What does landscape fabric actually do?
Landscape fabric, also called weed barrier, is the layer that goes under rock or mulch. It blocks weeds growing up from the soil while still letting water and air through to plant roots. When the fabric is thin, torn, or laid with gaps at the seams, weeds come straight through, which is the usual reason a rock bed looks bad.
Most weedy rock beds do not have a rock problem. They have a fabric problem. Thin big-box fabric tears when you walk on it and clogs up with silt. Seams that are not overlapped leave a straight line for weeds to come through. Edges left short let weeds creep in from the grass.
How to tell your barrier has failed
- Weeds coming up right through the rock or mulch
- Fabric you can see, torn or sun-bleached
- Fabric bunched up or lifting at the edges
- A bed you are spraying or hand-pulling constantly
How we put it in
- Clear and levelWeeds and debris out, and the bed surface smoothed.
- Roll out heavy-duty fabricWoven barrier, overlapped several inches at every seam.
- Pin it and finish the edgesLandscape staples through the seams, edges tucked so nothing creeps in from the side.
- Cover it back upRock re-set or mulch spread on top. Fabric left uncovered breaks down in sun.
Straight talk about fabric
Fabric is not a permanent fix and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. It stops weeds coming up from the soil underneath. It does nothing about seeds that blow in and sprout in the dust that settles on top of your rock. What good fabric buys you is years of much less weeding instead of weeks. Keep it covered and it lasts a long time. Leave it in the sun and it does not.
What to know before you book
- Fabric under mulch has a shorter useful life than fabric under rock, because mulch breaks down into soil on top of it and weeds root in that layer.
- We do not lay fabric in beds you plan to replant heavily. Cutting a lot of holes in it defeats the point, and in a busy planting bed a thick mulch layer usually works better.
- Plastic sheeting is not the same thing and we will not put it in. It holds water, kills roots, and turns into a mess.