TARP your seating area with the creeping Charlie. You could even tarp the rest of the garden. You'll need to extinguish the weed seed bank that you brought up when you tilled.
Yes!! I love using my tarps to kill weeds and grass. I had thriving thistle in a section of my garden. I've had a tarp down for two seasons and it's finally gone! I killed a section of lawn for a new raspberry bed in three months. I think when I see a single thistle I may just cut a square of tarp, cover it, and pin it down with metal pins. It's impossible to pull because those roots grow like chains underground. I totally agree with you! Tarp tarp tarp! I'm getting too old to pull weeds.
If you’re topdressing with compost and mulching with leaves, the tillage is completely unnecessary. In the spring, give it a light raking on the surface and you’re ready to plant. As for the landscaping fabric, don’t do it! A nice deep mulch or compost smothers the weeds. If you don’t till up the weed seeds and expose them to the sunlight, you’ll have a lot less weeds to deal with.
In my garden, the only thing that gets planted in the ground is tomatoes. That area has landscaping fabric. All paths and vine growing areas are covered with landscaping cloth. Everything else is grown in either raised beds, or grow bags or pots. Using this configuration has enabled me to keep out most of the weeds so that I can keep up with the required maintenance as I grow older.
I highly recommend using landscape fabric. It makes a world of difference for your plants. The weeds don't come up and steal nutrients that your veggies need, and it saves hours of backbreaking work.
Well doesn't this look familiar? Very timely content. That's exactly what we have been doing this past week. My husband got his tiller out. I'm cleaning up and organizing our garden stuff to put away into the garden shed. OMG! We have to clean and get everything put away before the snow flies. Wish we had one of those Kubota tractors. That would come in handy. That's a good idea using the cardboard covered with wood chips. We just purchased a new 65" TV that gave us a lot of cardboard and we have a wood chip pile. Never thought of that. I'm glad I watched this video. We tried to use the landscape fabric last year and my husband hated it and we tore it all up. We usually wait until spring to deliver the compost from our local dairy farm. You guys are ROCKING IT!
I have used the landscape fabric for about 7 years now. With six people who need a lot of food, I had to move to using it in order to do the large area that I tend. I'm north of Grand Rapids. I leave the fabric down all winter, pull it all off the garden in the spring, sweep it off, spread composted manure, till, and lay the fabric back out. I rotate my garden fabric 180' each year to rotate the crops. It works great for my tomatoes, squash, peppers, and brassicas. I grow my potatoes and onions in another garden with hay and sawdust mulches. I do notice fewer worms under the fabric, but I am able to plant with intensive spacing and get a lot of food and of good size. The horse manure compost and the fabric make it possible to grow a year's supply of my main crops! I used an unknown fabricy fabric for 5 years but didn't know how to reorder it. I ordered the 6' wide fabric frim Growers' Edge. It's easy to work with, but melt the ends where you cut it.
I follow living traditions homestead and that's where I learned about the woven fabric. I love it and it's an investment for sure! Plus it is a definite back saver because you're not always bending over to pull weeds!!😂 My family and I did the same thing This year before spring you were doing now. I battle weeds like nobody's business in my garden every single year and I just don't have the time to constantly weed. For the longest time I used the fabric material in the small rolls that you get at Walmart for plants. After spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars and only getting two uses or less out of them, I thought there had to be a better way. We normally would till our garden every year and heal up our rows. Then I would go to Aldi and break down boxes to stick in the garden. My kids and I would make three trips! We would lay the cardboard down and put the landscaping fabric over top. Now the landscaping fabric that I used was sort of see-through. We bought several bags of the landscaping pins to hold it down and that worked for one to two seasons. Every fall we would pull it up and put it away to use it for next year. Then that type of material got so thin that it would rip just laying it down. I had so many weeds that year it wasn't even funny! This year I was determined more than ever to get rid of weeds once and for all! I hauled two or three loads of manure from someone's house to mine this past February. We all work together on those nice days that we have and laid it all in the garden. Once we got all of that in and the garden cleaned up, I went to home Depot and bought a woven fabric to try out. The fabric is very thin and let's water through. I went back to get more and they were out so I had to search elsewhere. I found a super heavy duty type of woven fabric. I absolutely love the thickness and width. I made sure it was 6 ft wide by 100 ft long. Yes the woven fabric is a little pricey but it's worth it because this was our first year using it. This year was the first year I was able to really use my greenhouse that we built out of pallets, 2x4s, 4x4s and corrugated plastic roofing. I designed a 12 ft shelving unit with three shelves to hold all of my seedlings for the garden this year. I started over 2,000 plants for my garden this year!! This was the most I have ever planted before in my life! I was able to fit 10 times more plants in my garden than I ever thought I could possible! My garden was 40 ft x 30 ft and we extended it another 10 to 20 ft. I also used a seeding square to help maximize my square footage and that helped tremendously! This year I started many varieties of each plant. We planted close to 500 onions, 200 carrots, 200 tomato plants, 20 brussel sprouts, 4 cabbage, 25 broccoli, 25 cauliflower, 52 pumpkins, 40 celery, 200 pole beans, 20 sunflowers, 2000 garlic seeds, 60 peppers, 40 potatoes, 12 asparagus, 15 different herbs, 4 different kinds of birdhouse gourds, 7 lettuces, and 2 spinaches!! My garden was completely stuffed full!! With our crazy weather here in Ohio where we can have four seasons in one day, 😂😂 I was worried that I was not going to get nearly as much as I did out of my garden this year. We did use the thicker landscaping fabric from Menards and are very pleased with it but it doesn't let nearly as much water see through like the other woven fabric that I got from home Depot. That was the only downfall. The price for the woven fabric 100 ft x 6 ft wide at Menards was around $110. Some weeds still try to poke up through where the landscaping pins were but it was very few. I have burned holes in some of my fabric and have also used a little paring knife to cut the holes. Cutting the holes is a lot faster because we had so many issues on holding the propane bottle in the correct position to get it to burn the holes. I went and spent $50 on a propane bottle with a Striker So we wouldn't have to use one separately. Every time we tip the bottle the flame would go out. So I found a small butane torch That worked so much better! If you do decide to do the landscaping fabric make sure you get one of those butane torches! Those are an absolute must have for your garden! After all that hard work we did, our garden was very full and abundant! I got a lot more than I actually thought I was going to get out of my garden this year!!! I am absolutely amazed at how many plants I was able to grow to feed my family! I like you with canning as much as possible. I don't have a dehydrator or a freeze dryer but I am getting there. One of these days I will have a food pantry like you! I probably need a whole new building just for that!😂😂😂😂 I have learned so much from you on how to grow onions and carrots and how to can so many things that I have never thought possible before. Thank you both for having this channel for others to learn from you. Sharing your knowledge is more powerful than you will ever know!
My suggestion would be to solarize your beds by tarping them with black plastic in late winter, say February. Any weed seeds that are present will germinate as the soil warms and then die from lack of light. I also mulch with straw when I plant. I live in northern Illinois and have successfully used this method to minimize weed pressure. So excited to see you back in the garden!
I don't use landscape fabric in my vegetable garden. Every year, I lay down a layer of aged ground-up leaves, then a layer of cardboard, then a layer of wood chips. The weight pressure of the cardboard on top of the leaves hold them closer to the soil and they decompose faster. The layer of wood chips on top holds all of it down. When I'm ready to plant, I dig a hole thru all that to get to the good soil beneath. Sometimes with winter coming on, if I can't get all that done in a timely manner, I have a big sheet of black plastic that I cover the garden with just to cover it so it isn't so exposed and doesn't start growing weeds until I can get back to it. I have used the fabric in my flower beds and under a few bushes. That was about 15 years ago. Since then I have loathed it and slowly have been ripping it all back out. Overall, I will never use landscape fabric again.
