Hi YouTubers. I'm Al Gracian from Albopepper.com. Today, I want to talk to you about: Landscape
Fabric. This is something that is commonly used in
the landscaping industry. We'll often times put it in our beds and we
might think that it going to solve a lot of problems for us. But sometimes it can cause some unexpected
challenges in the landscape. If you ask a landscaper, a professional landscaper,
what they think about it, you'll probably get some interesting stories. So I want to show some pros and cons of using
this in our landscapes today. But, quite importantly, I want show you a
pretty cool alternative that you might consider using. And it might be something that could really
help you out just depending on what you're trying to accomplish when you're setting up
a bed. So let's get in and look at what landscape
fabric can do for us and also what it can't do for us. "Nature abhors a vacuum." And so what that means is, if you have a big
open area, maybe even disturbed land where nothing is growing, odds are it isn't going
to stay that way for long. Due to all of the different natural forces
in the environment you always have new organisms coming in. Plant seeds being blown in from the wind. From birds. From their droppings. And so before you know it, an area is overtaken. And often times, what it's overtaken by, is
what we call "weeds." Things that we don't want growing there. So on the edge of my property line, what had
been a completely open, barren spot is now overrun by all types of plants that I don't
want growing there, which means I've gotta keep pulling them out again and again, fighting
nature constantly. Most of us don't enjoy spending our whole
day weeding our yards and our landscapes. Yet, at the same time, we do like things to
look nice. And we don't want them to look messy and chaotic. You'll especially find that in some urban
areas where some people are even forced to live that way because of the neighborhoods
that they reside in. Sure, we could take the easy way out and just
spray a big ol' swath of Roundup and kill all those weeds just like that. But I think that at this point, society in
general is finally waking up as to the dangers involved in using chemicals like glyphosate
and other types of herbicides and what they're doing to the environment, to the wildlife. So we can quickly rule that out as a way of
dealing with weeds, which leaves us with the next option: Weed Suppression. Often the easiest way to go about initially
suppressing weeds is just by adding some form of a mulch. Often times, in a landscape setting, you're
looking at a wood-based mulch because you get a nice aesthetic value. But you also do, at least for a time, have
that ability to suppress the things that you don't want from growing. And then you can of course have a nicer environment
where you retain moisture and you can get those things that you want to grow. I know what you thinking: 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that mulch stuff, by itself, it does
work ok at first. But before too long you have all of these
stupid weeds coming up. And now you're back at it again anyways, having
to pull this junk out. And well, isn't that what the point of weed
fabric is all about? That landscape fabric?' Sure we could put this stuff down. Maybe put a nice layer of this first. And then we could come in and put our mulch. And wouldn't that help tremendously with suppressing
weeds? Well, let's look at how this fabric actually
works and what happens over time in our landscape beds. Over time that layer of wood mulch that you've
put down, starts to decompose which is great for the landscape. It's great for your plants and the different
organisms in the soil. But what that means is you now on top of your
landscape fabric are building an actual layer of top soil on top of that. So, even though you're stopping plants and
weeds and things from underneath from being able to come up, you're not able to stop them
from growing down into it. So when fresh seeds get blown in, things are
still being able to root now in this soil that is being built on top of your fabric. And so every year or so as you keep bringing
in fresh mulch in order to have the aesthetic and the practical value of that mulch still
working for you, what's going on is that fabric is getting buried deeper and deeper, under
the ground. And you're still fighting weeds anyways. So now at this point, after having initially
suppressed existing vegetation, you're now having to fight new vegetation that's coming
in anyways. And that's where you start complaining about
this stupid landscape fabric and how it just doesn't seem to do what you thought it was
going to do. But what we may not consider is the detrimental
effects that it's having even though it's not really working that great at keeping out
fresh weeds, it's still a barrier here. And it's stopping something from occurring. And often times we don't think about that. We don't take that into account. And for this reason alone is why I would non
longer would use a landscape fabric anywhere. We naturally have organisms that are moving
from below in the sub-soil up to the surface. Think about earthworms and the great work
that they do in our landscapes, in our yards, in our gardens. They tunnel down below, but then they tunnel
all the way up to the very surface of the soil. And how are they able to do that properly
when we have this fabric, this impassable barrier that is there right below the surface
of the soil? Then too if we have any type of a creeping
or a spreading plant, well as it starts to advance and it spreads out more and more it
starts to root into this mulch, this top soil that your building up here. But then the roots can't get all the way down
like they should. And so now you have a shallow rooted perennial,
