I want to put landscape fabric down on my garden walkways this year, and some fabrics are better than others. If you have some that you're really happy with, would you mind letting me know where you got it and what it's called? ......I'm trying to get my garden as low-maintenance as possible this year. :) Thanks for your help!
Favorite landscape fabric for garden walkways?
Never mind. :) I found some that wears like iron at a wholesale nursery near my home. I'm good to go!! :-D
what did you find.. I had been using 1/2 pallets to keep out of the mud and it slows gown the weeds....
I use old carpet.
good idea.. i am ripping a carpet out this month.. does it get rotted and moldy quick?
Not really. I've had no problem with mold at all, and after 3 years, the carpets are holding up pretty well. I was afraid they'd start to smell, but so far, so good!
I'm the Director of Marketing for a Retirement Community where we change carpet whenever we turn an apartment. So, whenever I turn an apartment, I have the installer cut any decent areas into 3'x2' pieces for me to use with animals. Once the "have their way with it", it's out to the garden with it! The Owner of the Carpet company also gave me a big stack of the sample carpets last time he re-did his show room. Those work especially well, because they have the thick backing. Nothing gets through those - though I do get loads of comments from the neighbors..."Looks like Janice is carpeting her gardens again!" (Like it's odd or something! LOL!) I started off just using greens and brown, but the apartment carpet is mostly neutral. I'm sure it will be green and brown in not time, though!
you mean that's not normal?
thanks
-joe-
Some people need to learn to live outside the box!!!
What I found was a commercial grade material that is a kind of landscaping 'fabric'. But this stuff was used all over the nursery, and not 1 weed popping through the fabric! Potted plant material was displayed on it and all the walkways were covered with it. I asked the owner of the nursery how long it lasts, and she said that she really doesn't know yet. She had some of it down for 10 years and it is still fine! ...It shrinks slightly after being in the sun so it was taught and as nice as asphalt! It lets the water through but there was no mud that I could see seeping back thru to the top. It made it so nice to walk around on it, that I bought it to "pave" my walkways in my vegetable garden. The beds will not be covered with it - I will use wet newspaper and straw for that, but it will be really nice to have it to walk and work on. :) ...I'm sorry, it does not have a company name stamped on it. I do know that it comes in 6', 10', 12', and 15' widths though. If I am able to find out who makes it, I'll let you know. :)
I have some 36" wide landscape fabric that I use on my paths. I've seen that advertised in several catalogues but I think I probably bought it at Home Depot or some other big box store. Since my paths are 18" wide I can cut the fabric in half and get two pieces out of each length. I covered them with woodchips for walking, but the only problem is that soil eventually migrates to the paths and I still get some weeds growing in them.
regular landscape fabric is not a bad idea. I am interested in what that nursery is using....
I'll ask the nursery who makes this stuff and let you know what I find out. Once I've got it all down, I'll post a picture too, so that you can see it. :)
thanks
-joe-
This might be what you are looking for
http://www.growersupply.com/grouncovfab.html
I have been ordering from this Company for several years and highly recommend them
that looks very good, thank you for the link
-joe-
wow, and my hubby thought I was nuts, I've been using old area rugs, and any carpet I find along side the roadside,( that others are throwing away) to use as weed cover in my flower and vegtable gardens, and I have had the best of luck with it, very little weeds come up through it, if any, and it does last for quite a few years, and if it gets to moldy looking in areas where you can see it, and you have no vegtables or edible plants in the area, I use 'simple green" a cleaner you can find in the house cleaning section, read the label, it's very safe to use, smells ok, and is earth friendly ! Between that and the sun, the carpets look pretty good again in a couple of days. I'm new here in Daves Garden and have been reading alot of threads and this is my first post so when I read this I just had to add my own experience, and as far as me, never have to buy weed paper, ask friends and relatives for their old throw-a-ways, and keep an eye open when driving around town, people are going to tile and wood floors, and are putting their old carpets out for the garbage !
HoneybeeNC, the fabric from grower supply looks exactly like the stuff I have. I just got it stapled down today so I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it. I'm really happy with it!! :) Their price is a little better than what I paid too, but I didn't have to pay for shipping so it's probably a 'wash' for me.
Y'all are welcome :)
I'm trying the "old carpet" trick under my tomato pots this year to keep out the bermuda grass. Between my raised beds, I have a six inch layer of leaves. I dug out all the bermuda grass by hand, 'cause if you leave even one little bitty piece behind it will grow again! The thick layer of leaves prohibits weeds from taking hold, and the earthworms happily devour them over time. This fall I'll have about an inch-deep layer of worm castings that I can transfer to my raised beds. An inch doesn't sound like much, but I have five raised beds that are 24' x 4' x 6" with a 4' path between them - that's A LOT of leaves!
As you can imagine, the American Robin LOVES our yard! So does some unwelcome critter that patrols the garden at night and digs up the worms. Last year I lost lots of young plants because of this critter's foraging. This year, I've put up short fences to discourage the night-stalker.
Is anyone concerned about the effects of the materials used to make carpets on their veggie plants or on the produce that comes from them? Unless you're using pure wool rugs, there are a lot of chemicals that go into the fabrication of carpet, and I believe formaldehyde is one of them.
jamibad - WELCOME TO DG!!!