I would not use fabric. It is essentially plastic, and once it disintegrates, it will be difficult to get it out of your garden, unless you can find a natural fabric, maybe like burlap??? Don't you just love finding things. I found about 10lbs of Kennebec potatoes in one of my raised beds. They were volunteers from when I planted potatoes in 2022. The plants must have been hiding under the pea vines. I find "lost" garlic every year because I plant the little garlic bulbs in most all of my raised beds as a companion plant to help keep bad bugs away. When I find the garlic growing in the Spring, I'll either dig it up and replant it around the bed edges or let it grow and harvest the tops and/or scapes and FD them to make green garlic powder, which is delicious. Can't wait to see what you will be growing next year.
I’ve been impressed with the deep mulch method of gardening. I use what I can get free-grass clippings, shredded leaves and the top layer, pine straw. Really builds the soil, and the whole garden stays covered. The best part is that the whole footprint is a clean palate..all I do is rake the mulch aside, and plant seeds or transplants. My soil remains constantly moist and healthy, easy to work. When the plants get to size, the mulch is right there-just pull it around the plants.
Do some research on the negative aspects of using the weed fabric. I was almost ready to order it, when I found out the negative side of it, so completely nixed that idea.
We have nine raised beds. For all we layer with leaves then lime then manure last seaweed. My husband tills two or three times then puts in our compost and another layer of leaves and let’s it sit til spring and till again and ready to go. We plant a lot and have had good luck. Good luck with your garden. Don’t you just love to dig in the dirt👍🇺🇸🥰
Creeping Charley is actually a good sign....put a.sper thick layer of cardboard down over winter....and add a good amount of soil overtop....should be ready to plant over in the spring....weedeat the Charley first of course.❤
I've been using landscape fabric for weed control just for some crops. So far it's been excellent. I've also raised my beds to 32" due to back issues bending. If you have a reasonably priced source of organic straw... I highly recommend straw bale gardening. I had amazing success straw bale gardening with EVERY crop I tried until I got sprayed straw that poisoned my ground for several years. Now I can't get trust worthy straw. Also a total game changer has been large fabric bags. I started with several 5 and 10 gallon and recently I've bought 20 30gallon bags and they work so incredibly well! I'm so happy with them.
My garden group just but our garden to bed for the winter here in Grand Haven,MI. I really missed gardening with you this year, but enjoyed , all the other things that you did over the summer 😊
I’m totally doing landscape fabric on my whole garden space and placing raised beds on top then placing landscape fabric on beds and cutting holes for my veggies plants. Way less weeding I’m 66 and not able to plant in the ground very easily anymore - with my arthritis. I just amend my soil at planting time. I came to the conclusion life is too short to fight weeds. I wish you luck with whatever decision you go with.
Becky from Acre Homestead crams more plants in her beds than I’ve ever seen. I originally thought she’d never get any good harvests but,man, was I wrong! She used woven weed fabric for the first time this last year and complained about putting all the holes in it but when growing started and the beds she didn’t put the weed fabric in kept needing to be weeded and the fabric ones didn’t, she took back her complaints about the extra time it took to put it down. Said it was totally worth it and she’ll continue to use it.
@@nicolesobol936The lack of nutrients didn’t have anything to do with the fabric. It had to do with the soil she used to begin with not being as nutrient rich as the plants needed.
I used professional l;and scraping fabric for my 3200 sq ft garden but NOT for carrots, NOT for potatoes (you need to mount soil on the plants) and NOT for corn either. I rotated all my fabric strips every year and they lasted 4 years.I used landscape fabric for leeks, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, garlic, swiss chard, spinach, ground cherry, beans, peas, chillies,green beans, celery, fennel, artichockes, cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbage. I reduced the weeding so much!!! I burnt holes where the emitters of the drip lines where (6, 12, 24 inches deep ing on the plants) and I highly recommend it!
Impressive tractor bucket finesse with that compost Todd! 👍😁 Perhaps in spring try a combo of landscape fabric and non in the raised beds? Are there certain crops you get more weeds with? Fabric might help with those. 🤔 Definitely agree about having a look at Acre Homestead's set up videos from last spring for ideas! She may be a newer gardener, but she had a pretty good success rate!
in the compost area I would make 30 inch wide beds and make them at least 6 -8 inches high great for beets, carrots, potatoes and put wood chips between them, plant things close and you shouldn't have a lot of weeds:) the soil looks wonderful.
Honestly, solarize the top layer of the soil with clear plastic to till the dormant weed seeds. Now that you've tilled, next spring is going to be rough with weeds.
We used the heavy fabric the first time this year, it was a total game changer. We had more time to harvest and tend to the plants, weeding just took a couple min that came up beside the plants. Definatly recomend!
Whoa, how did u get creeping Charlie in ur garden....from what I know it's basically impossible to get rid of. I personally would not use fabric mulch in ur garden. If u had a huge garden area to dedicate to some long in ground beds, then I would try it.
In the fall my best results for awesome soil is a combination of manure, amendments then cover with a thick layer of leaf mulch. In spring plant right in it or slightly rake back any leaves left to direct sow smaller seed. I have raised beds, no till of course and use a square foot gardening method.
Yes, I have used the landscape fabric before. I tore it all up after 1 growing season. I felt it inhibited my style of growing. FYI it discouraged volunteer plants. I still have it in my apothecary garden, it helps control a couple of plants. It has it's uses, but doesn't completely stop weeds. It sort of just forced them out in my narrow bed edges. Use it wisely, Corn and larger spaced items would be good. Have fun and see you in the garden.
I would put plastic down in between the beds and then gravel on top. 1. It looks like a walkway, but it prevents weeds from growing and makes a great walk path.
I switched to landscape fabric (from growers solution) a few years back, for in ground planting. It was the only way I could get a harvest because of weeds. It's been a total game changer for weed control. I don't mess with it for my raised beds mainly because the soil stays lighter and weeds are easier to pull, but for in ground, it's amazing!
In my garden, weeds laugh at the landscape fabric and I use the exact same kind as living traditions use. It has been horrendous to even try to pull it up it is so enmeshed in weeds. I live in zone 10a where we have never dying weeds so I’m not sure that it would pertain to you. I watch you guys cuz I love you not really to follow your path since my growing conditions are way different. Right now I’m planting my garden and still we’ve been in the upper eighties every day so I might be a tad early. I just harvested about fifteen pounds of green beans this morning. I hope you have a great garden in the spring. I’m getting ready to bake Granny Wyatt’s pumpkin pie. Super excited for it!
Absolutely use the greenhouse fabric, I even use it in the aisles so worth it. Only draw back is if you have a ton of moles, which I do have to pick up maybe every other year have to lift sections and even out. But literally no weeds in those areas. Once in a while you get a stray one coming up thru the staple but they are so easy to pull. Score on the garlic!☘️
I do the commercial grade landscape fabric you burn holes in and I LOVE it. I never weed. It covers my entire garden. I have cattle panels and all and it works great. Just mulch around the plant bases
I used a 600’ roll of what Kevin and Sarah used from Growers Solution and I absolutely love it. It’s the top version they have and I know with the pegs too it was around $175.
The only thing about landscape fabric is that your holes are somewhat permanent so if you rotated a crop it would have to be set up the same way, same spacing everytime, personally this doesnt work for me as im always adding and moving things lol
I have used Dewitt Sunbelt weed fabric for the past 3 years. I use 4 ft wide as all my growing areas are 4ft. I typically label each row end with how many holes and what I can grow in that area. So I have a bean row with 3 rows of holes about 5" apart. That way if I want to use it in a different bed the next year I just unstaple the fabric from the ground and move it. I have used the same weed fabric for my rows for all 3 years and will easily get another 1-2 years before I will need to use new weed fabric. It does awesome for brassicas, tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas (I do make a long 2" slit for pea planting). The best thing is that my rows with weed fabric helps to keep the soil soft and evenly moist. I do less watering. The only downside is all soil amending must be done before laying or it needs to be in a liquid form. It has been a real game changer in our garden. More time working with plants and 75% less time weeding. Dewitt Sunbelt is really a commercial grade weed barrier that is used by commercial growers and comes in various widths.
