Weed control fabric used in the fall will reduce your spring gardening tasks
Weed Control Fabric
When summer is over, all of the flowers are spent and leaves are falling, it's time to prepare the garden for winter with weed control fabric. There are bulbs to store or divide, leaves to rack for composting, beds to weed to prevent sprouts you'll be battling big-time next spring. Don't forget the gutters and perhaps a couple of loads of brush to haul away. With fence repairs and roof checks, you're pretty busy. By the time you're done, the rains have come and you're done in the garden until spring.
Of all garden tasks, weeding probably holds last place in the gardener's list of things to do. Tedious work it is and repetitious as well. Only the most fastidious weeders ever eventually rid the garden of weeds, until a few new ones blow in on the wind.
Weeding is much like doing the laundry. No one notices, unless you fail to do the task. Although there are various chemical products available to target weeds, more and more people are becoming aware of the potential dangers of using such chemicals in their gardens. This perspective doesn't change the gardener's opinion on weeding. So what's the solution to eliminating the frequent weeding chores? Weed control fabric offers multiple benefits in certain kinds of garden situations.
In landscaped areas, where you've got shrubs, small trees, roses and other perennial plants, you may have significant amounts of bare space between your plantings. This is a perfect situation for weed control fabric.
The dark colors of weed control fabric also warm the ground, useful in areas where heavy frosts persist in winter. This cloth also allows you to plant a few days earlier in spring, if you want to put in some annual herbs or flowers along a pathway. Just remove the cloth, turn the soil and plant! The soil will also be less compacted, especially with clay soils.
Another outstanding virtue of weed control fabric is that you do not even need to weed the area before laying down the weed cloth. Lacking oxygen and water, those weeds will be deader than a doornail in a couple of weeks, without you lifting a hand or resorting to chemicals.
Weed control fabric comes in rolls of a few standard widths and lengths, such as a 3-foot wide by 50 foot long roll. The fabric is virtually impermeable and is available in green and black. All you need to do is roll it out, covering large areas of bare ground as you cut to size. Leave an opening around your plants sufficient to water. For example, rose bushes need a watering area roughly the diameter of the branches. With a stand of pampas grass, just cut the weed control fabric right up to the edge of the planting.
When you've covered that area of your landscaping, your weeding days there are over, excepting the errant weed showing up in the rose bushes come spring. Easily and swiftly dealt with for at least a week, if you're a perfectionist.
All that's left to do is cover the weed control fabric with a 2-3 inch layer of redwood bark, pine needles or whatever mulching materials are readily available in your region. Whatever mulch you choose adds to the looks of your landscaping and provides additional warming for the ground surrounding your plantings.
Using this long lasting, multi-purpose fabric this fall takes one disliked task right off your list of spring gardening activities, freeing you up for fun tasks!
