A few years ago farmer friends decided to relocate to South America and sold all their farm equipment, including several rolls of landscape fabric. I was curious about this material but too frugal to buy a whole roll. We tried it, found it very helpful, and now own enough to cover our market garden. I refer to a black, woven geotextile with narrow green stripes every foot across the width of the fabric.
It is most commonly used for greenhouse floors and in container nurseries. Typically it is held down by sod staples � metal wires bent into a U shape and pressed through the fabric and into the soil. We expected weed suppression, and that certainly occurs, but other unadvertised features are at least as important on our farm. Other benefits include more even moisture across the bed, warmer soil in cold weather, cooler soil in hot weather, and most importantly � cleaner produce.
Once the crop grows bigger than the transplant hole, rain and overhead irrigation no longer splash soil on the crop.
Clean crops result in quicker harvest and less waste. In contrast to container nurseries, flower and vegetable growers need holes in the landscape fabric.
Melting rather than cutting holes is important to avoid unraveling of the fabric. Our system involves stretching the fabric in a convenient location near a roaring fire. In advance we assembled a branding iron style gizmo comprised of four feet of half-inch rebar, locking pliers like Vice-grips, and a hose clamp to attach them to each other. We use a pipefitting that is three inches wide on one end and two inches on the other.
For us, four-inch holes let too many weeds grow and two-inch holes are hard to transplant through. We decide in advance what pattern of holes is needed. One-foot spacing on one-foot centers is good for lettuce and we use wider spacing for cabbage and vine crops. Getting back to the roaring fire, we throw in the pipefittings and wait until they glow.
Grabbing one with BBQ tongs, we leave the others to keep heating. After clamping the fitting with the vice grips on the gizmo, we melt some holes until the fitting cools about 50 holes on a warm day. Then the warm fitting is replaced with a glowing red one and the hole melting is repeated times on a 12 by foot section of lettuce fabric. We cut the sections of fabric with another rebar heated in the fire so the ends of the fabric do not unravel.
Good timing helps with weed suppression. We try to till in supplements right before we stretch the fabric and transplant. Usually a two-inch lettuce transplant placed in a three-inch hole can outgrow any weeds that sprout around it.
If the soil is prepared several days in advance, we sometimes need to spot weed once by hand around the growing transplants. Between rotations we pull back the fabric, add supplements, till, and restretch the fabric.
Tight fabric is important to avoid flapping in high winds. Flapping fabric can lift the transplants before roots are established. After they are rooted the plants will hold the fabric down. Is all this landscape fabric sustainable? We are using fabric that has been in use for twelve years and it looks fine.
I predict 20 or more years of life although the manufacturers guarantee eight to ten years. The staples eventually rust through and need to be replaced each five to ten years.
We covered the capital expense in less than a year of avoided weed control labor so it seems to be economically sustainable. We use more petroleum in our tiller than is contained in the fabric that lasts many years. We try to avoid plastic generally but this application passes our environmental screen. Picture this often-repeated conversation between a happy farm couple in the middle of a lettuce harvest.
We seldom have that conversation since landscape fabric Landscape Fabric 12 Foot Wide Electron arrived. They grow hollies and organic fruit and vegetables. This is great info, thank you so much! We are a new farm trying to do things as organic as possible. We used lawn mulch this year, but the weeds are totally out of control.
Do you have any recommendations on what brand or type or details to look for in sourcing this kind of fabric? I would like to have above ground gardens for vegetables and herbs. I prefer organic, so am wondering what is the safest garden fabric to line the garden with?? Hey Karen! Are you using the fabric to line the raised beds, suppress weeds, insulate plants, or�?
I had two raised beds installed by a landscaper. He lined them with commercial landscape fabric and filled the boxes with soil. Any advice? Part of how the landscape fabric stays intact for so long is the tightness of the weave and the content of the material. I wonder how deep your raised beds are. Maybe the landscaper is trying to prevent weeds from coming up but still letting water soak through the bottom. Weeds are often a big reason why gardeners give up � they can out compete the plants leaving the gardener discouraged.
We used a sturdy, 2 layer landscape fabric in our vegetable garden this year. Because it is recommended to rotate crops every years due to soil borne pathogens, and the potential for soil to be embedded in the fabric, do you use anything in particular to clean your fabric? Any thoughts? Let us know how it goes. I will be growing vegetables so I need something with good drainage and to be as organic as possible. Any suggestions please? Thank you.
Thanks for your message. We use landscape fabric on most of our vegetable production areas so I expect that it will work well in your situation.
Our fabric has lasted 30 years plus. It allows air and water to pass through it. It is a woven geotextile so it is made from petroleum. It may be difficult to find the woven fabric in the size that you need. Rolls available from greenhouse suppliers are typically thousands of square feet. Big box building supply stores often have weed barrier that is more like felt than a woven cloth.
It also breathes and allows moisture through but it is much less durable and weeds will root through it fairly easily. We do not use that product. At your scale I suggest considering hand weeding or a hoe like the collinear hoe. With a little practice you will be able to hoe your beds in minutes. Once the crops get going they will outcompete your weeds. Mulch can also help keep weeds down but be careful about the source of hay or straw.
Some mulches now contain persistent herbicides that affect broad leaf crops like garden vegetables. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Donate Get Our Newsletter 0 Items. Missy Singer DuMars on August 2 at pm. Karen on March 22 at pm.
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