I used fabric cloth for a couple of seasons and no longer use it. It does help with the weed pressure but I found that it doesn't fit my style of gardening. First of all, like you guys, I like to add leaves and compost on my beds in the fall. This means I have to pull up the cloth every fall, store it and put it back on in the spring. Just more work!! Second, I like to use crop rotation and my beds are different sizes and the plant spacing is different. And lastly, like you guys, I like to use all the space in my beds. I often have extra plants or need to plant extra of something so I cram it in somewhere. I control the weeds by topdressing the bed with a couple of inches of compost just like you did this fall. I do not till it in. If the weeds come back during the growing season, I just mulch with more compost. So, try and get more compost!! Good luck with whatever direction you decide to go!!
I have also used the landscape fabric for the last 5 years. I agree, it is a game changer. I actually get a lot more joy from gardening since the weeding is considerably less. I would say to prevent soil compaction to lift the fabric at the end of each season and top dress with a 2" layer of compost. I don't use fabric for all my crops; carrots, parsnips and potatoes to name a few. If you are rotating your crops each year and only putting fabric on say 3/4 of your garden, then the other parts of the garden get a break from being covered.
I used weed fabric for the first time this year and was overjoyed with the lack of weeds! I have a horrible time with creeping Charlie and other weeds. It’s impossible to stay ahead of the weeds normally. I used Dewitt landscape fabric (SBLT4300) and initially six inch staples. We have horrible spring winds here in Illinois and the fabric went flying. I went back thru with ten inch staples and that held it the rest of the season. The only places I needed to weed this year were the holes where my green beans were. The rabbits ate every green bean plant and the weeds popped up in those holes. I had the best garden year I’ve ever had and virtually no weed maintenance. Highly recommend.
During the winter I pull up the weed barrier fabric & put in a winter ground cover to nourish back the soil during the winter. I live in AR & I know u get a lot harsher winters then we do, so I don’t know it the winter cover crop would survive ur winter. But it really does help the soil if u can find one that 😮will survive ur area
Hey Rachel, about the landscape fabric, I have used it for years. I would avoid the kind with the fuzzy back,it is terrible to have to lift if you ever do. Would recommend DeWitt landscape fabric, the Ickes stuff without the fuzzy back. Also, never put anything on top of it. If you do, weed seeds will find a nesting place and grow down through the tiny ho,es and it will be very hard to take up. I would also recommend always taking it up every year because some weeds will find a lodging place in the holes from the staples to hold it down. If you don’t take it up every year, they will become monster weeds and make it hard to take up in the future. Happy garden year ahead! PS Why not plant the garlic you found?
You committed yourselves on the compost. Hope it’s herbicide safe. I used paper landscape fabric for my tomatoes, peppers, celery, eggplant. Topped it with Triple Shredded wood chips and leaves. All disintegrated/incorporated into the soil at the end of the season. Next year, I’ll add a 2nd topping mid-season. It‘s pricey, but there’s no cleanup, and I hate weeding. You HAVE to put something on top of landscape fabric. The weeds will push it up off the ground since light still gets through. You can reuse the fabric if you don’t poke holes in it. You should have rotated a tarp this year for weed control. Why’d you give up on Ruth Stout for potatoes? I’ve used Ortho Weed B-Gon Pre-emergent herbicide on my lawns for Creeping Charlie. CC is containable if you have wood chips in the gardens. Pulls out easy.
Just mulch in between the plants with straw, leaves grass clipping to prevent the weeds and retain some moisture verse using the plastic fabric around your plants. Just a thought
Could those garlic cloves be separated and planted to make garlic for the spring? I would only recommend weed fabric for a bed like tomatoes, where you have a stalk growing for the majority of the season. I’d also suggest talking to Living Traditions homestead folks- they have used landscape fabric with good results, but the holes are hard to change once you set it up. Thanks for more garden motivation!
THe garden is looking great! Our fall winter garden is still growing and we will be harvesting all the way through December unless we get a crazt Texas freeze. God bless.
I wish I had access to organic compost that I could have delivered. I used the landscape fabric this year for my tomatoes and sweetcorn and loved it. We had drought conditions this year so I watered alot. The fabric keeps the soil moist longer which doesn't require watering as often as without. My only issue is that we are very flat here and I had to secure it more than what I would consider normal. And making holes to plant the amount of corn I planted took quite a bit of time!
Your efforts remind me of gardens past, where we had so many maple and oak trees to cover the yard. We always composted the leaves so they would break down before adding the resulting mass to the garden soil, so as it didn't rob nitrogen from the soil if it was not ready to use. Then in spring spread it on the garden and watch the plants thrive. Good luck, welcome back to gardening!
Living Traditions use the woven fabric from Growers Solutions I believe? Are you gonna get garlic planted still this fall? I won't be able to. The yard is dug up. Good work you guys! And good find!
I like interplanting with basil and spring onion. I throw used coffee grounds on garden to deter ... and add nitrogen etc to whole garden. I don't use fabric. I also change plans a lot.
I would whole heartedly recommend the woven weed fabric from Grower's Solution, we tried a brand we found on Amazon our first year, was a horrible experience. Almost gave up on the stuff, but then tried the one from Grower's Solution, so much better!! We have fire ants in our area, they were not able to build their little beds under it and oh the weeds were nonexistent except where we had our holes, but those weeds were easy to pull up. I love woven weed fabric.
We cover our beds with a double layer of weed fabric(not the kind you burn holes in). That keeps weed seeds out all winter and blocks out the sun for any seeds already there. In the spring we roll it up and store it in the garage fir next year. This is our 4th year using the same fabric. When you put your plants close they shade out a lot of weeds. If you don’t walk on the beds the soil stays loose so it it easier to pull out the ones that grow. We also put wood chips on the paths.
I planted my strawberries in tiny burned holes in weed mat this year. I was disappointed when weeds grew inside those holes. It was really hard to weed those holes without also pulling out the strawberry plants. The runners grew on top of the mat and attached themselves to it. I have switched my garden over to killing weed seeds with bootstrap farmer tarps in the spring. Light deprivation and they get wicked hot, (the creeping charlie can hardly creepy in 😉) leaving them on until I was ready to plant even killed rhyzome type weeds. The tarp also doesn't allow all the spring seeds that fall like tree seeds, to get a foothold. Also, not turning the soil and raising all the seeds in the soil is helping too. My in ground garden is 60x30. This year I made permanent rows and wood chipped paths.
Hey Rachel and Todd, the garden is looking great! Where your chairs are, honestly I'd pull up the creeping charlie... put down a dble layer of fabric and set some stone, either (flag or field), and around the edge do a planting of thyme. It's grows so densely and should by all means choke out the Creeping Charlie . And benefit if it creeps into the seat area, cut it and cook with it and to keep it in check, weedwack it 3 times a year. Also, in my 52 years gardening on this planet in multiple attitudes and soil types, I've never liked weed fabric with gardening. It's only good purpose for me is for walkways and suppressing qeeds on the mass like a patio. I've experienced it to increase slugs and mildew when you have a wet season. I prefer natural soil and pulling small weeds. And tilling is great to do. It moves the nutrients and amendments through the full bed. I'd always till in the fall... throw all leaves down on the beds after mulching them with my mower and when crocus and daffodils bloom till those in, then top dress with my amendments and till again early April and you'd be able to stick your hands in and go past your wrist easily so the doll will be very lofty like your raised beds and ears galore. Welcome back to the garden!
