Beginner Gardening: I've got a new yard......, 1 by SalmonMe

SalmonMe wrote:
Hi, there! How fantastic for you!!!! A new house!!!

I have to admit that I like the landscaping fabric (duck)! BUT, I only like it in spots where I'm not planting anything else for a few years. It has its benefits and drawbacks. If you're planting a ton of stuff (or even a modest number of plants) in that space, I'd yank it up altogether. Especially since the house is only 3-4 years old, you'll likely have to work the soil pretty good to get a good start. I'd be suprised if the area was heavily amended by the previous owners.

Our house is one year old now, and we've tried hard to get going on the "bones" of the property. In places where we have planted trees/shrubs but won't be planting anything else for a couple of years, we used the black weed fabric under the mulch. It doesn't let anything through and it's environmentally safer than herbicides for new beds. After a couple of years, when we change the mulch and take the fabric off, the weeds that were in that bed will be goners. We used the fabric on our beds in Virginia for just one year and the following year, after we removed it, the perennial bed was really, really low on weeds. I even had a neighbor comment to me once about how few weeds I had compared to the other houses by mine. So, there is a benefit to the stuff. Hopefully, you'll find it's done the same good in your yard & can thank it and throw it out :)

It's at best a pain in the trowel in a perennial bed. For one thing, the perennials don't always come up through their little "x" cut in the fabric. My first year gardening, I had to rescue 2 bleeding heart that had been trying in vain to come up through the fabric, but were running like vines all underneath it. Beginner's lesson.... but they lived! :) So, I'm rambling here, basically - we shaped our beds, tilled, amended, laid out the fabric and then planted the "bones" in our shrub borders, but I wouldn't recommend keeping the weed fabric in a mixed/ perennial bed situation.

Why couldn't I have just said that last sentence in the first place??? LOL :)

Hugs :)