We have a master gardener that digs her onions from flower beds in early spring and eats them while tender. Keep digging and soon they'll all be gone.By the way the fabric will work also. I don't like to eat onions so fabric is my solution also. Pembroke

I used quite a lot of landscaping fabric 10 years ago when I created most of my beds. Someone talked me into it. If I could remember who it was, I would likely lay a serious beatin' on 'im.

Since then I have learned that weeds don't come from below, they come from above. I also learned that seeds germinate quite nicely on top of the fabric and the fine roots go right through the fabric. Then it is nearly impossible to pull them out.

Later I learned that it is 10 times harder to remove landscape fabric than it was to install it.

You can take this post as a negative.

I second everything harryshoe said! You might try thick layers of newspaper or there is some biodegradable plastic stuff you might try too.

I have a problem with little rainlily bulblets coming up everywhere; some of those buggars are deep and when you try to pull them out, the foliage just breaks off in your hand leaving the bulb below to regenerate.

Good luck!

Lynn

I third it on the landscape fabric. So, another negative response. I ended up using layers of newspaper, which last for about 1 growing season.

Layers of newspaper, then topped off with wood mulch.

I also had a negative response to landscape fabric.

UGH!!!!!!

That s**t is freakin' NASTY to deal with after the fact!!!!!

Whoever originally landscaped the townhouses where I live used it everywhere there's a planting bed.

Now, 20 years later (after 20 years' worth of later landscapers faithfully laying down yet another 1.5" of new chipped wood mulch on top of that which is already there)????

Guess how happily the weeds grow in the new 100% composted mulch "soil" on top of the old landscape fabric?

In the typical order of things that mulch simply decomposes away into the soil below, improving it in the process, but the fabric is an almost complete barrier to that process, and so the mulch instead slowly composts on top of the fabric. At this point the fabric is pretty useless as far as preventing weed growth goes!

PASSIONATE THUMBS DOWN ON LANDSCAPE FABRIC!!!!!!!!!

A truly nasty use of crude-oil-turned-into-plastic if ever there was one!

I second the recommendation that you lay down a thick layer of newspapers (1"+ deep), and cover that with a wood chip mulch of some sort. In a year the newspaper will have vanished completely (if you live in an area that gets a fair amount of rain, or you can figure out a way to keep the newspaper moistened so that it can slowly decompose into compost), but in the meantime you will probably have smothered to death most (or all) of your problem yet no one but you will know that the newspaper is even there.

No ugliness, and you only contribute something useful to your garden (first as a weed-smothering mulch, and then as a form of compost)!

By the way, the newspaper shouldn't harm your roses at all. The only thing it will smother will be the shoots trying to grow up from below the ground. It won't prevent water from going into the ground (and adding the wood mulch on top of the newspaper will definitely aid water penetration since it will help keep the newspapers moist). I also believe nutrients will slowly percolate through the newspaper as well, so I believe the fertilizer you add on top of the mulch will still end up in your roses, too. (It may take a bit longer, but don't forget that roses are shrubs, and thus can deal with slow release fertilizer regimes.)

I'm SO relieved/delighted that the truth about landscape fabric is finally beginning to emerge! When, quite a while ago, I posted my horrendous experience with the stuff, the reactions here clearly indicated that I was something of a heretic.

In 2006 I was a member of a volunteer team that worked to rejuvenate a public garden where landscape fabric had been used. Over a number of years, three layers of the stuff had been installed. Removing all of it (each layer in various stages of decay) was a nightmare. Perhaps some weeds already in place were thwarted by the fabric, but the new weed seeds that flew in ignored its presence and merely anchored themselves to it/thru it.

If you're waging a battle against impervious weeds like wild onion/garlic, nutsedge, dollar weed, etc, and are determined to use landscape fabric, then consider laying the fabric and covering it only with a thick layer of pine bark mulch. Leave that in place for a maximum of 18 months (preferably less), then remove all of it (mulch and fabric) and start over. Trust me, you do NOT want the mulch to begin breaking down and a layer of soil developing over the fabric. Weeds growing thru the fabric can be every bit as bad as the weeds under the fabric that you were initially attempting to control.

I also hate the stuff, but did not realize how unpopular it is. For the emerging onions, why not try a little bit of Round Up - just use a paint brush, and brush the plants---onion plants, not roses.

Sammy

I'm going to throw in my two cents worth. I too used landscape fabric in my last rose garden with varying
degrees of success, but I made the mistake of using
the cheaper fabric that is sold by the big box stores.
IF you will use professional grade fabric, yes it costs
a lot more, you will love the product. It WORKS and weeds
will not penetrate it. I have it in my new rose garden and it has been a godsend. I leave a space around each bush, where I apply fertilizer, and that is the only place, where an ocassional weed will pop up. It's permanent, and has saved me and my back from constant weeding in a 150 bush rose garden. I also use it in my vegetable garden, with the same success.

I used it and it was an expense I could have lived without. The weeds germinated and grew anyway. One time I paid this gardener and he pulled the weeds, ripped the fabric up..cleaned under and put new mulch on top of the fabric, and under. I went to a lecture by a gardening expert here Cisco Morris and he said it was wretched stuff. I would go with the newspaper

Years ago, landscape fabric was put in around my Mom's roses in the flowerbeds. It looked good and worked well for maybe a year or two, but was totally useless after that. Weeds germinated on top and grew through the fabric (which then made them harder to remove), and I'm reasonably sure the fabric had a negative effect on the roses themselves. When they eventually died and we dug them up, many of the roots were growing into the fabric. Perhaps the fabric held moisture and thus attracted the roots, or maybe something else happened, but either way the stuff failed miserably at its goal.

I wouldn't use it: try newspapers to choke the onions if needed.

-- and don't assume that the fabric is perfectly permeable and allows water to percolate readily through it. When I used it in a bed near the street, I noticed markedly increased water run-off during rains -- esp during our summer storms when rain comes on with a fury and lasts for only a short while. Long, slow, steady rains penetrated the fabric, but the benefit even then seemed less than would have been the case without the stuff.

Thanks everyone. I personally hate the stuff too. When we moved into this house, all the beds were covered with a sheet of plastic and stone mulch. Took me years to get rid of the stones and planstic.

My plan was to leave the fabric uncovered for couple of seasons, long enough to kill the onion bulbs that come from blow. It will look ugly but if its going to kill those @#@&^# bulbs, I can handle it.

Another negative. Not only does it the fabric fail to prevent weeds after a few years, it also prevents oxygen and soil amendments (compost, etc) getting into your soil and eventually compacts the soil. Your roses (and other plants) become completely dependent on fertilizers for their nutrients. Digging out the onions turns the soil and you can dig in amendments at the same time. Good soil makes strong, healthy plants.

Negative. You'll be pulling out pieces of fabric for years. And pulling it out from UNDER weeds! Instead of newspapers I use cardboard. Lasts longer.

This is timely. Last year I took out my raspberries. I am putting in a new bed for new berries. Anyway I laid landscape fabric on the dirt to prevent weeds from growing. I have new blueberries coming to be planted there. I lifted the fabric today....lots of weeds growing under the fabric. Wonderful stuff.