IMO it would indeed explain your problems- a non-permeable layer of anything would. Likely someone interested in making a space look good but neglecting soil health and the needs of plants entirely.

I would get it all out, top dress with plenty of compost, and water when it needs to be watered.

Not much that won't be helped by that.

The better soil is on top of it and beneath is the junky clay/builders fill,

==>> the plastic barrier may have created an anaerobic condition that actually created the clay underneath ...

or do you have clay all over the yard.. in places the plastic isnt ...

ken

I feel your pain!..I removed landscaping fabric from a previous owner..I hate landscaping fabric and plastic..it's worth the work to get it out..

I don't agree with some common garden practices..they seem counterproductive to healthy soil and plants..

I feel your pain. I had 3 layers of plastic and landscape fabric. It seemed they also planted on top of it so I couldn't remove all of it. I don't have a lot of clay but the dirt underneath was dry and dead. As I have planted and mulched the worms have helped as has water that can now reach the deeper dirt layers.

Get a cheap, sturdy knife. You will dull the blade. Cut around the roots going through the plastic/landscape fabric and then pull. I feel for you. I did it to myself when I fell for the land scape fabric trap.

Plastic only makes sense if you put rocks on top. In areas where you don't want plants. I have a few places like that in my yard. The plastic won't really hurt anything if it's somewhat porous. Might consider getting a pitchfork and stabbing holes in it in places you can't pull it up.

No amending for long term plants like herbaceous perennials unless you plan to dig them all up periodically and re-amend. If the existing topsoil is too shallow dump more actual topsoil (with a significant mineral = sand, silt, clay content) on top and plant in that, instead of digging in a bunch of organic amendments that are destined to decompose and diminish over time. And may be overkill, depending on how much is used - the optimum organic content level for a soil to be planted in is not that high.

Ho, the old amendment argument! A few years ago, I fell out with loads of forum people because of this precise point. You would not believe the stuff people were putting in the holes for bare-root or transplanted roses - everything from bags of neat manure, old hay, vegetable peelings...and these were people with decades of gardening experience. Insults were hurled, names were called, I got banned. To be fair, we gardeners do tend to extreme behaviour - madly conservative (small c) or prone to bizarre experimental crazes (moon gardening, biodynamics).

Still, afraid to say I have also done the membrane thingy....and 20 freaking years later, there are still shreds and tatters of the stuff. I feel I am trudging, at glacial pace, up a horrendously steep learning curve .Or am I cascading over the edge?

"You would not believe the stuff people were putting in the holes for bare-root or transplanted roses - everything from bags of neat manure, old hay, vegetable peelings...and these were people with decades of gardening experience."

And now the houseplant crowd is touting fresh banana water and topdressing with freaking bone meal. They put food scraps directly INTO potting mix. INDOORS.

"Kids" these days haven't the patience to compost anything but bananas have potassium and plants need that, right? So stick bananas in your soil!! Plants need calcium, but not to worry- roots can suck calcium directly out of whole eggshells.

The internet has made bro science so pervasive that you have to swim against the current even to speak, never mind getting them to listen.

Same here. Poor hydrangeas are spreading their roots on top. 😬

Get yourself a boxcutter. Use it liberally to cut the tarp.

“Bro science” HA HA!! So true. I told one hairdresser I washed my hair with used coffee grounds, crushed cashews, and sourkrout because I saw it on the internet. We both had a good laugh.

It is plastic, not fabric. The plastic is old enough that it rips easily, which can be good and bad. Sometimes I’d rather it not rip so i can just pull it out in one sheet. There is no way this stuff is porous enought o have let decent moisture through, although because it is on a slope moisture could have seeped from underneath as it moved downhill. I just wish I knew the original intent. did they think it would trap moisture in the soil and help in dry times because moisture could not seep down? I would have thought it was old weed tarp that got buried by years of leaf litter, etc., of which there is a TON around here, but the soil underneath is way too poor for that to be the reason, similar to how you described it, DM.

After a couple more days, I believe it is placed around many of the shrubs, thankfully. But littlebug, my hydrangeas have sent off some suckers (or expanded) on top of it in some areas. These hydrangeas are in CRAPPY shape. One had an Annabelle tag on it, and I remember the blooms when we first bought the house, but it reverted to species, I’m assuming under stress. They really needed more love from me after we took down many dangerous trees and the bed began getting much more sun.

Ken, my area is geologically clay anyway. There is also some sand in some areas, but I believe that may follow a pipe that allows for water draining around the house.

Embo, after bad droughts this year and in 2020, my plants in fully ammended soil with loam, compost, and peat did dramatically better than others, so I’m adding the compost and peat as much to hold moisture as for food. The hostas are fried, but everything else was stressed but still fine. The only watering I needed to do was a new bed and some swamp milkweed that seeded in shallower soil by the driveway. I watered those when they wilted during caterpillar season. also, becuase this bed is on a slope I have to be careful about how much I build up. Better luck taking out some of the crappy stuff so the bed isn’t too high above the soil line.

One positive plug for fabric. I use it very successfully as a temporary cover to prep an area for a new garden bed. I layer TONS of leaves, followed by fabric, followed by mulch, and let it sit for a year. Easy way to kill the grass without chemicals, buys me some time to plan the bed, and the leaves decompose. That is the ONLY time fabric works for me! Anything that stays over two years is a disaster, and after one year is iffy. Beyond that use, fabric is a disaster!

Thanks to you all!

True! I used cardboard as a first choice and the fabric when I ran out of cardboard. I was establishing a very large bed. Cardboard is indeed preferable! I also use cardbaord around bushes that are establishing themselves in the untended areas to keep weeds down, too. Thanks for the comment!

Protection against drought is best accomplished by mulching 4 in. or more deep with certain wood products such as arborist wood chips. Fact-based gardening information (rather than the aforementioned "bro-science" as well as untested personal anecdotes presented as evidence that have abounded on social media for a long time) can be found here:

The Garden Professors™ – Advancing the science of gardening and other stuff since 2009

OP, if your plastic rips you are lucky. Duane Johnson himself couldn’t rip mine, even if it was already cut.

Mine is heavy duty black tarp with generous overlaps. Not even close in texture to a trash bag. Laid in 2010, it will still be there in 2050 if I don’t get it all out.

Oooooo, Littlebug, that’s horrible. You have made me grateful.

Embo, THANK YOU for the link. I will defenitely be looking through that site.

I will defenitely be looking through that site

Note that reader comments often follow the articles. With article authors or other authors on their team sometimes responding.

Embo, I’ve looked through the site–love it! When I established my regular beds I did layer over 4” of mulch. I have gotten lazier with mulch in recent years but have always wondered if 4” was too much. I actually have some wood chips (without the fresh stuff included) and am now using that. Previously I just used it on paths.

This is one larger piece of plastic I wrestled out of the ground. I am grateful that it can be removed, and should be glad I’m getting such a physical workout. I guess. What a nightmare. The soil under is indeed completely dead, Ken, and hard. I wonder how long it will take for it to recombine with the living world and become minimally healthy. I also wonder if the plants I’m planting will put roots into that soil or just skiim across the top of it. I’m breaking the surface of it when I plant, which has to help. It’s compacted and dry!

Ugh what a pita Deanna. Makes you wonder how long ago it was put down...

Must feel good hauling that out of the ground. Well done, you.