Landscaping fabric is often offered as a solution to keep weeds at bay in your garden, but more and more people are voicing their frustrations with the product.
The debate over landscaping fabric popped up in the r/landscaping subreddit when one person asked for help, telling the group, “I haven’t found one kind of landscaping fabric that actually works.” They then asked what they could do for weed suppression.
A Redditor scored the top comment with a simple answer. “None,” they wrote. “Just use mulch from a local tree service so they don’t have to send it to the landfill. … Fabric is a scam. … Mulch is the best.”
Their answer is pretty spot on. Landscape fabric is meant to be a low-maintenance weed barrier, but it has a host of drawbacks that routinely leave people frustrated.
According to the College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, it’s only effective for a few years and can compact the soil, while also preventing water from permeating.
Landscape fabric is also often made of plastic and degrades as it sits underground, releasing microplastics in the process. Additionally, weeds can still grow through the material and on top of it, thus defeating its whole purpose.
There are a host of natural options for weed suppression, such as cardboard, newspaper, or just good old mulch.
There’s also the option to upgrade to a natural lawn with something like clover, which has natural weed-suppressing tendencies in addition to being an overall lower-maintenance option.
A natural lawn and native plants also draw in pollinators, which help your garden and those around you thrive.
Other Redditors in the comments were similarly opposed to landscaping fabric.
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One person, apparently a landscaping professional, wrote, “I tell my customers, ‘Let’s not bring plastic into this’ — the thing about weed fabric is that it gives an illusion that your weeding days are over. If you want your weeding days to be over, crowd your garden so weeds don’t have room.”
“I see so much fabric loaded with grass and weeds,” another person added, noting they were happy to vent their issues with the material. “It’s not a good use of plastic, time, or money.”
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