If it were me, I would seriously reconsider tilling it all in next spring. As is, the beautiful compost you added is acting as a mulch, and the leaves will do that as well, and they will work their way into the soil just fine as time passes. Tilling them in next spring will only bring all of your weed seeds back to the surface again and make for the exact battle you're trying to avoid. Landscape fabric would certainly suppress some of those weeds, but it often at the expense of your soil life. Areas with fabric tend to get pretty dry and compacted over time. Perhaps consider investing in silage tarps, instead, especially if you are going to till once more. Then, you can get all the weeds in your seed bank to germinate and then terminate them with silage tarp so they become in-place compost rather than a nuisance. Not sure if you watch the Farmer Jesse on the No-Till Growers channel, they're kind of geared more toward market farmers, but they've got some great videos about these topics and I've learned a lot from his experience and the other farmers he features.
Yes! Don’t bring more seeds to light, smother them instead! My story: On a new in ground garden this year I tilled half and covered the other half with cardboard and mulch/compost (the city deemed it compost but it was leaves and wood chips that had started to break down). The weeds were UNBELIEVABLE in the spot I tilled. So much work just to be rewarded with more weeds. I will only ever cover with cardboard and mulch. Cardboard can have holes poked in it and planted into just like landscape fabric, and the worms LOVE IT!
I use landscape fabric in some beds but the beds that I would have to plant a million things like onions and carrots I top the beds with pine shavings (the pet bedding kind) to prevent weeds it’s pretty cheap and will just compost into the soil This year we had a huge run issue which brought slugs so I am putting weed barrier down instead of grass (I rent and they don’t want wood chips) but it’s easy to re seed grass if I leave once the weed barrier is removed I also have a huge neighborhood cat problem so all my beds end of season after amending get covered in weed barrier so they don’t poop in my beds lol spring after planting I place chicken Wire over the beds until things fill in the plants then they leave it alone
Hello, Best decision I ever made! I used Dewitt (Amazon), burnt holes with mini torch, worked great. This will be the 4th year and still holding up. I used the 4ft width. The amount of time and frustration this saves is wonderful. You'll love it. Try it for a year, if you don't like, rip it out. Make sure to get the good stainless staples. The big box store staples rust and need replacing yearly. About the only hiccup I had. Can't wait to see what you do.
I started using the heavy duty landscaping fabric in my garden about 2 years ago. I first started by putting it down in my pathways once my wood chops decomposed and the weeds started taking over. I no longer have to haul wood chips becauseI just don’t have the time. The last season I used the fabric for my raised beds and it was wonderful! I will do it again next year too. I used it with my peppers and tomatoes, squash, and melons. If I have time I would like to do it with my onions and garlic too.
We did landscape fabric for the first time this summer and absolutely loved not having to weed! At 62, it's been such a pleasure to be tired from tending to my plants and not constantly fighting the weeds. I'm confident that my tomatoes stayed healthy all season because nothing soil borne was able to splash up onto the leaves.
Hello from Alaska! We’ve got lots of snow already so it’s nice to see all that precious compost being spread. Can’t wait already for May to get here. Anyhoo…. My recommendation for your sitting area would be pavers or a small deck of some kind. We recently bought a new home so I’m designing my garden from scratch…. I miss the old one but excited for the new. Embrace the excitement of change. Great time after the sabbath too!
I really like mulching leaves around my plants to keep the weed pressure down. You can bag them up now, and spread them around your plants in the spring. Or cover your beds in leaves now, transplant/plant right in the mulch. I’m going to try laying black tarp this fall/winter over everything, after I lay my leaves down.
I have used the polypropylene ground cover recommended by Living Traditions Homestead for the last 4 years. I was about to give up because of the amount of weeds I had. This cover still lets the moisture in but the weeds don’t germinate. It is full of thriving earthworms underneath. This is the only way I can keep up and I had an abundant harvest this year even with the very dry weather we had. Good luck!
I've used landscape fabric for years and loved every moment of it. Though I've gotten away from vegetable gardening and more into landscape plants (vegs are cheaper for me to buy from Blocks, lol), if I were to go back to veg gardening, the first thing I would do is lay down landscape fabric. I got the idea years ago from the market gardeners, took that idea and ran with it. In fact, I think I commented on one of your old videos that you may want to give it a shot. I use the heavy DeWitt landscape fabric and I got it from Amazon. I saw it this year at Home Depot but didn't compare the prices because I still have some. If you want to get rid of all the weeds in your aisles, lay down the landscape fabric. You could cover it with the wood chips if you want that look and next fall just toss the wood chips into your beds as mulch. It will compact your soil and stifle the exchange of air and soil, but it's easy to pull up and let the beds do their thing to recuperate. The only reason I'm not using it now is because I'm rejuvenating my soil and I have mostly perennials such as roses, etc., in my gardens and am moving things around. The market gardeners pull it up at the end of season and lay down compost, reinstall it and grow away. They even do that between crops in the summer. I figured if it worked for them, it should work for me and it did. One hint, don't let dirt and stuff pile up on it; that's when it becomes a bear to remove.
I used the landscape fabric this year for all my in ground garden, I was dealing with to much Bermuda grass. To cut the holes I used chalk X to get spacing. My husband found a 2" pipe fitting set it over the chalk marks and used the torch, if gave us very consistent holes.
I opted to use non treated craft paper in my rows instead of landscape fabric. This way the paper can degrade and in the spring it's basically gone. It did a great job of keeping the weeds down this year. I also took grass clippings, leaves, ect, and laid those down in the walkways on the paper to help mulch.
Dewitt sunbelt weed barrier is the best that I have used' Some others only last a year or so in the sun but Dewitt is sun resistant. I have 9 raised beds and use it in the pathways and it works great. Some weed barrier has premade holes and I would use it for in ground planting.
I have used the heavy duty landscape fabric for a couple years and I love it! It was a total game changer. I look forward to your videos! You have inspired me in my garden and in my kitchen with meals and especially canning!!! Have a blessed day!!!
I got a “Creeping Charlie” problem as well! Between the Charlie and the Himalayan Blackberry briers, which don’t product berries only briers, my gardens a wreck. I haven’t used the fabric option before. It just doesn’t appeal to me. What I do to keep weeds down is mulch with lawn clippings regularly. They compost down quickly and help to keep weeds at bay.
Good to see you up Rachel! That was a wicked fall at the end of the last garden video. I bet you were tender for a few days, hitting your tailbone like that! Tilling in the spring will dig up all the weed seeds again, leave them buried under a few inches and let them rot.
TARP your seating area with the creeping Charlie. You could even tarp the rest of the garden. You'll need to extinguish the weed seed bank that you brought up when you tilled.
Yes!! I love using my tarps to kill weeds and grass. I had thriving thistle in a section of my garden. I've had a tarp down for two seasons and it's finally gone! I killed a section of lawn for a new raspberry bed in three months. I think when I see a single thistle I may just cut a square of tarp, cover it, and pin it down with metal pins. It's impossible to pull because those roots grow like chains underground. I totally agree with you! Tarp tarp tarp! I'm getting too old to pull weeds.
If you’re topdressing with compost and mulching with leaves, the tillage is completely unnecessary. In the spring, give it a light raking on the surface and you’re ready to plant. As for the landscaping fabric, don’t do it! A nice deep mulch or compost smothers the weeds. If you don’t till up the weed seeds and expose them to the sunlight, you’ll have a lot less weeds to deal with.
In my garden, the only thing that gets planted in the ground is tomatoes. That area has landscaping fabric. All paths and vine growing areas are covered with landscaping cloth. Everything else is grown in either raised beds, or grow bags or pots. Using this configuration has enabled me to keep out most of the weeds so that I can keep up with the required maintenance as I grow older.
I highly recommend using landscape fabric. It makes a world of difference for your plants. The weeds don't come up and steal nutrients that your veggies need, and it saves hours of backbreaking work.
The brand of landscape fabric I have been using over the 35 is DeWitt Weed Barrier.
Put those garlic back in a bed each clove will produce a head next year !
Welcome back! Level rake. 36" is a game changer. Well worth the cost.
