This involves laying cardboard or newspaper and topping it with compost and organic mulch. The cardboard will smother weeds just like a freshly laid piece of landscape fabric. Instead of breaking ...

But in practice, the openings may clog up with soil and organic matter from the decay of the mulch. Air can’t get through and neither can rain. Landscape fabric is not needed beneath mulch to ...

And what is more, soil health won't improve over time since organic matter cannot be incorporated into the soil below by earthworms and other soil life when landscape fabric is in place.

You might not consider that lawns profit from mulching, but unless you use a leaf catcher each time, you are mulching your ...

Weeds will poke through any openings you left or created in the fabric, though. Organic matter will build up over time above the landscape fabric — as the mulch decomposes — and weeds will ...

How Do I Learn More? Many gardening books, especially organic gardening how-to primers, now devote space to landscape fabrics. For additional information about fabrics and how to use them ...

We usually avoid landscape fabric, which, unlike an organic mulch such as seaweed or straw, contributes nothing to the life of the soil. But as a temporary weed barrier, it is more effective than ...

Landscape fabric restricts the light required for weed ... prevented from adding desirable organic matter to the soil). In addition, healthy soil needs to have an exchange of carbon dioxide ...

A: Landscape fabric sounds like a good idea ... A much better choice is a layer of an organic mulch, such as wood chips, bark or shredded leaves. Organic mulch will need to be added to every ...

Landscape fabric, once considered the magic bullet ... This seems to work well for a year or so before problems begin to set in. First, organic mulches like bark, wood chips and compost break ...