I looked-up the definition:
for·mal·de·hyde (fôr-māl'də-hīd')
n. A colorless gaseous compound, HCHO, the simplest aldehyde, used for manufacturing melamine and phenolic resins, fertilizers, dyes, and embalming fluids and in aqueous solution as a preservative and disinfectant.
–noun Chemistry. a colorless, toxic, potentially carcinogenic, water-soluble gas, CH2O, having a suffocating odor, usually derived from methyl alcohol by oxidation: used chiefly in aqueous solution, as a disinfectant and preservative, and in the manufacture of various resins and plastics.
Guess I'll take-up the carpet :(
Not to be a party pooper, but I've been thinking about this while you all were posting about using carpeting, and I thought I'd throw it out there...
Sorry!
so - no shag rug wall to wall carpeted garden?
Maybe for your flowers....? It would give new meaning to the term "outdoor living space!"
I use layers of newspaper for my paths covered with a couple of inches of wood chips. I know that I will have to add more chips as time goes on - but they are free from local tree trimmers. If I ever want to change where the paths go or sell the house and want to put back in a lawn, I know that the soil under the paths will be fertile and probably not hard packed because the wood chips will distribute the foot traffic weight to some degree.
I use landscape fabric covered with wood chips. I still get weeds because some dirt gets into the chips, but they're easy to remove. I didn't want to use newspaper because it breaks down fairly quickly here, but it would be easy to take the paths up if we ever wanted to. It will never be lawn, though, because it has a brick walk, a central brick patio, a greenhouse, and fencing all around it! I suppose if some subsequent owner were really determined....
Here's something to watch out for...
A friend told me that they know someone who put down wood chips they got for free from local tree trimmers on their vegetable garden pathways. What they did not know was that there was Black Walnut chips in it. The toxic juglone from the Black Walnut wood chips got into the soil and nothing grew in their garden that year, and still won’t grow there. :(
Another thing is to be careful about is not using material from trees that grow by a highway and pick up emissions from car exhausts, but that wouldn't be as much of a problem if the people do residential properties.
Our lawn service would love to give us grass from other customers, but most of them use herbicide sprays and we're organic. Our son brings us down his clippings sometimes, though.
thanks for the welcome sequee, I was reading all the great threads here on DG and just realized how all this works, and when I came back to this thread had seen your welcome. What a great place this whole DG is, I can't seem to pull myself away to do anything else, but than It's been raining for 6 days straight, can't play in the dirt :) Thank you ciao, jami
We used carpet for years also, usually pick up some from along side the road that is going out for trash or if someone we know is getting rid of theirs. It has worked really well for growing gourds and things that vine. I would just cut a hole and plant right in a larger piece and let the gourds or pumpkins just vine all over it. I never thought about formaldehyde, I wonder as the carpet is usually old by the time we get it how much is left in the fabric. I know that one of the big issues with Formaldehyde is the off gassing. Since landscape fabric is a plastic compound to they use formaldehyde in the manufacture of that? Do you need to look for formaldehyde free landscape fabric? Years ago people used RR ties to edge gardens until that became a topic of discussion for those as well. I believe that it was arsenic that was used to preserve them, I still have a few left in along the one side. And what about pressure treated wood much of that has arsenic in it. There is so much to think about nowadays with our chemical laden world.
Pressure treated wood no longer has arsenic in it, or whatever it was that was toxic. Several towns in our area actually removed the play equipment on their playgrounds because it was made with pressure treated lumber. It is really hard to know what to use anymore!
That is good to know, I remember there were several cases where children were getting sick from the treated wood in their playgrounds. There were several serious cases.
I never heard that children were actually getting sick from the wood; my impression was more that people were concerned about the longterm effects of the exposure with children, who are especially vulnerable.
Yes, I remember seeing a news story about a family with a couple of young girls that were sick and they followed it back to the new wooden gym that had been built in the yard. They were warning people about the possible effects. It was quite a long time ago but I remember the family all standing out in the yard with the wooden play gym behind them. Talking about the girls illnesses.
I need to build simple boxes for three raised beds approximately 8x4 and 4x3. What lumber should I buy from HD or Lowes which is where I'll be shopping today? These are for root cole crops and ahoile have at least a 6" depth. They'll sit right on the soil. Please reply ASAP. THX.
I'd buy something untreated; I wonder if they have anything that's naturally rot-resistant, like cedar? We used cedar poles for our tomatoes for many years until I switched to bamboo, because it was easier to handle, and we cut all the old poles up for firewood and they were still perfectly sound!
Thanks greenhous_gal!
I used Trex for my raised beds. It is sawdust in some kind of epoxy resin and is supposed to last for years and years. It is just very expensive and the big box store didn't want to cut it in half for me because it gums up their saw - but they did. I asked on DG and everyone who has used it likes it.
Oh yeah? Good idea Cat. I'm building a couple of raised beds this year for veggies. Can't decide whether I want plain wood or what. I may sell in 5 years. Maybe I'll just go for wood. (screaming inside: I don't want to sell!)
thank you for the wonderful info.. I am curious to know, could I put landscape fabric in a wooden planter to prevent the wood from decaying? I got these planters handmade as a gift & I can't find a plastic liner to fit them. I would hate for them to become destroyed by just putting "bare" soil in them. They are not treated for waterproof.. I am not sure about the laquer, etc.