Well doesn't this look familiar? Very timely content. That's exactly what we have been doing this past week. My husband got his tiller out. I'm cleaning up and organizing our garden stuff to put away into the garden shed. OMG! We have to clean and get everything put away before the snow flies. Wish we had one of those Kubota tractors. That would come in handy. That's a good idea using the cardboard covered with wood chips. We just purchased a new 65" TV that gave us a lot of cardboard and we have a wood chip pile. Never thought of that. I'm glad I watched this video. We tried to use the landscape fabric last year and my husband hated it and we tore it all up. We usually wait until spring to deliver the compost from our local dairy farm. You guys are ROCKING IT!
If you have slug issue in your garden, they will feel especially good under black landscape fabric.
I have used the landscape fabric for about 7 years now. With six people who need a lot of food, I had to move to using it in order to do the large area that I tend. I'm north of Grand Rapids. I leave the fabric down all winter, pull it all off the garden in the spring, sweep it off, spread composted manure, till, and lay the fabric back out. I rotate my garden fabric 180' each year to rotate the crops. It works great for my tomatoes, squash, peppers, and brassicas. I grow my potatoes and onions in another garden with hay and sawdust mulches. I do notice fewer worms under the fabric, but I am able to plant with intensive spacing and get a lot of food and of good size. The horse manure compost and the fabric make it possible to grow a year's supply of my main crops! I used an unknown fabricy fabric for 5 years but didn't know how to reorder it. I ordered the 6' wide fabric frim Growers' Edge. It's easy to work with, but melt the ends where you cut it.
My suggestion on garden ideas, is what ever will save you back aches
I second that! I’m planning on adding more tall raised bed this winter because bending over is so hard on the old back.
I'd plant those little garlics, they will bring you a good harvest next year. The garden is looking great! 😊
I follow living traditions homestead and that's where I learned about the woven fabric. I love it and it's an investment for sure! Plus it is a definite back saver because you're not always bending over to pull weeds!!😂
My family and I did the same thing This year before spring you were doing now. I battle weeds like nobody's business in my garden every single year and I just don't have the time to constantly weed. For the longest time I used the fabric material in the small rolls that you get at Walmart for plants. After spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars and only getting two uses or less out of them, I thought there had to be a better way. We normally would till our garden every year and heal up our rows. Then I would go to Aldi and break down boxes to stick in the garden. My kids and I would make three trips! We would lay the cardboard down and put the landscaping fabric over top. Now the landscaping fabric that I used was sort of see-through. We bought several bags of the landscaping pins to hold it down and that worked for one to two seasons. Every fall we would pull it up and put it away to use it for next year. Then that type of material got so thin that it would rip just laying it down. I had so many weeds that year it wasn't even funny! This year I was determined more than ever to get rid of weeds once and for all! I hauled two or three loads of manure from someone's house to mine this past February. We all work together on those nice days that we have and laid it all in the garden. Once we got all of that in and the garden cleaned up, I went to home Depot and bought a woven fabric to try out.
The fabric is very thin and let's water through. I went back to get more and they were out so I had to search elsewhere. I found a super heavy duty type of woven fabric. I absolutely love the thickness and width. I made sure it was 6 ft wide by 100 ft long. Yes the woven fabric is a little pricey but it's worth it because this was our first year using it. This year was the first year I was able to really use my greenhouse that we built out of pallets, 2x4s, 4x4s and corrugated plastic roofing. I designed a 12 ft shelving unit with three shelves to hold all of my seedlings for the garden this year. I started over 2,000 plants for my garden this year!! This was the most I have ever planted before in my life! I was able to fit 10 times more plants in my garden than I ever thought I could possible! My garden was 40 ft x 30 ft and we extended it another 10 to 20 ft. I also used a seeding square to help maximize my square footage and that helped tremendously! This year
I started many varieties of each plant. We planted close to 500 onions, 200 carrots, 200 tomato plants, 20 brussel sprouts, 4 cabbage, 25 broccoli, 25 cauliflower, 52 pumpkins, 40 celery, 200 pole beans, 20 sunflowers, 2000 garlic seeds, 60 peppers, 40 potatoes, 12 asparagus, 15 different herbs, 4 different kinds of birdhouse gourds, 7 lettuces, and 2 spinaches!! My garden was completely stuffed full!! With our crazy weather here in Ohio where we can have four seasons in one day, 😂😂 I was worried that I was not going to get nearly as much as I did out of my garden this year. We did use the thicker landscaping fabric from Menards and are very pleased with it but it doesn't let nearly as much water see through like the other woven fabric that I got from home Depot. That was the only downfall. The price for the woven fabric 100 ft x 6 ft wide at Menards was around $110. Some weeds still try to poke up through where the landscaping pins were but it was very few. I have burned holes in some of my fabric and have also used a little paring knife to cut the holes. Cutting the holes is a lot faster because we had so many issues on holding the propane bottle in the correct position to get it to burn the holes. I went and spent $50 on a propane bottle with a Striker So we wouldn't have to use one separately. Every time we tip the bottle the flame would go out. So I found a small butane torch That worked so much better! If you do decide to do the landscaping fabric make sure you get one of those butane torches! Those are an absolute must have for your garden!
After all that hard work we did, our garden was very full and abundant! I got a lot more than I actually thought I was going to get out of my garden this year!!! I am absolutely amazed at how many plants I was able to grow to feed my family! I like you with canning as much as possible. I don't have a dehydrator or a freeze dryer but I am getting there. One of these days I will have a food pantry like you! I probably need a whole new building just for that!😂😂😂😂 I have learned so much from you on how to grow onions and carrots and how to can so many things that I have never thought possible before. Thank you both for having this channel for others to learn from you. Sharing your knowledge is more powerful than you will ever know!
My suggestion would be to solarize your beds by tarping them with black plastic in late winter, say February. Any weed seeds that are present will germinate as the soil warms and then die from lack of light. I also mulch with straw when I plant. I live in northern Illinois and have successfully used this method to minimize weed pressure. So excited to see you back in the garden!
I don't use landscape fabric in my vegetable garden. Every year, I lay down a layer of aged ground-up leaves, then a layer of cardboard, then a layer of wood chips. The weight pressure of the cardboard on top of the leaves hold them closer to the soil and they decompose faster. The layer of wood chips on top holds all of it down. When I'm ready to plant, I dig a hole thru all that to get to the good soil beneath. Sometimes with winter coming on, if I can't get all that done in a timely manner, I have a big sheet of black plastic that I cover the garden with just to cover it so it isn't so exposed and doesn't start growing weeds until I can get back to it.
I have used the fabric in my flower beds and under a few bushes. That was about 15 years ago. Since then I have loathed it and slowly have been ripping it all back out. Overall, I will never use landscape fabric again.
I would not use fabric. It is essentially plastic, and once it disintegrates, it will be difficult to get it out of your garden, unless you can find a natural fabric, maybe like burlap???
Don't you just love finding things. I found about 10lbs of Kennebec potatoes in one of my raised beds. They were volunteers from when I planted potatoes in 2022. The plants must have been hiding under the pea vines. I find "lost" garlic every year because I plant the little garlic bulbs in most all of my raised beds as a companion plant to help keep bad bugs away. When I find the garlic growing in the Spring, I'll either dig it up and replant it around the bed edges or let it grow and harvest the tops and/or scapes and FD them to make green garlic powder, which is delicious.
Can't wait to see what you will be growing next year.
One other thing, consider putting your chickens in the garden over fall and winter to help eat up weed/seeds and bugs.
I’ve been impressed with the deep mulch method of gardening. I use what I can get free-grass clippings, shredded leaves and the top layer, pine straw. Really builds the soil, and the whole garden stays covered. The best part is that the whole footprint is a clean palate..all I do is rake the mulch aside, and plant seeds or transplants. My soil remains constantly moist and healthy, easy to work. When the plants get to size, the mulch is right there-just pull it around the plants.
