One Redditor considered using landscape fabric on their vegetable garden bed. In their post, they complained about the area being overrun by weeds from horsetail to dandelion, but most commenters understandably advised against this material.
The gardener understood that “it seems polarizing” to consider landscape fabric, so they reached out to the r/vegetablegardening for advice.
One commenter exclaimed they show off “three-year-old garden fabric looking new still” to neighbors. However, another reminded how “roots grow into the landscape fabric and stop growing. [The fabric] becomes incredibly watertight [with] no drainage.”
From commenters to researchers, others have echoed the latter’s advice. Experienced landscapers constantly warn others against considering this method.
When building out a garden, protecting your hard work from destructive weeds is essential. That’s why many people opt for landscape fabric — it’s marketed as a permanent solution compared to mulch, which disintegrates.
The ironic thing is the fabric doesn’t protect from weeds, as another gardener found out. It’s also difficult to remove.
It does more harm than good as it breaks down and seeps microplastics into the soil. The only way to correct this is through soil amendment as you rewild your space.
Plus, the fabric negatively affects many natural soil processes. It blocks water from reaching deep and microorganisms, like earthworms, from conducting natural aeration, which creates soil compaction. Other creatures like ground-nesting bees — essential pollinators in the food chain — can’t use such soil for hibernation and protecting their eggs, according to Alison Shadwell-Williams, garden designer at the Royal Horticultural Society.
With trees, roots in search of water may gravitate above the surface and girdle around the trunk, which slowly kills them, creating a bigger and more expensive removal problem.
Think placing mulch on top will still help? It can’t as the fabric blocks its nutrients from reaching deep. In other words, landscape fabric is a waste of money, and you waste even more money using mulch with it.
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In addition to using hardware cloth to keep pests out of the raised bed, the OP should continue to focus on natural elements like cardboard, which decomposes and adds nitrogen to the soil.
Organic mulch, like wood chips, twigs, leaves, and bark, along with compost and manure, all enrich the soil without adding toxins. Native groundcovers can also add beauty, erosion control, and shade that chokes out weeds.
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