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My house is about 20 years old but i've been here six years. The landscape fabric under my front xeriscape courtyard is not doing the weed control job anymore. I have no idea how old it is. How often does it need to be replaced? It looks like a major project.
I am not a fan of barriers. It is a short term solution. There's no such thing as a weed preventative that lasts. Your best bet is to use pre-emergents in the early spring and post-emergents until fall. With a couple of back to back years of agressive treatments, weeds will get easier and easier to control and manage. The real work is removing the rotted barriers.
Despite different quality of weed barriers they are only good usually for 2-3 years before some weeds start popping up. It's not that the landscape fabric breaks that fast, rather because wind blows in dirt, sand, soil, in between the rocks on top of the barrier and it's just enough for weeds to germinate in. This is especially true in desert areas that get winds blowing in sand from all around.
What I do is start spraying for weeds early spring as they begin to pop up. Don't let them get more than a couple of inches tall before you start spraying. Do this 2-3 times in spring by spot spraying, keep water off the area and you're good to go for another year.
It’s complicated too. If the weed barrier never breaks down it is an environmental contaminant. And if it does then why have it as replacing it is a mess. Under stone it might be useful for the short run. Then you can move and it becomes someone else’s problem. If you are that kind of person.
My house is about 20 years old but i've been here six years. The landscape fabric under my front xeriscape courtyard is not doing the weed control job anymore. I have no idea how old it is. How often does it need to be replaced? It looks like a major project.
Question... Are the weeds coming from below or above the fabric? Pic?
It's possible your fabric is over 10 yrs old but mine is now 6 yrs old and while I thought was breaking down and weeds were coming up from it, I was wrong. It's still doing its job 100%. I'll try to grab a pic of the old fabric later. I did have moss growing on top of it but moss has been growing everywhere lately.
The weeds were because the 4yr old mulch broke down and became dirt so a few weed seeds found their way "on top" of the fabric. A replacement of the mulch is the thing to do. Every 2-3 yrs for the mulch and you'll be good to go.
See if the fabric is still good, if so then just add new mulch on top. If the fabric is no good, I would recommend installing new fabric and you'll be thankful not to deal with weeds again.
My house is about 20 years old but i've been here six years. The landscape fabric under my front xeriscape courtyard is not doing the weed control job anymore. I have no idea how old it is. How often does it need to be replaced? It looks like a major project.
As promised.. A picture of my 6 yr old fabric. It's still in 100% working condition. You can see the old dirt from the old mulch too.
I was too lazy to push more mulch aside. Sorry. I posted this yesterday if that helps. Don't get discouraged with what people tell you, it's worth the investment and time.
One of my beds had landscape fabric for about 20 years. The fabric didn't break down at all, and it did a good job of keeping weeds out. I took it out anyway because I like rich soil, and the fabric didn't allow mulch to break down and turn into soil.
If your landscape fabric isn't doing its job anymore, the weeds may actually be coming from on top of the fabric, rather than from underneath it. I assume you've looked to see if the weeds are on top or below. If the weeds are coming from below the fabric, you could remove the fabric and replace it with layers of newspaper or cardboard, then mulch on top of that.
I've removed fabric before, and it wasn't all that hard to do. Just do it a section at a time.
I have more than one problem, I think. It looks like the smaller weeds are on top and easy to pull but the tough ones found a seam. I have a Russian Sage that sends out root sucker offspring that find the seams and pry them open, sometimes from under the courtyard wall. Over the years the weeds found the seams. My problem was a jungle of Russian Sage plants that the former owner let get established -- maybe twenty. The fabric was stressed from that. It took two years to get that under control (mostly). I might have to live with it or start over. I have a 1500 gallon fish pond in this courtyard so I'm afraid to use chemicals.
Last year, I took a cardboard box and flattened it and wrapped it in landscape fabric. It did the trick beautifully. I only had weeds up against the wall where the fabric ended. Now the cardboard did not fare as well as it broke down. I bought the fabric for $3 so I am happy to rewrap the new box.
Last edited by nuts2uiam; 05-10-2019 at 07:29 PM..
Reason: spelling
Costco has 220 feet for $30 includes includes 50 staples.
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