Beginner’s Guide to Landscaping Fabric
Weeding your yard can be truly backbreaking work. Sometimes you’re simply tired of weeding your yard constantly, or you physically aren’t able to do it anymore. No matter your reasons for not wanting to continue regularly weeding, there are solutions out there for you to keep your yard looking good without expending extra energy. One of the biggest solutions is landscaping fabric, but what is landscaping fabric exactly?
One of the solutions many homeowners look to when they find themselves doing an extensive amount of weeding around their yards is landscaping fabric. In this article, we’ll answer the question, “what is landscaping fabric?” and how it can help you maintain your yard. Read along to learn how landscaping fabric can change your yard and your life for the better.
Landscape Fabric
Most people want their yard to look good while also being active in other domains of their lives. Unless you’re an aspiring landscaper or gardening enthusiast, weeding can be a regular hassle. Even if you are interested in gardening or landscaping, weeding can easily feel like a chore. Pulling up weeds can quickly become tedious especially if your yard seems to keep growing them at an increasing rate.
There are tons of weed control methods out there for homeowners to utilize to solve this problem. Landscape fabric or landscape cloth is one of them. If you’re wondering, “what is landscaping fabric?,” simply put, landscape fabric is a piece of cloth or fabric that you can use as a physical barrier between the soil in your yard and the sun. It’s also referred to as weed fabric, weed block, and weed barrier. It’s a common way to keep weeds from growing where you don’t want them to.
Landscaping fabric is typically used in mulched areas around shrubs, bushes, and trees. The way that it works is that you lay fabric down over the soil and place mulch on top. This helps reduce the growth of weed seeds in the soil by reducing their exposure to sunlight.
Weed Barrier Fabric
Landscape cloth or fabric can also be used under rock, gravel, and hardscaping. This helps prevent unwanted growth from popping up through cracks in rocks or cement. This type of weed growth is more difficult to control because you typically can’t get to the root of the plant when gravel or other hard materials are covering the soil.
One of the many benefits of using weed barrier fabric is that it allows you to stunt weed growth without the use of chemicals that might be toxic. For people with children and pets that like to run around the yard uninhibited, landscape fabric can save you a lot of peace of mind while solving your weed problem.
There are a few different types of weed barrier fabrics that you can choose from. So while you might be enticed by a cheap plastic barrier that claims to be suitable for any application, consider your different options before investing your money. Picking the right type of fabric for your project can make all the difference.
Types of Landscape Cloth
Now that you know the basic function of landscape fabric, let’s get into the different types you can purchase. Depending on your yard’s specific issue, you might prefer one over the other.
Woven
Woven landscaping fabric tends to be the most common type of landscape cloth you’ll come across. This is the type of fabric you’ll want to use for weed control around flower beds, trees, and shrubs.
Typically, woven landscape fabric is made from linen fibers or polypropylene. These fabrics are semi-permeable, which allows nutrients like water to seep through the fabric into the earth while keeping weeds from sprouting.
Non-Woven
Non-woven fabrics are predictably less permeable than woven landscape fabrics, which makes them more suited to gravel and rock paths or other hardscape areas. They tend to be made from polyester or polypropylene, and their more solid nature will serve to effectively prevent water and nutrients from getting to the soil below.
These fabrics are typically used when you don’t want any greenery to grow around the area you’re covering. This makes it especially effective for preventing weeds from sprouting up through gravel or stone pathways. In addition to preventing these weeds from growing, non-woven fabrics also keep stones from sinking into the soil below.
Spun
Spun landscaping fabric is a type of non-woven fabric. It is the most heavy-duty fabric for landscaping, making it hard to rip or tear. Available in different thicknesses, spun fabric is versatile in that it can be used for many different landscaping purposes. This includes drainage, irrigation, and protective borders to fight off pests and weeds.
Perforated
Perforated fabric tends to be on the cheaper side of the spectrum when it comes to the types of landscaping fabrics. This type of cloth is usually lightweight and comes with pre-cut holes to put in plants, which makes it good for people working in gardens.
Because of its lightweight nature, perforated fabric won’t suffocate roots and can be replaced with ease. Vegetable gardens tend to be lined with perforated landscape cloth. This type of cloth shouldn’t be used in places that see heavy foot traffic or around plants with large roots.
Beat the Weeds Today
Weeds can be one of the most pesky parts of keeping up your lawn. If you’re looking for a way to keep these weeds from continuously popping up in your yard, landscape fabric could change your life. While the different types vary in cost based on the type and amount you need, it’s likely the cost will be worth keeping your peace of mind.
If you have any questions about landscape fabric or how to go about using it to combat your weed problem, consult us at Arbeen Landscaping. We are a landscaping company that serves the suburbs surrounding Chicago and are dedicated to creating the landscape of our clients’ dreams through careful attention to detail and close communication.
If you live in the Chicagoland area and are in need of a landscaper, visit our website or contact us about your landscaping needs.
