Home gardener shares money-saving alternative to costly and damaging product: 'It's so much better'

A clever gardener on TikTok shared an easy and cost-effective way to protect your garden from weeds without using landscape fabric, which has proved to be ineffective at best and damaging at worst.

Green Thumb DIY (@greenthumbdiy) posted a video demonstrating how to use cardboard boxes as a means to smother weeds and give your garden a chance to grow. 

@greenthumbdiy This is a good way to start a new garden bed. It smothers the grass and weeds that already exist in the ground. It will take the cardboard about a season to break down, which is enough time to kill existing grass. It's so much better than landscape fabric. I am not a fan of that in most garden situations. #cardboardmulch #weedsuppression #gardentips ♬ Daydream - Carly Pearl

Simply break down the boxes, lay them flat, add a little water to help them break down, then cover them in mulch, and you're good to go.

"This is a good way to start a new garden bed," they wrote in the caption. "It smothers the grass and weeds that already exist in the ground. It will take the cardboard about a season to break down, which is enough time to kill existing grass."

They added, "It's so much better than landscape fabric. I am not a fan of that in most garden situations." 

Landscape fabric is marketed as a way to prevent weeds, but the College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences at Illinois University detailed the disadvantages, noting it is only really effective for a few years and can compact the soil, while also preventing water from permeating it. Plus, it can degrade and open holes, allowing weeds to pop through, as well as release microplastics as it breaks down.

Plus, as the gardener noted, cardboard is free, as you likely already have some lying around your home to repurpose for the garden. 

Another way to limit weeds, or maybe even embrace them, is to opt for a native plant lawn. Using native plants saves you time on maintenance, as well as money on resources like water, fertilizers, and pesticides — with the latter two also potentially containing chemicals that are harmful to the environment. 

Something like a clover lawn works as a natural weed suppressant ground cover, while also requiring less water than a typical monoculture lawn and preventing soil erosion thanks to deep roots that pull in water naturally. Clover also draws in pollinators, creatures big and small that are crucial for a thriving ecosystem. 

People in the comments loved the DIY solution. One person wrote, "Thank you, this is exactly the kind of different approach I didn't know I needed."

Which of these benefits is your biggest motivation in gardening? Getting outside more 🌱 Growing healthy food 🥕 Making my yard beautiful 🏡 I don't garden 🚫 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

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