I want to cover my entire backyard with wood chips. Right now it is mostly dirt with patches of dead grass. Can I put landscaping fabric directly over it and then the wood chips?
by dfshhhh
I want to cover my entire backyard with wood chips. Right now it is mostly dirt with patches of dead grass. Can I put landscaping fabric directly over it and then the wood chips?
by dfshhhh
15 Comments
The landscape fabric will break down and be a nightmare to deal with later on. I suggest just using a cardboard layer as an alternative so when it breaks down you don’t have to remove it. Thick layer of mulch too.
Location: Sacramento, CA zone 9b
landscaping fabric is plastic, it doesn’t really break down and will inhibit soil from forming properly.
Fabric is usually used as weed control (but it’s literally trash) and you seem to have no weeds… just dirt. So no need for anything but a layer of enriched soil and maybe mulch.
No.
Use landscape fabric under rocks or gravel to prevent it from sinking into the ground. Otherwise, leave it on the shelf.
Landscape fabric will be actively harmful here. Just put the chips down.
Please please no! Just a fat layer of mulch will do just as good
Yes, you can put landscaping fabric over the soil and cover it with wood chips. that will help suppress weeds and keep things looking tidy. If you’d like to take it a step further, adding a simple path and some low-maintenance plants could really transform the area into a more inviting spot.
I put together a quick mockup so you can see how it might look [https://app.neighborbrite.com/s/_dT9S_JlyDD](https://app.neighborbrite.com/s/_dT9S_JlyDD)
No plastic please, could be an African oil palm
Plenty of comments re: using cardboard instead, and they’re 100% correct. As far as sourcing goes though, check out the dumpsters behind a big box store if you don’t have enough to cover this area. Just make sure you remove any tape/staples, or glossy stickers. Printed boxes are fine, most nowadays use soy-based inks anyways.
Landscaping fabric is the herpes of gardening. Don’t do it.
One trick for cardboard is to get the pieces that sit in between large beverage boxes, i.e. those large, shallow boxes on store shelves that are full of water bottles. They’re perfectly flat and don’t have any tape or stickers to peel off. Just ask at a Walmart, Target, or grocery store.
No. That crap is horrible for the environment.
Never landscaping fabric. Just do a deep woodchip layer and you’ll be good. Doesn’t look like much is growing there now
I would suggest brown landscaping paper instead of fabric. Comes in a roll, easier to throw down than fiddling with all the tape removal off of cardboard boxes. That gets old fast. But the paper is great, and will decompose , adding nitrtion to the soil instead of plastic scraps that you’ll be swearing at in 5 years time haha( ask me how I know!)
No, please no. Landscaping fabric is the WORST thing you can do.
Just 4-6 inches of wood chips will do just fine.
I have dug, yanked, pulled and yeeted so much of that weed blocker that blocks nothing out of various landscapes.
Man, put some compost down before you cardboard and mulch! Get that puppy moist