Do some research on the negative aspects of using the weed fabric. I was almost ready to order it, when I found out the negative side of it, so completely nixed that idea.
Use the fabric in your seating area. It will inhibit the weeds very well. I use it in my pathways. Very happy with it
We have nine raised beds. For all we layer with leaves then lime then manure last seaweed. My husband tills two or three times then puts in our compost and another layer of leaves and let’s it sit til spring and till again and ready to go. We plant a lot and have had good luck. Good luck with your garden. Don’t you just love to dig in the dirt👍🇺🇸🥰
Creeping Charley is actually a good sign....put a.sper thick layer of cardboard down over winter....and add a good amount of soil overtop....should be ready to plant over in the spring....weedeat the Charley first of course.❤
you should cover it now with silage tarp to kill the weeds and weed seeds
I love landscape fabric but not in riased beds. Awesome in-ground. We get ours from growers solution.
I've been using landscape fabric for weed control just for some crops. So far it's been excellent. I've also raised my beds to 32" due to back issues bending. If you have a reasonably priced source of organic straw... I highly recommend straw bale gardening. I had amazing success straw bale gardening with EVERY crop I tried until I got sprayed straw that poisoned my ground for several years. Now I can't get trust worthy straw. Also a total game changer has been large fabric bags. I started with several 5 and 10 gallon and recently I've bought 20 30gallon bags and they work so incredibly well! I'm so happy with them.
My garden group just but our garden to bed for the winter here in Grand Haven,MI. I really missed gardening with you this year, but enjoyed , all the other things that you did over the summer 😊
Really excited for the upcoming garden. 💚
I’m totally doing landscape fabric on my whole garden space and placing raised beds on top then placing landscape fabric on beds and cutting holes for my veggies plants. Way less weeding I’m 66 and not able to plant in the ground very easily anymore - with my arthritis. I just amend my soil at planting time. I came to the conclusion life is too short to fight weeds. I wish you luck with whatever decision you go with.
Becky from Acre Homestead crams more plants in her beds than I’ve ever seen. I originally thought she’d never get any good harvests but,man, was I wrong! She used woven weed fabric for the first time this last year and complained about putting all the holes in it but when growing started and the beds she didn’t put the weed fabric in kept needing to be weeded and the fabric ones didn’t, she took back her complaints about the extra time it took to put it down. Said it was totally worth it and she’ll continue to use it.
She also had a lot of issues with unhealthy plants because of the landscape fabric. Not enough nutrients getting to the plant or something like that.
I watch Becky also and thought the same, lol! I never saw so many plants be planted it 1 bed before and man she have a huge harvest.
@@nicolesobol936 Too many plants competing for nutrients and watering issues.
@@nicolesobol936The lack of nutrients didn’t have anything to do with the fabric. It had to do with the soil she used to begin with not being as nutrient rich as the plants needed.
Becky is not someone I would recommend to learn from
I used professional l;and scraping fabric for my 3200 sq ft garden but NOT for carrots, NOT for potatoes (you need to mount soil on the plants) and NOT for corn either. I rotated all my fabric strips every year and they lasted 4 years.I used landscape fabric for leeks, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, garlic, swiss chard, spinach, ground cherry, beans, peas, chillies,green beans, celery, fennel, artichockes, cauliflowers, broccoli, cabbage. I reduced the weeding so much!!! I burnt holes where the emitters of the drip lines where (6, 12, 24 inches deep ing on the plants) and I highly recommend it!
Impressive tractor bucket finesse with that compost Todd! 👍😁 Perhaps in spring try a combo of landscape fabric and non in the raised beds? Are there certain crops you get more weeds with? Fabric might help with those. 🤔 Definitely agree about having a look at Acre Homestead's set up videos from last spring for ideas! She may be a newer gardener, but she had a pretty good success rate!
in the compost area I would make 30 inch wide beds and make them at least 6 -8 inches high great for beets, carrots, potatoes and put wood chips between them, plant things close and you shouldn't have a lot of weeds:) the soil looks wonderful.
Honestly, solarize the top layer of the soil with clear plastic to till the dormant weed seeds. Now that you've tilled, next spring is going to be rough with weeds.
We used the heavy fabric the first time this year, it was a total game changer. We had more time to harvest and tend to the plants, weeding just took a couple min that came up beside the plants. Definatly recomend!
Whoa, how did u get creeping Charlie in ur garden....from what I know it's basically impossible to get rid of.
I personally would not use fabric mulch in ur garden. If u had a huge garden area to dedicate to some long in ground beds, then I would try it.
In the fall my best results for awesome soil is a combination of manure, amendments then cover with a thick layer of leaf mulch. In spring plant right in it or slightly rake back any leaves left to direct sow smaller seed. I have raised beds, no till of course and use a square foot gardening method.
Landscape fabric is a game changer. I didn’t want to use it at first and now I put more down every year! Did I say Game changer?
Yes, I have used the landscape fabric before. I tore it all up after 1 growing season. I felt it inhibited my style of growing. FYI it discouraged volunteer plants. I still have it in my apothecary garden, it helps control a couple of plants. It has it's uses, but doesn't completely stop weeds. It sort of just forced them out in my narrow bed edges. Use it wisely, Corn and larger spaced items would be good. Have fun and see you in the garden.
Keep layering the cardboard, leaves and mulch. You see the beautiful soil it creates!
I would put plastic down in between the beds and then gravel on top. 1. It looks like a walkway, but it prevents weeds from growing and makes a great walk path.
I switched to landscape fabric (from growers solution) a few years back, for in ground planting. It was the only way I could get a harvest because of weeds. It's been a total game changer for weed control. I don't mess with it for my raised beds mainly because the soil stays lighter and weeds are easier to pull, but for in ground, it's amazing!
In my garden, weeds laugh at the landscape fabric and I use the exact same kind as living traditions use. It has been horrendous to even try to pull it up it is so enmeshed in weeds. I live in zone 10a where we have never dying weeds so I’m not sure that it would pertain to you. I watch you guys cuz I love you not really to follow your path since my growing conditions are way different. Right now I’m planting my garden and still we’ve been in the upper eighties every day so I might be a tad early. I just harvested about fifteen pounds of green beans this morning. I hope you have a great garden in the spring. I’m getting ready to bake Granny Wyatt’s pumpkin pie. Super excited for it!
Absolutely use the greenhouse fabric, I even use it in the aisles so worth it. Only draw back is if you have a ton of moles, which I do have to pick up maybe every other year have to lift sections and even out. But literally no weeds in those areas. Once in a while you get a stray one coming up thru the staple but they are so easy to pull. Score on the garlic!☘️
I do the commercial grade landscape fabric you burn holes in and I LOVE it. I never weed. It covers my entire garden. I have cattle panels and all and it works great. Just mulch around the plant bases
If you go fishing, where under a corner of the weed fabric, wait a few minutes, and scoop up night crawlers by the handful.
Our garden is fenced. Chickens are loose in there now. They do a great job fertilizing. Will be dumping leaves from front yard for them to sift thru.
I used a 600’ roll of what Kevin and Sarah used from Growers Solution and I absolutely love it. It’s the top version they have and I know with the pegs too it was around $175.
The only thing about landscape fabric is that your holes are somewhat permanent so if you rotated a crop it would have to be set up the same way, same spacing everytime, personally this doesnt work for me as im always adding and moving things lol
Did Todd rig that two-wheeled wheelbarrow for you? That's sweet, and I can imagine sturdy, too! 😃👍❤
Todd's grandpa crafted it up some 20-30 years ago.
