Viewing post #660510 by fiwit

farawayfarmer said:Some thoughts that came to mind early this morning while I was out in the field behind our house, riding the Deere.

I reflected at length on the pros of landscape fabric and the cons of losing earthworms because of it. And, while I'd very much like to have both, I'm going to come down in favor of the fabric. For this important reason: I've had both knees replaced, and while they gave me the ability walk without a cane, you can't kneel with prosthetic knees. Oh, I know a couple of people who claim to be able to do so, but I have my doubts.

This means that my much younger partner has to do the weeding, and with beds that stretch some 300 feet around three sides of our front yard, it's practically a full-time job. The best I can do is place a Samsonite folding card table chair at the edge of a bed, and lean down and pull. Unfortunately, I can't get much more than 12 or 15 inches into the bed without falling out of the chair (not a pretty sight). 'And of course, the chair sinks into the soil if I place it in the bed.

So, it because a practical choice, and we're going to give the landscape fabric a try.

John, is your only reason for landscape fabric the weed prevention aspect of it? Try corrugated cardboard/newspapers instead. In 2008 I built an 8x16 raised bed and laid down several layers of corrugated cardboard/newspapers on top of the ground before filling the bed. It's been 6 years, and I still barely have any weeds in that bed. It was 3 years before I saw any weeds at all in it.

I had lots of cardboard available, since I had just moved into my house. But you can hit local stores and get their boxes - they just toss/recycle them. Earthworms LOVE corrugated cardboard.