I've used black landscape fabric. We bought big 4 foot wide rolls at places like BJ's and Sam's Club. The stuff I got was thick black fabric, and it is reusable.

The advantage of weed fabric over black sheet plastic is that it lets the rain through. The fabric is not as warm.

I have had really bad expierience with it. Mine did not hold up for one full season, and made a perfect place for 'things' to get under, moles, snakes going after the moles, wasps. The worst was I think the heat made watering daily neccessary, and I just felt like it was cooking the roots. Mulch. Thick mulch, things still get under it, but they get through it.
Just my .02

Agreed, mulching is the better option.

And please, don't think we mean mulch as "go out and buy mulch in bags" or anything fancy like that. Just tossing grass clippings from mowing the yard on there is perfectly fine.

For mine, whenever I go out to pull up the grass that is growing in the garden I just let it get a little big, pull it up, and then leave it right there in the garden. It makes a nice thick mat pretty quickly and then nothing grows through it.

I use a decent weight landscape fabric in my walkways every year. Well, every year but this year (I let my husband talk me out of it and I am still very angry about it, we will be using again next year). It doesn't last year to year (it would if I didn't till and re-do my walkways each year and to be honest, it is the absolute best $40 I spend every year on it (my garden is 25x50 ft). And this year proves it to me! I hold it down with landscape spikes, but not the metal ones, there are green plastic spikes that hold way better, the metal staples pull right out.

I have tried the grass clipping route, but in order to lay it thick enough to keep weeds under control, I have enough at the very beginning of the season, but when summer hits and the lawn stops growing (and I have a huge lawn), I never have enough clippings to keep the walkways covered. Plus, it is a large amount of extra work. Again, best $40 I spend in the yard ever year.

I wouldn't ever go plastic though, you will have huge issues with drainage and your soil being heated.

Kalindi

I tried some as an experiment, but gave up when I realizd that black widow spiders like to hide under it. We seem to have more than our share of them here and I hate/fear them... To the point that I'm not willing to drag the sheet of plastic away from the edge of the garden until the cold months. So yes, things get underneath it.

From what I understand, the black plastic is mostly used by the farmers when starting their planting in the spring time to help heat the soil and protect the roots from any late frost. It also holds in the moisture in the early summer. Most of the farmers start taking it up about mid July, I believe. It is not really necessary if you are a backyard type of gardener! I was going to use it but decided against it and also the drainage problem and not letting the rain and water in when watering by hose or sprinkler. I use a light mulch on top of my vg. I wouldnt mulch heavily just to keep the weeds out, either. Save yourself some money!

Yes, there is a "secret" -- the cheaper 3 and 4 mill stuff will last usually one season only, maybe 2. The 6 mill will last for me at least 3, sometimes 4. And cost is more, but not proportionally more. Larger home improvement stores usually have the 6 mil thickness.

I've used all three. Black plastic, growers black fabric, and old grass clippings. They all work well. The plastic lasts the least amount of time. I had the black fabric for 10 years when I had a nursery and didn't have any problems with it going bad. The only place I had holes was where pots had sat too long and the roots went through the mat. We got ours for free from a local nursery that was remodeling a greenhouse (that's in our new house, not the nursery. I never saw any black widow spiders or anything else under it. We had plenty of the black widows. They preferred the handles of the nursery pots and any place undisturbed. They give me the willies too! Almost grabbed one more times than I care to think about!

I had some heavy duty large heavy duty rubbish bags from Lowe's that I decided to use on my tomatoes and peppers this year. You need to put down irrigation before you lay down the plastic. I used soaker hose. I liked it. It prevents rain from splashing up and carrying soil diseases. And it did keep the soil moist for longer than bare soil by a long shot. I only used it for peppers and tomatoes, so I could cut an 'X' and plant the starts easily.

This is one of those questions where you'll get as much misinformation as you will sound advice. There is no doubt that black plastic is the cheaper way to go since I get 4000' rolls (4'wide- 1 mil)for around $100. Although there is a biodegradable type that breaks down within the season, most types will last the season, probably 2 if you care to work with it but think about the holes that you have in it (more weeding) and the possible diseases you may spread thru reuse. If you go with a large sheet of black plastic film you will need to put drip tape or some irrigation form to get water to the plants. Drip tape is relatively cheap too. Also with it, one season's use leads to less complications.

Warming the soil is just another benefit of black plastic mulch. I wouldn't even attempt to grow melons without it since in our area you would have trouble harvesting the crop before frost. Rodents like the warmth under the film but they like other forms of mulch more.

The plastic mulch will produce a crop with minimal weeding but I always pull weeds in the same slits that the vegetables grow through. It does make the difference between a doable task and one that you just can't keep up with.

I believe everything grows better planted on plastic mulch, including cool season crops like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts that some people plant on white plastic but I've used the black mulch and I'm harvesting my largerst and best looking broccoli crop ever this year. I plant 2 rows of most crops to a 3' exposed row of plastic- all peppers, eggplant & cole crops. Tomatoes, melons, squash just get one planted row per plastic row.

If you want to build organic matter in the soil plant a cover crop between plastic rows or immediately after you raise the plastic at season's end.

This is the first year I have ever had a garden so I am trying to learn as fast as I can.