I have used Dewitt Sunbelt weed fabric for the past 3 years. I use 4 ft wide as all my growing areas are 4ft. I typically label each row end with how many holes and what I can grow in that area. So I have a bean row with 3 rows of holes about 5" apart. That way if I want to use it in a different bed the next year I just unstaple the fabric from the ground and move it. I have used the same weed fabric for my rows for all 3 years and will easily get another 1-2 years before I will need to use new weed fabric. It does awesome for brassicas, tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas (I do make a long 2" slit for pea planting). The best thing is that my rows with weed fabric helps to keep the soil soft and evenly moist. I do less watering. The only downside is all soil amending must be done before laying or it needs to be in a liquid form. It has been a real game changer in our garden. More time working with plants and 75% less time weeding. Dewitt Sunbelt is really a commercial grade weed barrier that is used by commercial growers and comes in various widths.
You can dehydrate Creeping Charlie for tea❤
I used fabric cloth for a couple of seasons and no longer use it. It does help with the weed pressure but I found that it doesn't fit my style of gardening. First of all, like you guys, I like to add leaves and compost on my beds in the fall. This means I have to pull up the cloth every fall, store it and put it back on in the spring. Just more work!! Second, I like to use crop rotation and my beds are different sizes and the plant spacing is different. And lastly, like you guys, I like to use all the space in my beds. I often have extra plants or need to plant extra of something so I cram it in somewhere.
I control the weeds by topdressing the bed with a couple of inches of compost just like you did this fall. I do not till it in. If the weeds come back during the growing season, I just mulch with more compost. So, try and get more compost!!
Good luck with whatever direction you decide to go!!
I have also used the landscape fabric for the last 5 years. I agree, it is a game changer. I actually get a lot more joy from gardening since the weeding is considerably less. I would say to prevent soil compaction to lift the fabric at the end of each season and top dress with a 2" layer of compost. I don't use fabric for all my crops; carrots, parsnips and potatoes to name a few. If you are rotating your crops each year and only putting fabric on say 3/4 of your garden, then the other parts of the garden get a break from being covered.
Kevin and Sarah from Living Traditions Homestead have several videos on using weed fabric.
I used weed fabric for the first time this year and was overjoyed with the lack of weeds! I have a horrible time with creeping Charlie and other weeds. It’s impossible to stay ahead of the weeds normally. I used Dewitt landscape fabric (SBLT4300) and initially six inch staples. We have horrible spring winds here in Illinois and the fabric went flying. I went back thru with ten inch staples and that held it the rest of the season. The only places I needed to weed this year were the holes where my green beans were. The rabbits ate every green bean plant and the weeds popped up in those holes. I had the best garden year I’ve ever had and virtually no weed maintenance. Highly recommend.
We use straw, when the plants start to come up so you know where they are keeps weeds down and your soil doesn't dry out as fast either !
During the winter I pull up the weed barrier fabric & put in a winter ground cover to nourish back the soil during the winter. I live in AR & I know u get a lot harsher winters then we do, so I don’t know it the winter cover crop would survive ur winter. But it really does help the soil if u can find one that 😮will survive ur area
Hey Rachel, about the landscape fabric, I have used it for years. I would avoid the kind with the fuzzy back,it is terrible to have to lift if you ever do. Would recommend DeWitt landscape fabric, the Ickes stuff without the fuzzy back. Also, never put anything on top of it. If you do, weed seeds will find a nesting place and grow down through the tiny ho,es and it will be very hard to take up. I would also recommend always taking it up every year because some weeds will find a lodging place in the holes from the staples to hold it down. If you don’t take it up every year, they will become monster weeds and make it hard to take up in the future. Happy garden year ahead!
PS Why not plant the garlic you found?
You committed yourselves on the compost. Hope it’s herbicide safe.
I used paper landscape fabric for my tomatoes, peppers, celery, eggplant. Topped it with Triple Shredded wood chips and leaves. All disintegrated/incorporated into the soil at the end of the season. Next year, I’ll add a 2nd topping mid-season. It‘s pricey, but there’s no cleanup, and I hate weeding.
You HAVE to put something on top of landscape fabric. The weeds will push it up off the ground since light still gets through. You can reuse the fabric if you don’t poke holes in it.
You should have rotated a tarp this year for weed control.
Why’d you give up on Ruth Stout for potatoes?
I’ve used Ortho Weed B-Gon Pre-emergent herbicide on my lawns for Creeping Charlie. CC is containable if you have wood chips in the gardens. Pulls out easy.
I've used landscaping fabric for the squashes pas 2 years. Never going back! I will try for my peppers next year.
Just mulch in between the plants with straw, leaves grass clipping to prevent the weeds and retain some moisture verse using the plastic fabric around your plants. Just a thought
Could those garlic cloves be separated and planted to make garlic for the spring? I would only recommend weed fabric for a bed like tomatoes, where you have a stalk growing for the majority of the season. I’d also suggest talking to Living Traditions homestead folks- they have used landscape fabric with good results, but the holes are hard to change once you set it up. Thanks for more garden motivation!
We used the weed frabic on our gardens every year and it been a game changer for us. No weeding and plenty to harvest.
THe garden is looking great! Our fall winter garden is still growing and we will be harvesting all the way through December unless we get a crazt Texas freeze. God bless.
I wish I had access to organic compost that I could have delivered. I used the landscape fabric this year for my tomatoes and sweetcorn and loved it. We had drought conditions this year so I watered alot. The fabric keeps the soil moist longer which doesn't require watering as often as without. My only issue is that we are very flat here and I had to secure it more than what I would consider normal. And making holes to plant the amount of corn I planted took quite a bit of time!
Loved watching you move the compost w your choice of music!! Getting it done. Looks so great!! Hard work but good work. 😅
Garden will be nice next spring .Great video .
I’m jealous of your pile of compost.
Your efforts remind me of gardens past, where we had so many maple and oak trees to cover the yard. We always composted the leaves so they would break down before adding the resulting mass to the garden soil, so as it didn't rob nitrogen from the soil if it was not ready to use. Then in spring spread it on the garden and watch the plants thrive. Good luck, welcome back to gardening!
You could plant those garlic rounds and possibly get bulbs next june!
Living traditions homestead are the masters of woven weed fabric gardening. ❤❤
Don't skimp on the weed fabric thickness and don't forget when putting the fabric side by side to over lap a few inches. Much Love and Blessings
Living Traditions use the woven fabric from Growers Solutions I believe? Are you gonna get garlic planted still this fall? I won't be able to. The yard is dug up. Good work you guys! And good find!
I like interplanting with basil and spring onion. I throw used coffee grounds on garden to deter ... and add nitrogen etc to whole garden. I don't use fabric. I also change plans a lot.
I would whole heartedly recommend the woven weed fabric from Grower's Solution, we tried a brand we found on Amazon our first year, was a horrible experience. Almost gave up on the stuff, but then tried the one from Grower's Solution, so much better!! We have fire ants in our area, they were not able to build their little beds under it and oh the weeds were nonexistent except where we had our holes, but those weeds were easy to pull up. I love woven weed fabric.
We cover our beds with a double layer of weed fabric(not the kind you burn holes in). That keeps weed seeds out all winter and blocks out the sun for any seeds already there. In the spring we roll it up and store it in the garage fir next year. This is our 4th year using the same fabric. When you put your plants close they shade out a lot of weeds. If you don’t walk on the beds the soil stays loose so it it easier to pull out the ones that grow. We also put wood chips on the paths.
I installed landscape fabric only in the isles and I love it. I kept the beds open so that I can improve my soil. I love it!
I planted my strawberries in tiny burned holes in weed mat this year. I was disappointed when weeds grew inside those holes. It was really hard to weed those holes without also pulling out the strawberry plants. The runners grew on top of the mat and attached themselves to it. I have switched my garden over to killing weed seeds with bootstrap farmer tarps in the spring. Light deprivation and they get wicked hot, (the creeping charlie can hardly creepy in 😉) leaving them on until I was ready to plant even killed rhyzome type weeds. The tarp also doesn't allow all the spring seeds that fall like tree seeds, to get a foothold. Also, not turning the soil and raising all the seeds in the soil is helping too. My in ground garden is 60x30. This year I made permanent rows and wood chipped paths.
