Groundcover Fabric

 One year old budget groundcover fabric

The budget groundcover fabric I put down a year ago is surfacing from just under the soil. It’s not appearing in a complete sheet either as it seems to have broken down into small pieces. It could be the damp or it could be the UV rays but as its polypropylene it’ll probably just keep breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces and never really go away. I put it down so I could plant courgette plants in it and not have an issue with weeds. The courgettes are long gone but the membrane remains.

I shouldn’t have bought it really but I thought it would be a better solution than the cardboard I usually put down.

I have used a lot of different materials over the years to either prepare beds by smothering weeds or covering the ground to stop weeds with differing degrees of success.  Paper and cardboard are effective temporary covers and also give the worms something to nibble on. There isn’t really any such thing as a no maintenance landscape and if you have ever put a foam or nylon backed carpet on the soil then tried to remove it after a few years you could actually be making more work for yourself than hoeing every week. 

I’ve found that using the weed block on permanent planting schemes such as gravel beds makes far more sense than a veggie plot. Landscapers use it at least 80% of the time when doing new beds and borders (that’s a random percentage I picked out of the air but probably pretty close) as most customers want a maintenance free planting scheme. The membrane works well stopping things from coming up through the soil but can’t work for things that fall on top of it. Dust, leaves and other deposits eventually build up and make an ideal spot for weed seeds to get a hold. Tap roots have a difficulty establishing and can be easily removed but most other weeds will eventually take over after only a couple of years if the area isn’t tended to. 

There are some great images where nature has taken over places because of neglect, whole motorways and city buildings soon return back to the wild if left alone and the garden is no different.

I would much rather do away with fabrics or weed cover 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 to and time is also a factor. 

Pros and Cons

Spraying with herbicide will take care of the weed problem. However, this does nothing for the soil.

Small gravel is difficult to maintain and you won’t be able to use a leaf blower do get rid of leaves.

In many cases this can actually be easier to take care of stone covered areas without a membrane as it can easily be picked up and replaced every few years. This will keep your landscape always looking new and cared for.

If you do use the polypropylene types of material you get what you pay for. The cheaper ones are good for a year or two if undisturbed. The more expensive types can do the job for up to twenty years. I had some mesh webbing on the floor of my tunnel at one time and even after six years of heavy traffic there were no signs of fraying or wear.

You might want to go down the eco-friendly route. 

The cheapest (and some say best) is the aforementioned cardboard and newspaper, then natural carpets with no plastics in them which are both ideal for temporary cover in the veg patch. Then you get onto shop bought items such as the biodegradable, lightweight paper mulch that helps control weeds and is environmentally responsible alternative to black plastic. This can just be dug into the soil the same way as the free paper and card.  

Going up the cost ladder we have a woven mulch sheet which is made with 100% straw fibres, no adhesives or chemicals added. And the latest product comes from a French company called Geochanvre who have developed a  hydro-weaving process, which transforms hemp and other straws using water and pressure only. They use locally sourced hemp grown without pesticides, and the process is free of all adhesives or other additives. Again this will be perfect for areas that only need temporary cover or they could be cut up and used as a moisture barrier on the top of plant pots.

All of these materials are great for providing the initial help we need to keep certain areas under control in the garden. 

Like most things in life though it always comes down to us having to pay attention to it for it to thrive.