YouTube gardening coach and consultant You Can Do It Gardening (@youcandoitgardening) has burst the bubble of a popular landscaping tool that they show doesn't work.
Landscape fabric, also known as weed barrier, is a textile barrier for yard areas and flower beds prone to weeds. It is meant to uphold the beauty of landscaping projects and gardens while controlling weed growth and soil erosion.
However, as Jess from You Can Do It Gardening explains in a short video, landscape fabric is not as effective as one may think.
"You put landscape fabric along this whole area to prevent weeds," they say at the start of the video. "That didn't work because the seeds come and they germinate … even though you mulched."
As Jess explains, the idea that landscape fabric can prevent invasive weeds from growing is simply not true. Seeds fly around and germinate wherever they can, even on the mulch.
Later in the video, they add that landscape fabric also prevents healthy soil from developing due to its heavy plastic bedding.
Jess even goes on to call out red mulch, saying that it should also be removed in favor of a natural alternative.
Many homeowners or inexperienced gardeners use plastic alternatives such as landscape fabric either because they don't want to weed their garden or because they're misinformed about the effectiveness.
As Jess puts it in the video's description, "A layer of about two inches of mulch will help a lot but you still need to weed. There is no way around that."
Ditching plastic options not only avoids the wasted cost of a product that doesn't work, but it is also better for the health of your garden and the environment.
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What is the biggest reason you don't grow food at home? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Not enough time ⏳ The manufacturing of these plastic and textile landscaping products exacerbates the harmful impacts of large-scale plastic production.
The production of plastic and textiles relies heavily on the burning of fossil fuels, which is associated with high carbon pollution. Additionally, plastic is not biodegradable and will stay in landfills and our oceans for hundreds of years.
The comments on the video were filled with people sharing their bad experiences with landscape fabric.
"Adding the landscape fabric just makes everything harder in the long run & it does not prevent weeds," one user shared.
Another commented, "The [landscape] fabric I've used was essentially useless, and like you said, has stifled growth."
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