Mulch or Landscape Fabric?

[Bruinwar]

Hi all!

Newb here, this will be my fourth year with an extensive tomato garden. I've not spread any mulch in the past three years but I am planning to this year.

OK its 24' X 48' rented plot (2 24x24 plots) at the lowest point in a huge community garden. What to mulch with... my friend has the two plots next to me & plans to use straw this year.

Costco has landscape fabric & I think I can cover everything with 2 rolls under $60 total. Or should I also go with the straw? Or something else entirely?

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Joe S.

[tam91]

Landscape fabric does make it warmer. I've never had peppers or tomatoes mind, but some things might.

[reddeheddefarm]

we use fabric but the cheap stuff doesn't work. look for at least a 3 year.

[PaulF]

I used fabric, some really good stuff, for a while. It suppressed the weeds and allowed moisture to go through and did it's job quite well. As a down side, the soil underneath seems to compact quite a bit. One year I left it in place all winter and had to plant in the same places again. I like to move things around. The fabric lasted three years but was just too much hassle.

The option was to go back to newsprint and straw. That can all be tilled into the soil for extra organic content and I can rotate. In my waning years as a gardener nothing will replace the paper/straw mulch option. Works very well and is cheap.

[akaRach]

I use a combination of both landscape fabric and newspaper with straw as I have a large area to cover. The landscape fabric is fast and the good stuff is easy to pull up at the end of each season, however weeds do tend to grow under the fabric. I use it for the walk ways. I worry about applying the newspaper and straw too early and not getting the heat down into the ground in the early season, but then I don't want the weeds to get ahead of me. I use this method for around the plants. I stockpile newspaper all winter!

[bughunter99]

I do both. I put down landscape fabric first to help warm up the soil. Once that is done I top with mulch for aesthetics and to further help with weed prevention and water conservation. Our area is so windy the mulch also helps keep the fabric in place.

[Bruinwar]

Thanks for all the replies.

This Costco stuff claims 30 year! I need to keep in mind I gotta roll this stuff up before Oct 1st & remove it from the plot. Not sure if it would be reusable. It does sound tempting as a weed barrier. Keeping it warmer is good unless we have a really hot summer. Last two where not all that hot.

The weeds grow under the fabric? huh. I'm unsure if what that means... do they still require pulling or something?

-joe

[Tracydr]

Have you considered red plastic? Supposed to increase tomato yields.

[Redbaron]

Mulch

[Lindalana]

mmm, it would be plausibly reusable but very very hard to do and undo, tear and wear will be significant. In a cold climate like mine I need warm soil early- so I buy very inexpensive landscape fabric, apply now and remove June to put heavy mulch- home compost top dress.
Depends also if your community gardens are till or no till... you might be able to use wood chips if no till. Otherwise I would find el cheapo dollar store landscape fabric- enough protection for some weeds and warming up your plants roots is imperative for good results. Putting straw bales now to mulch- nope, not in my climate.

[b54red]

I used it for a couple of years and hated it. It looked good at first and seemed to help early because I think it warmed the soil quite a bit earlier than usual. The problems I had were multiple in that it tended to not let enough water through as it claimed and during dry times seemed to actually dry the soil more than if there were no covering. I also had problems with some types of weeds growing under it and ended up having to mulch over the landscape fabric. It also heated the soil up too much during the hot weather causing a terrible lack of fruit set during the hottest months.

I think with your cooler climate you might want to forgo any mulch til the soil warmed up good and then go with straw which doesn't cool the soil as much as the cypress mulch I use. If you must mulch early then try grass clippings that are not put down too thick so the soil can warm up better.

Bill

[Bruinwar]

OK cool thanks again for all the replies!

It appears that it might cause more problems that it solves. If we get a hot summer, I could be screwed. However, I do need to mulch. Pathogens in the soil!!! That is for another forum.

I'm going to noodle on this some more. I might come up with a solution that keeps the rain from splashing the dirt on my plants but still allows the soil to warm up. Come the end of June I think everything gets covered in straw.

-joe

[shatbox]

I used fabric but went back to mulch because I didn't like having to move it to fertilize, pull up plants, etc.

[Captain Neon]

I've never mulched before, but the community garden that I have applied to appears to be infested with weed-Nazis (lots and lots of comments in guidelines and rules about keeping weeds under control, and how frequently one should be on-site to control them, but no actual measurements and quantity to constitute "weedy"). I don't have all day to pull up every little weed that can start sprouting to keep the whiners at bay. I'm planning on putting down fabric in my walk-ways and then putting down newspaper and shredded office paper by my plants. We'll see how it all goes. Wish me luck, I may find out as soon as Friday if I have a plot.

[BigVanVader]

Landscape Fabric was created by Satan to punish lazy gardeners, you think it saves time/effort but in reality it just plain sucks. At least that is my opinion.

Stick with things that act as mulch in nature, it will feed the plants, keeps the roots cool and keeps weeds down, oh yeah and its free.