Weed barrier?

[MichelleCarmen]

Has anyone had any luck with weed barriers for their yard? Our house has some form that was layed out by the previous owners, but it''s not working all that well anymore. I''m wondering if it''s worth the effort to lay down more or if the weeds will still pop through w/in the next year or two.

If anyone has any ideas, I''d love to hear them!

Thanks.

 

[bstraszheim]

Oh wow, something in my field : ) The company I work for sells erosion control products : ) Reemay Industries sells an ingenious product called BioBarrier, you dig a vertical trench and bury it and it has a filter fabric with small herbicide beads set into it and the plants naturally want to avoid the herbicide, so they grow their roots the other way. They also make a BioBarrier Pre-emergence system that you bury horizontally, cut holes into it, then plant the plants through the holes and that stops the weeds from growing. I can''t find their website, but our supplier has information on his website:
http://www.hort-enterprises.com/ here
then click on the BioBarrier on the left hand side. It really is a great product and they guarantee it for 15 years or some other absurdly long period of time. One con is the expense, it''s not that cheap : ( Another option is to look for a non-woven fabric, relatively cheap, but no the best option. It''s a felt like fabric and you would use it the same way, but it''s doesn''t have the herbicide pellets so the weeds are not deterred.

Let me know if I can help you any other way.

I wish you well,

Bridget

 

[MrsFrk]

Yes, weed blocking fabric works great for me. I live in California, where stuff grown year round, so weeds can be a real pain. In the spring I swear the weeds grow 2 feet a day. BStraszheim''s Biobarrier sounds like pretty neat stuff, I''ll definitely look into that.

 

[longtimelurker]

In the pacific northwest I think it''s ineffective long term. Maybe it looks good for a year or two, but then weeds and moss just grow in the bark you lay on top, which compost along with the dead leaves that fall, etc.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Thanks, Bridget. . .this stuff does look pricey. I haven''t measured the areas I''d cover, but I''d estimate that I''m looking at $3K-4K + to cover the locations

lol!

ltl mentioned that barrier may not be suited for the NW. Many parts of my yard have cedar and pine trees that leave plant debris everywhere and the weeds seem to go crazy here!

 

[cnspotts]

Wow, I''m so happy to see someone else asking this here as I was about to go google it. I do love how landscaping can transform a place.

This morning I had a truckload of mulch delievered and was wondering if I should use a barrier as well. I live in the south where EVERTHING grows really well, especially weeds. In the past a low cost weed barrier has worked well for us (SW) but the weeds here are really invasive.

DH says yes to the barrier, but I''ve wondered if the mulch is thick enough will it choke out most of the weeds? Someone suggested I use Round Up first then mulch without a barrier and that should be fine. I hate to do that then regret it next spring and have to do it all over again.

I''m leaning towards "doing it right the first time" since we''re adding lanscaping where there never has been any, clean slate stuff.

I''m going to take a look at that barrier but cost is definitely an issue right now, 2 houses, remodeling the kitchen and in need of a fence for the entire place. (Kept a stray dog someone dumped)

 

[eks6426]

I agree it ITL...I always have weeds that sprout on top of the mulch that is on top of the landscape fabric. The weeds then grow down through the fabric and are even more of a pain to pull out than they would have been without the fabric. I make new flower beds in my yard all the time.

I use the lasagne bed method. I''m too lazy to dig out weeds so I spray Round-up or Spectricide over the area I am converting to flowerbed. I wait until the grass/weeds go brown. If everything else goes brown except a few I spray again. Once everything is brown, I cover with a thick(7-10 pages thick) layer of old newspaper (B&W sections only). Then I put 4-6 inches of mulch on top of that. I let it sit over the winter. By spring, I have a weedfree area to start flowers. The trick to keeping the flower area weed free is to plant the flowers close enough together that weeds don''t get enough light to get started. My friends sometimes say my flowerbeds look a bit crowded...but I don''t spend my weekends weeding like them either

Good luck!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 10/7/2005 9:59:33 AM
Author: IslandDreams
I use the lasagne bed method.

Thanks. I''ve never heard about the lasagne method, but this explains why I found a layer of newspaper in one of my flower beds! lol I think I''ll try this but not use round up, but weed first instead. Hopefully this works.

 

[eks6426]

MC--hope it works for you.

You might want to check out gardenweb.com forums. There are tons of forums...by style of garden, by plant type & be geography. That''s how I learned of the lasagne method. Tons of great information on this site and people are really helpful if you post a question.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

You might want to check out gardenweb.com forums.

Okay, I will. Thanks!