Landscape Fabric Help...remove?

[Colleen]

So in our new yard, the flower bed (if you can call it that) around the grass in the backyard has landscape fabric under really old bark dust. It's pretty weed ridden. I have ideas of what I want to put where...but I am overwhelmed by the fabric. I've never worked with it before. For instance, I want to grow strawberries...but they spread on their own so the fabric would be in their way right?

Should I just go pull it up? My partner thinks that would be way to much work...he said we should be able to work around it. However, I would rather work really hard in a weekend for an easier time in the future. Both of us have no idea though...help!

 

[grouie]

As per my knowledge fabric is mainly spread to control weeds.

 

[Chuck]

So in our new yard, the flower bed (if you can call it that) around the grass in the backyard has landscape fabric under really old bark dust. It's pretty weed ridden. I have ideas of what I want to put where...but I am overwhelmed by the fabric. I've never worked with it before. For instance, I want to grow strawberries...but they spread on their own so the fabric would be in their way right?

Should I just go pull it up? My partner thinks that would be way to much work...he said we should be able to work around it. However, I would rather work really hard in a weekend for an easier time in the future. Both of us have no idea though...help!

As you have already observed the weed fabric is not stopping the weeds. What the previous folks did was to lay down the fabric and cover it up with mulch. If it were me I would remove it. It isn't that difficult, just find the corner edge of the fabric and start pulling

 

[Beth_B]

I removed the old fabric from my front garden bed, it wasn't too difficult. I say go for it.

 

[marlingardener]

Landscape fabric is horrid stuff! It rips, it moves (oh, yes, it really does move!) and looks tatty when it shows through the mulch. Rip it up! There was fabric in a flowerbed here when we moved to our little farm, and I am still picking shreds of fabric out of the bed. I removed all I could, but it was so fragile that mostly I got handfuls of threads.
It isn't that hard to remove--just have at it with gusto and your lawn and garden will thank you!

 

[DeborahJane]

Never heard of landscape fabric. It may be here in Australia.
Worse still, I think, is what I did when first starting, I put down rolls of garden plastic.!!!! ......just revolting and no hope of it rotting down which I imagine is a possibility with the fabric. I've pulled some of it up but the mulch and dirt and WEEDS that are on top are quite heavy. In order to plant new plants I've cut hole in the plastic. Eventually I'll get rid of it all. I've found that layers of newspaper works well. Still some weeds but for me it's really helped with the quality of the soil as well as slowed the weeds down.
Mind you I did use plastic again fairly recently where I dug up agapanthus and what a job that was.....mattock swinging madwoman!!! But I really don't want them to come back in that particular spot. I filled my car, literally, with the rhizomes for my sister.....boot, back seat piled high, floor of back seat, front passenger seat, floor of front passenger seat. My poor little Ford Focus sedan . I really need a ute!!!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

leave it there, put it elsewhere on your to do list.

 

[Bootsy]

It depends on the type of landscape fabric. Good landscape fabric should be porous but weed resistant. You may find that the weeds are growing on top of the fabric and in the bark and other detritus (I like that word ) that has arrived there over the years.

I'd be inclined to check whether the weeds are right through the fabric. Good fabric should be able to be rolled up, after the muck on top of it has been scraped off.

Strawberries can be planted through the fabric, just cut a small X for each plant. The fabric should also stop some of the evaporation and help keep the roots moist in hot weather.

To cope with the runners from the plant (for best results strawberries should be replaced with new ones every three years) you can let them run over small trays or pots of soil that are placed next to the plants. They will root in them.

I use the fabric for a lot of my vegetables. Each winter I roll the fabric back and dig the soil and put home grown compost into it. Then roll the fabric back.

This saves me weeding the area for the whole year. It has the additional benefit of not getting muddy boots when wishing to pick the crops in the wet weather.

In the foreground of this picture is a new area I have put down the fabric. On the far right you can just see an old area that has it. That has been there for ten years and is still going strong with no rotting of the fabric. Quite economical.

I grow many things through it. Runner beans, French beans, tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, sweet corn (maize), marrows, peas and other things.