Hey Rachel and Todd, the garden is looking great! Where your chairs are, honestly I'd pull up the creeping charlie... put down a dble layer of fabric and set some stone, either (flag or field), and around the edge do a planting of thyme. It's grows so densely and should by all means choke out the Creeping Charlie . And benefit if it creeps into the seat area, cut it and cook with it and to keep it in check, weedwack it 3 times a year.
Also, in my 52 years gardening on this planet in multiple attitudes and soil types, I've never liked weed fabric with gardening. It's only good purpose for me is for walkways and suppressing qeeds on the mass like a patio. I've experienced it to increase slugs and mildew when you have a wet season. I prefer natural soil and pulling small weeds. And tilling is great to do. It moves the nutrients and amendments through the full bed. I'd always till in the fall... throw all leaves down on the beds after mulching them with my mower and when crocus and daffodils bloom till those in, then top dress with my amendments and till again early April and you'd be able to stick your hands in and go past your wrist easily so the doll will be very lofty like your raised beds and ears galore. Welcome back to the garden!
If it were me, I would seriously reconsider tilling it all in next spring. As is, the beautiful compost you added is acting as a mulch, and the leaves will do that as well, and they will work their way into the soil just fine as time passes. Tilling them in next spring will only bring all of your weed seeds back to the surface again and make for the exact battle you're trying to avoid. Landscape fabric would certainly suppress some of those weeds, but it often at the expense of your soil life. Areas with fabric tend to get pretty dry and compacted over time. Perhaps consider investing in silage tarps, instead, especially if you are going to till once more. Then, you can get all the weeds in your seed bank to germinate and then terminate them with silage tarp so they become in-place compost rather than a nuisance. Not sure if you watch the Farmer Jesse on the No-Till Growers channel, they're kind of geared more toward market farmers, but they've got some great videos about these topics and I've learned a lot from his experience and the other farmers he features.
Yes! Don’t bring more seeds to light, smother them instead!
My story: On a new in ground garden this year I tilled half and covered the other half with cardboard and mulch/compost (the city deemed it compost but it was leaves and wood chips that had started to break down). The weeds were UNBELIEVABLE in the spot I tilled. So much work just to be rewarded with more weeds. I will only ever cover with cardboard and mulch. Cardboard can have holes poked in it and planted into just like landscape fabric, and the worms LOVE IT!
I use landscape fabric in some beds but the beds that I would have to plant a million things like onions and carrots I top the beds with pine shavings (the pet bedding kind) to prevent weeds it’s pretty cheap and will just compost into the soil
This year we had a huge run issue which brought slugs so I am putting weed barrier down instead of grass (I rent and they don’t want wood chips) but it’s easy to re seed grass if I leave once the weed barrier is removed
I also have a huge neighborhood cat problem so all my beds end of season after amending get covered in weed barrier so they don’t poop in my beds lol spring after planting I place chicken Wire over the beds until things fill in the plants then they leave it alone
Hello, Best decision I ever made! I used Dewitt (Amazon), burnt holes with mini torch, worked great. This will be the 4th year and still holding up. I used the 4ft width. The amount of time and frustration this saves is wonderful. You'll love it. Try it for a year, if you don't like, rip it out. Make sure to get the good stainless staples. The big box store staples rust and need replacing yearly. About the only hiccup I had. Can't wait to see what you do.
Thank you!
I used landscape fabric for some of my cherry tomato plants this year. LOVED IT. no weeds. 🙂
I started using the heavy duty landscaping fabric in my garden about 2 years ago. I first started by putting it down in my pathways once my wood chops decomposed and the weeds started taking over. I no longer have to haul wood chips becauseI just don’t have the time. The last season I used the fabric for my raised beds and it was wonderful! I will do it again next year too. I used it with my peppers and tomatoes, squash, and melons. If I have time I would like to do it with my onions and garlic too.
We did landscape fabric for the first time this summer and absolutely loved not having to weed! At 62, it's been such a pleasure to be tired from tending to my plants and not constantly fighting the weeds.
I'm confident that my tomatoes stayed healthy all season because nothing soil borne was able to splash up onto the leaves.
I love the woven weed fabric in the walkways.
Awesome I love garlic
Hello from Alaska! We’ve got lots of snow already so it’s nice to see all that precious compost being spread. Can’t wait already for May to get here.
Anyhoo…. My recommendation for your sitting area would be pavers or a small deck of some kind. We recently bought a new home so I’m designing my garden from scratch…. I miss the old one but excited for the new. Embrace the excitement of change. Great time after the sabbath too!
You two are the most adorable! 🥰 great content as always.
I really like mulching leaves around my plants to keep the weed pressure down. You can bag them up now, and spread them around your plants in the spring. Or cover your beds in leaves now, transplant/plant right in the mulch. I’m going to try laying black tarp this fall/winter over everything, after I lay my leaves down.
Can you plant all the garlic for full heads next summer
I have used the polypropylene ground cover recommended by Living Traditions Homestead for the last 4 years. I was about to give up because of the amount of weeds I had. This cover still lets the moisture in but the weeds don’t germinate. It is full of thriving earthworms underneath. This is the only way I can keep up and I had an abundant harvest this year even with the very dry weather we had. Good luck!
I've used landscape fabric for years and loved every moment of it. Though I've gotten away from vegetable gardening and more into landscape plants (vegs are cheaper for me to buy from Blocks, lol), if I were to go back to veg gardening, the first thing I would do is lay down landscape fabric. I got the idea years ago from the market gardeners, took that idea and ran with it. In fact, I think I commented on one of your old videos that you may want to give it a shot. I use the heavy DeWitt landscape fabric and I got it from Amazon. I saw it this year at Home Depot but didn't compare the prices because I still have some. If you want to get rid of all the weeds in your aisles, lay down the landscape fabric. You could cover it with the wood chips if you want that look and next fall just toss the wood chips into your beds as mulch. It will compact your soil and stifle the exchange of air and soil, but it's easy to pull up and let the beds do their thing to recuperate. The only reason I'm not using it now is because I'm rejuvenating my soil and I have mostly perennials such as roses, etc., in my gardens and am moving things around. The market gardeners pull it up at the end of season and lay down compost, reinstall it and grow away. They even do that between crops in the summer. I figured if it worked for them, it should work for me and it did. One hint, don't let dirt and stuff pile up on it; that's when it becomes a bear to remove.
I used the landscape fabric this year for all my in ground garden, I was dealing with to much Bermuda grass. To cut the holes I used chalk X to get spacing. My husband found a 2" pipe fitting set it over the chalk marks and used the torch, if gave us very consistent holes.
I opted to use non treated craft paper in my rows instead of landscape fabric. This way the paper can degrade and in the spring it's basically gone. It did a great job of keeping the weeds down this year. I also took grass clippings, leaves, ect, and laid those down in the walkways on the paper to help mulch.
Nice work.
Dewitt sunbelt weed barrier is the best that I have used' Some others only last a year or so in the sun but Dewitt is sun resistant. I have 9 raised beds and use it in the pathways and it works great. Some weed barrier has premade holes and I would use it for in ground planting.
I have used the heavy duty landscape fabric for a couple years and I love it! It was a total game changer.
I look forward to your videos! You have inspired me in my garden and in my kitchen with meals and especially canning!!! Have a blessed day!!!
I use the weed barrier fabric on the in ground garden but not in my raised beds
I got a “Creeping Charlie” problem as well! Between the Charlie and the Himalayan Blackberry briers, which don’t product berries only briers, my gardens a wreck. I haven’t used the fabric option before. It just doesn’t appeal to me. What I do to keep weeds down is mulch with lawn clippings regularly. They compost down quickly and help to keep weeds at bay.
Good to see you up Rachel! That was a wicked fall at the end of the last garden video. I bet you were tender for a few days, hitting your tailbone like that!
Tilling in the spring will dig up all the weed seeds again, leave them buried under a few inches and let them rot.