April rains bring more than May blooms. They also bring weeds, weeds, and more weeds that quickly destroy the look of that perfectly planned garden. However, don’t immediately reach for chemical-based weed killers.
Today’s fabric and plastic weed barriers do an excellent job of keeping weeds at bay until a desired groundcover is established. Once the groundcover has grown in, the weeds will be choked out by the competing roots and will have no ground to stand on, so to speak. And weed barriers are easy to install. Once the target area is cleared completely of vegetation, simply unroll the weed barrier and pin at 2 to 4-inch intervals, making sure to overlap seams by a few inches so pesky weeds can’t find daylight. If you carefully follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions, to ensure the barrier is well sealed, there’s no need to spray a chemical weed killer. Once your weed barrier is in place, cut small x-shaped notches in the fabric, dig out the necessary soil, and insert the desired plants. In just a season, you’ll have a landscape of beautiful groundcover or other plants, where there once was a field of weeds.