A novice gardener, preparing to work on their first yard, turned to the subreddit r/landscaping to ask a simple question: "Plastic lawn edging or no edging?"
Plastic edging is the thin, usually black, strip of plastic that marks the dividing line between two landscaped areas, typically mulch or a garden bed and grass. As a clear and simple way to delineate sections, it makes sense why the OP was curious about it — but commenters were quick to shut down the idea.
"Metal or stone or don't bother," one person advised.
"Agreed, will be replacing my plastic edging from a year ago," another replied. "Don't know what I was thinking."
Many others suggested a natural-edge garden bed.
Most gardeners are already not on the best terms with plastic. It's been shown that over time plastic materials slowly break down, leaching the toxic chemicals inside them into the surrounding soils. And per The Science Times, this process can be accelerated by strong sun, which is often present in landscaped gardens.
But after the OP got their answer about the edging, another question quickly arose. They continued, saying: "I get a lot of weeds in the area that I want to do, so do you think I should use some filter cloth? I'm very new at gardening."
Filter cloth — which is actually almost always made of plastic — is supposed to prevent water, sunlight, and nutrients from reaching weeds, starving them at the source. Unfortunately, they're generally both too effective and yet not effective enough, doing severe damage to native plants and yet failing to control weeds.
One person responded: "I've been gardening for 40 years, and landscape fabric always SEEMS like a good idea. The reality is that weeds can wiggle their roots [through] the damn stuff and then they hold on tighter than if [they] were just in the dirt. I never use landscape fabric anymore."
Instead, a new gardener — or an established gardener — looking to control unwanted weeds and invasive plants in their yard would be better off using nontoxic, non-plastic solutions. These include pulling by hand; using manual, non-polluting lawn tools; and filling the yard with hardy native plants.
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