Last summer I tried to take back the overgrown front garden. Got it weeded, put down landscape cloth, and bark mulch. Not only do I have weeds I have flowers that come up like weeds previously identified as muscari, grape hyacinth, and/or Centaurea. These plants are like weeds. They overpopulate and take over and are unmanageable. Today I was walking past the front garden and to my horror I see bulbs sprouting through the bark mulch. I got down and pushed the mulch aside and sure enough I see the nasty plants have pushed an opening through the landscape cloth. I even managed to yank one of them right up and pull the bulb to the opening. Must be at least 10 of the nasties coming up through the cloth. I guess I can expect more. Also maybe another 20 are sprouting in the gap between the sidewalk and where landscape cloth perhaps didn't quite cover for an inch or so. I am quite disappointed. I worked so hard to clean this area up and was so hoping to have a tidy, uncluttered garden and thought putting landscape cloth and bark mulch down would be the answer. I can only hope that maybe only a fraction of the thousands will burst through the landscape cloth.
I prefer to use thick, black weed supressing fabric (2 -3 layers) with the slate chippings on top. It stops the light getting to the plants and therefore weakens and eventually kills them. I did this in both parts of my front garden two or three years ago and have only had a couple of little seedlings growing in the mulch. I guess I can blame the birds for dropping the seeds but there's is no sign any unwanted plants or weeds.
This sounds quite frustrating for you! The plants you call weeds I actually like, but not if they have spread and are not where you want them to be. I work for a landscaping company and we never bother putting down fabric unless a client insists. Our belief is that it is a waste of time and money, and never works that well. We usually resort to some kind of herbicide (usually commercial strength Round up) and/or lots of tedious pulling. Kay in Nebraska
I am also having problem with weeds on one of my veggie bed. These weeds grow and spread fast and I have to arrest them before they spread to the other beds. Since mine is an organic mini farm I had to dig in the ground and take the weeds out together with its roots and polyps like thingy. I had been doing that for the last couple of evenings and only managed to cover half of the 2X9ft bed :-x . It is tedious and time consuming but I think it is worth the effort. I'll try to snap some pics of this highly troublesome weeds tomorrow.
The landscaping fabric has never worked for me, things grow up thru it and seeds from the birds have no problem sending roots down into the soil under it. I have been using several layers of newspaper instead with mulch on top. By the time that newspaper composts itself the weeds that were in that spot have died off.
We've got one type of landscaping fabric that weeds simply love, and another, thicker one that weeds can't go through. Of course the thick one is so expensive my wallet screams just by the sight of it. So I do what toni does.
yes, I find newespaper - overlap well and use about 12 sheets, works well, in the meantime it lets nutrients and water through. Also, over time, a good thick humus-y mulch encourages the weeds that seed or come up through the ground to root shallowly in the nice yummy nutrient rich moist mulch, and hence are much easier to pull up and control. Also, i don't know what you call landscape cloth in your part of the world as geotextiles available seem to differ in regions according to application and as new technologies are improving it, but down here there are several differnt products under 'weedmat' or landscape cloth, and weedmats aren't just weedmat.Luck! a bear
Round Up is no longer widely sold in Canada though I think Wal-Mart still carries it. I might have to wage battle on those little bulbs as they poke their heads up with a good blast of Round Up if I can find it. If only a fraction of them come up I can live with that, but these hyacinths are so invasive and take over spreading like weeds.
Toni, newspaper what a great idea, I'll use it when I am finish deweeding this infested bed. Ok this is a picture of the weed I am talking about. You can see the 3 new shoots that are coming out from the node like thingy of the main plant and it is a geometric progression. Killer Weeds ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This is the quantity collected about half of the 2X9ft bed. The coliander is about 1½ft in diameter and is about 6inches deep. To remove the weeds I have to dig into the ground and physically remove the roots and nodes like thingy because by just pulling it it will just break off just before the nodes. I guess it is designed for maximum irritation :-x Roots and nodes like thingy of killer weeds ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This one is just to show how densely populated it is. Density of killer weed. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden )
Yes they are nutgrass and it is a real headache getting rid of them. I am still seiving the ground inch by inch to get rid of them which I think it is impossible to do so :'( I will be happy if I get them to a controlable population.
That nutgrass looks like it would drive a gardener nuts. Maybe that's where the name came from... Meanwhile, I have had very good results from using multiple sheets of newspaper covered with mulch as a weed barrier too. I have also used one of the heavy plastic contractor garbage bags cut open and covered with mulch. Like a lot of others, the weed cloth wasn't much of a deterrent for aggressive weeds. For me it is the wild onions, or whatever they are. I'm sorry the cloth didn't work. I know you worked very hard on that bed and it was beautiful. It will be beautiful again this year.... Live and learn. Thank goodness for GS.
Newspaper options seems to work out for me too.Just a bit of moisture in excess though makes all things go wrong while using newspaper. I prefer to place a thin sheet of cardboard (the types used in keeping packed crockery from bumping with other crockery pieces).