I want to cover up an ugly part of my yard with bark mulch, do I have to lay down landscaping cloth?

Question

I live in BC, so the Pacific North West gets a ton of rain, and weeds always grow thick and fast spring/early summer. I was wondering if the mulch alone will suffocate the weeds over time or do I really have to lay landscapers cloth? Also does anyone have a creative/inexpensive idea for boaders to seperate the mulch from the rest of my lawn. They have to great snap togethers at home depot but man they are a small fortune for the size I need! :) This is to go around and in between a large cluster group of huge evergreens. Thanks for any help, and as always any answers are greatly apprecaited. Have a great day everybody :)

Answer 1

Hey, I have great results with a nice layer of mulch alone and no landscape cloth. You really have to spray big perennial weeds first with Roundup or remove them before applying mulch or whatever. Stuff like chickweed that just seeds in can be smothered with the mulch. I would prefer to spend the money on deeper mulch and not landscape cloth because I think it is better for the soil in the long run and for the plants I want to grow in it. Mulch that is 2-3" deep does an excellent job here in Michigan to discourage weeds. Add a little more to the top every couple years if you need to. Be careful not to bury good plants up to the neck in mulch though to avoid crown damage. The weeds dont grow under the skirts of established plants much anyway due to the shade and competition. Really, the mulch only needs to be thick enough to prevent sunlight from hitting the soil to be effective. Then if I want to plant more plants in my garden I dont have to cut through some stuff to do it. And, nothing looks worse than mulch sliding off the landscape cloth on a slope! So it may have its place, but ....

On the edging the old fashioned way is to cut the border and leave the cut edge of the turf exposed to the air. Cut straight down thru the turf 4" and remove the sod along the edge. Then brush the dirt upward from the cut into the flower bed. Leaves a V-shaped edge. Lots of work but sure looks crisp. Not hard to maintain but you do have to re-do this from time to time as the grass grows. If you elect to install "bed edger" please please please PLEASE set it in deep enough. It is meant to stop grass roots from growing into the flower bed -- not to hold mulch in raised beds. You shouldn't be able to see the edge stuff from several feet away.

Answer 2

I would lay one down for two reasons. First, to stop and prevent the weeds from growing and also if you are on a hill, the landscape cloth will keep the mulch from washing away. And it also help to hide the puddles you can get from all the rain.

After you put the mulch down, use a product called Triple Strike. You can get it from any place that sells yard/gardening supplies. It helps to kill grass, weeds and small bushes that can come up in the beds. Don't spray it on the grass if you want it to live-IT WILL KILL. I live in GA and we use pine straw in all our beds because it is the cheapest and it doesn't turn into compost as quickly as mulch. Once you have whatever you are going to use, when and if weeds come up, you can spray the weeds anytime. You won't have to pull them up because the mulch will hide them.

Answer 3

You do not have to lay landscapers cloth but if you do not put something down, you'll have weeds growing. You might try using newspaper. Get newspaper and put in where you want your mulch. Wet it and keep it moist and then lay mulch over it. It acts like the cloth landscapers use but its free and also is a good compost too.

If you live near any mountains, you might try gathering fallen rocks, it would take some time to gather as much as you need but an idea. Also check you local brick company. Sometimes they gice away broken bricks and you could use these too.

Answer 4

A good weed killer will do. but it is pretty high son i would just cut the grass real short and lay my plastic or what ever your putting under the mulch and it will kill it out because it cant get no sun. and also you need to poke Small holes in the under cover about the size of dimes about a 6in apart so the water can go though it so it would wash your mulch away

Answer 5

The mulch alone won't stop the weeds. It's definitely worth the time, money, and effort to lay the weed block down first.

Answer 6

I definitely would use landscapers cloth. It will block future weeds from growing, whereas just putting down weekblock only kills current weeds. For a border, you could use some sort of recycled material, which would be cheap and good for the environment. My first thought was cutting and painting plastic bottles, though you could always use large stones or thin strips of wood.

Answer 7

If you dont want weeds to grow, then yes. Plastic works well also. As for seperating, I dont like anything. Use the mulch to seperate and dig a " line" so it appears sepperate.

Answer 8

use an underlay its best to ask at your local diy or garden certre which one is best, if you don't put anything down weeds will grow through.

Answer 9

no lay the weedblock down first