips, plans, and ideas to do it yourselfers and
homeowners. To discover more about landscaping fabrics, visit his site at:
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