something that's a desirable plant that you may want in your bed. And it's being choked by a fabric. There's gotta be some kind of a way to suppress
these things, allowing us to take over our landscape with a design that we want. But then going forward, what can we do to
reduce maintenance? Well first, let's look at something that is
an excellent alternative to a fabric, that doesn't interfere on a long-term basis with
biological activity of different organisms. But in the initial laying down of it, it is
great at suppressing weeds. Right here, several months ago, I began putting
down layers... of cardboard. Just simple cardboard. I pull off all of the stickers. All of the tape. And then on top of that, a nice generous layer
of mulch to help to hold that in place, to block out light. And look at what we've gotten as a result. In this spot here, without having to rely
on landscape fabric, I was able to take a product that would have been possibly thrown
away, maybe recycled. But even still, rather than sending it off-site,
I've been able to turn it into a resource that allowed me to suppress a whole bunch
of weeds that I had in here. And so after several months they get completely
choked out. And what that does, is that now prepares a
site where I can come in and put in things that I do want, and begin replacing that vacuum,
that empty space, with things that are desirable. Move over landscaping fabric. It's time to make way for some simple old
cardboard. It's something that does work well at initially
suppressing weeds, while later on allowing the plants that you want to grow to be able
to grow properly, to be able to be properly rooted and to be able to thrive in your landscape. The biological life in your soil will thank-you. A couple of quick tips that I wanted to share. This is a general idea, built around the concept
of sheet mulching which is used in permaculture. Often times, in addition to putting a mulch
on top, there will be many more layers of things like compost, leaves, that are intended
to add fertility to a site. Maybe whenever you're going to do some biointensive
gardening and you want to really build up a topsoil level. But even in a more simple application, where
all you want to do is suppress some weeds, and start to fix up a bed that you allowed
to kinda get overrun. Well, you can use this stuff and put on a
nice thick layer of mulch and it will do the job. I recommend getting the biggest pieces that
you can possibly get of this cardboard. If you have a bunch of tiny scraps and you
try to piece them together it's not going to work very well, as opposed to having some
very nice, large maybe a nice thick cardboard. You could do double layers or more. And if you do get to points where you have
overlapping, make sure that you're generous in regards to how you do overlap that stuff. Wouldn't it be nice though if you could keep
weeds at bay without having to constantly mulch large areas every year? Well, as part of a longterm management strategy
I suggest looking at what you're doing with your plants. Fill in that vacuum. Put in as many perennials as you can fit,
getting as many benefits as you can from these different plants. Many flowering and herbal perennials can offer
so much to a landscape. In addition to the general aesthetic value,
they can be used perhaps for culinary uses or as medicinal uses. And certainly they're greatly appreciated
by wildlife, such as our honeybees and other beneficial insects. But by having them very close together, what
happens is, they completely occupy an area, out competing weeds, making it so there is
nowhere for those weeds to grow. You might have a couple that are struggling
to survive. They're easy to identify and eliminate. And other than that, that's it. And eventually, you don't even have to mulch
that area because there is no more exposed ground. A very specific type of plant that I am a
big advocate for are ground cover plants. Here's an example of a ground cover plant
that I put in a couple years ago. This is a creeping thyme. And just look at what this has done. In a low lying area where you don't want maybe
tall bushy plants, you're able to fill in a spot that no longer needs mulched. No longer has excessive weeds that you're
constantly fighting. And it looks nice. So, utilizing various different types of ground
covers -that should be on your list as part of your end game, your final design element
that you'll want to use in a landscape. In between your other plants that maybe are
bushes, shrubs, trees, use ground covers to fill in the rest. That means no more weeds. Well that's it for today. Thanks for taking time to watch this video. I hope that it's given you something to take
into consideration. Landscape fabric can offer some benefits,
but it has definite drawbacks. And it's good to be aware of those. That can help us to have realistic expectations. And maybe we may decide that we don't want
to spend the twenty dollars on that roll of this synthetic stuff. But instead, you might find that you have
exactly what you need already in your house, ready to go to the recycling bin. Why not give that a try? Well, please subscribe if you haven't already. And as always: Happy Gardening! It does look like I have one last spot that
I want to take care of. I've been putting it off. But I've got some cardboard and some mulch
so it's time to get back to work. Oh hey, have you ever seen a tour of my Dad's
yard? He uses a lot of weeping trees and things
that work well in the shade. It makes for a nice contrast. You should check it out. Or maybe you just might want to see the playlist
that shows the different walkthroughs of my yard and how things have progressed through
the years. It's your choice. I won't judge.