My garden is 14' x 28', we just bought the house last year and the garden was already there. Last fall I poured about 5-6 bags of grass clippings into it and tilled everything together this spring. After tilling my neighbor mentioned I should use landscape fabric to handle the weeds which sounded like a good idea. Now I am not sure as I am learning more and more.

I used scotts 4' x 200' landscape fabric and covered the entire garden. I then cut holes out to plant all of my vegetables. I have corn, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, jalepenos, Strawberries, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, and spinach.

Everything is growing very well but I don't know if the fabric is the best way to handle weeds. Do you think I should take it out and lay down a layer of Compost or mulch instead? Would this help the plants grow even better?

I didn't want to add mulch on top of the fabric because I don't want to have to deal with pulling it up when I want to till next year. Please let me know your thoughts, thank you in advance.

I went from using landscaping fabric from the local garden center to something called Lumite from Shaw Fabrics (via a tip from Gardenweb) and I couldn't be happier.

The Lumite is woven strips of some kind of plastic and lasts for years. I plant my tomatoes between two 3-foot strips of Lumite and run a soaker hose between them.

I can only access my garden on the weekends so it saved me huge amounts of time (not) weeding.

This year, I'm using a 4-foot wide strip to plant my peppers and eggplants and basil in/under. I have 2 rows of holes about 14 inches in from the outside edge, again with soaker hoses underneath.

The best way to cut it is using a torch so it melts the ends so it doesn't unravel.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lumite

My issue is a bit different, though I do have live gardening areas that will benefit from the advice above. In our case. it's rather a case of fairly expansive and sun-exposed terraces all down the backyard slope where we are gradually planting fruit trees and bushes but want to control the weeds, which otherwise go wild.

I have tried a series of solutions, including good landscape fabric, cardboard and black plastic sheeting. The latter two seem to work better than the former, unless religiously changed every year (over quite an expanse) -- since the decaying landscape fabric is penetrated and then hopelessly intertwined with very energetic weeds and you end up having to rip it out/dig it up.

My method for the black plastic sheeting (and cardboard) is to put it down, then cover it in a pretty thick layer of pine straw or -- occasionally -- wood chips. Seems to reduce excess heating of the soil and work pretty well. Anyone else tried anything similar/

I use the woven black polypropalene for my melons and squash, and just love it! It has a 20 or 25 year lifespan, if I remember correctly. It heats up nicely early in the season, then the squash shades it so it doesn't overheat later on. I could never grow the amount of produce that I do without it. It is approved for organic gardening, too..

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/weed-barrier-20-year/ground-cover-fabric

The plastic stuff will end up in 1) a landfill or 2) small pieces leaving garbage in your garden soil for eternity.

do the work and use cardboard, leaves, grass... Anything that will IMPROVE your soil by degrading. It will require more effort but the materials are basically free and the soil is improving in the mean time.

Do the work? LOL I do have a huge compost pile and add compost every year..but that wasn't the OP's question.

Mulch, pull weeds, mulch, mulch, pull weeds, mulch, mulch. No easy button in gardening.

Thank you for clearing that up dirt guy.

Perhaps i was a little vague? Example: cardboard/wood chips/grass/leaves will not need to be removed after a 25 year life span. Noone will wver need to send those items to a landfill. However they do break down in place and enhance the quality of the soil. The work i refer to is adding more mulch for next season's plantings. I was in no way referencing compost.

..., think Ruth Stout

Normally I use cardboard over my summer beds once they go to bed (about November) I'll go out with a knife and do a Psycho kind of thing (DWEEP DWEEP DWEEP) so that the rain can get in during the winter. I also cover my 2 winter beds with cardboard during the summer except the few plants I grow in there.

This year we knew we were going to Hawaii and didn't want the house sitter to have to weed or tend to the garden , so we planted everything late (we're just getting stuff coming in now!)

We used the weed cloth that was sitting around in the garage and it has worked fairly well with some tears. It will certainly be a one season thing. I do like the no weed thing, but I'm also retired with a garden budget that can allow those kind of things!

For the most part, cardboard is your friend! You can take it off, put stuff under it, cut and surround plants with it, get huge pieces from the big box stores What ev! Nancy

I can't use cardboard because it isn't approved for organic vegetables. I think it's the glue in it, or maybe the dyes in the printing?

Same reason I can't use grass clipping or mulch..I don't produce enough grass clippings myself to bother with, and organic mulch is way too expensive. I have a huge compost pile and top dress every year, as well as a field with a lot of comfrey, so I use that where I need extra nitrogen.

I live in the south of France and want to use black plastic or whatever is best to plant shrubs, etc. What is it best to use which doesn’t require constant watering in the summer?

Please don’t use black plastic. It is definitely not ‘best to plant shrubs’. Debris accumulates on it and weeds grow. Shrubs will root through it as it breaks down and it will be very difficult to remove in the future. You would be polluting your soil for hundreds of years. And under a Provençal sun black plastic would get very hot for roots. Instead prepare the ground thoroughly by removing perennial weeds. You could spread a layer of compost over the whole area if you have it. Then you could lay cardboard and mulch over it or just use mulch. If you mulch thickly and plant appropriate drought resistant plants there should be no need for constant watering. Or very much watering at all.

I agree that plastic is a very poor choice. I use polypropalene, it's woven, much heavier, rain gets through, not weeds, and it's approved for organic use because it doesn't break down..it lasts 20 -25 years depending on the brand and weight you choose.

Thanks for the advice!