Landscape fabrics have many uses in commercial and residential applications. These fabrics known as geotextiles are extremely helpful in keeping up with your landscape maintenance needs. This article will help you understand how to improve ground quality and extend the life of your next driveway, xeriscape (low water) garden, or gravel pathway project.
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Let’s face it. Nobody likes to pull weeds. Preventing weed growth is one of the top reasons for most landscape fabric installations. A good landscape fabric beneath a layer of pebbles or gravel goes a long way in preventing weed seed germination.
Even the best landscape fabric won’t stop 100% of the weeds. Some seeds will inevitably germinate and sprout, however having a weed block barrier will keep the roots from getting a foothold in the soil. Without deep roots weeds are much easier to pull and less likely to establish and spread further. You can also consider using a weed tarp barrier to prevent all water and nutrients from reaching the soil below.
Fewer weeds in and around your landscape also mean you need to use less herbicide for control. Using less herbicide saves money, effort, and is generally better for the overall environment.
Weed block fabric prevents the germination of weed vegetation in landscapes
Driveway fabric can also have a stabilizing effect on the soil beneath your gravel. If surface erosion is a problem, a landscape barrier under your gravel can help reduce the running water's effects. Keeping gravel in place is a big problem with some applications.
If your gravel path or landscape has slopes or contours, landscape fabric between the soil and the gravel can mitigate the effects of traffic and soil movement. Frost heave is common in colder climates and can move underground structures, and rocks from beneath the ground due to rapid freeze and thaw cycles.
By adding stabilization fabric beneath your path, or bed areas it can help mitigate this upward movement of rock and soil keeping your landscape looking great.
If you use gravel as a mulch under and around your landscape plants, retaining soil moisture can be an issue. Gravel tends to collect heat and transmit the heat to the soil beneath. This process can cause rapid drying of the top layers of the soil and deprive your plantings of needed moisture.
A landscape fabric barrier between the soil and the gravel will insulate the ground from the extreme temperatures swings that may occur. A fabric barrier can also prevent some of the evaporation of soil moisture that can occur.
Geotextile fabric beneath your aggregate or mulch can also save you time and money. The need to water less frequently saves on manual labor and utility costs. Additionally many plants will appreciate the more moderate soil temperatures.
Planting Tip: If you’ve got plants or trees in your mulch area you can still use our wholesale row covers when the temperatures drop to help protect your garden.
landscape fabric under gravel mulch in a flower bed
Most landscapers apply gravel to a depth of four to six inches on gravel paths. When the gravel is used as a mulch around plantings this is closer to four inches in depth. If a high-quality landscape fabric is installed between the soil and the gravel, these depths can be cut in half.
The reason for this is that fabric makes for a more uniform area to layout aggregate and less of the rock material will be lost to soil beneath.
Savings comes in the form of only needing half as much rock aggregate material.
Not all gravel used in garden or landscaping ends up as pathways or mulch. Some gravel is used to control drainage or water movement. In either case, landscape fabric has a part to play in creating systems such as:
French drains and trench drains collect water and move it via pipes away from the landscape area. These systems depend on round rock gravel around the perforated pipe. Landscape fabric provides filtration to prevent sand and soil from clogging the gravel and the perforated pipe in these systems.
Dry creek beds perform the same function but on the surface of the landscape. What looks like a pile of jumbled rocks in a low area through the landscape is water management system. At the bottom and the heart of these dry creek beds is a layer of gravel, usually stabilized by landscape fabric that channels the water.
Nonwoven drainage fabric burrito wrapped around perforated pipe and drain rock
Landscape fabric is perfect for applications like gravel pathways and driveways where strength is important. The primary way to add strength when constructing a gravel pathway or driveway is to install fabric on the graded ground underneath the aggregate. The additional support of fabric underneath the aggregate rock acts as a soil stabilizer and separates the soil below from the aggregate rock layer above.
By providing a separation layer it prevents the soil below from automatically turning into mud from heavy rains, and it reduces the potholes that are common from well worn areas.
Another application where fabric is used for added strength is for pond liners. Often pond installers will lay a barrier of landscape fabric under the pond liner as additional protection of the rubber liner, this helps protect the rubber pond liner from puncture. Additionally another layer of nonwoven fabric is placed on top of the pond liner where rocks and larger boulders are placed.
Gravel installed without a barrier often disappears into the soil beneath it and this is especially true of frequently used gravel paths. The effects of weather, temperature, and traffic will cause the gravel to comingle with the soil and travel downwards. The gravel seems to perform a disappearing act and will constantly need to be maintained as more rock is required to keep up both functionality and looks.
A barrier of landscape fabric between the soil and the gravel will help prevent your gravel from performing this magic disappearing act. The landscape fabric controls the migration and travel of the soil and the gravel. The net effect is to reduce the amount of maintenance and to stop the continual need to add gravel as it disappears into the soil.
PRO TIP: Nonwoven Geotextile fabric is measured in weight (oz / sq. yd.) ranging from 2-16 ounces. Woven fabrics are a typically measured in grab tensile (pull) strength.
A gravel path with potholes and is losing gravel to the subgrade soil
The right landscape fabric for the intended job is critical. In general, you should consider the following when choosing landscape fabric for a project.
Gravel can be a great addition to any landscape design. It doesn't matter what kind of project you're designing, selecting the proper landscape fabric to support your work is important to reduce project cost, maintenance, and increase the life of your designs.
A simple piece of fabric in your garden can mean the difference between plants that are scorched and shaded, frost-damaged and healthy, pest-ridden and pest-free.
I first started using garden mesh, or agfabric, in my garden to deter pests. It quickly proved to be a garden game-changer, protecting my leafy greens from rabbits, squirrels, aphids, caterpillars, and slugs.
In addition to providing a simple barrier between the edible plants I want to save for myself and the million other things that want to eat them, garden mesh also has the following benefits:
There's even something called hardware cloth that you can use to protect your plants from attacks from below.
Let's look at the different types of garden covers out there and how each one can help you achieve the lush, pest-free vegetable garden of your dreams.
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission if you click on the links and purchase my recommendations. All opinions remain my own.
Have you ever watched a nature documentary on the Discovery Channel? If you have, you know that when predators like lions attack, they tend to target the weakest members of the pack: the young, the injured, and the elderly. Well, it's the same in the plant world. Your plants are most vulnerable to pest pressure when they're young, when they're suffering from disease or stress (like under watering), or when their time in the garden has come to an end.
Nylon row covers can help you protect your newly sown seeds or young seedlings from pests. There are several other advantages to using row covers as well.
First, covers help to lock in moisture. Water is the most critical component of a seed's successful germination, and seeds that are left to dry out might never sprout.
Second, covers help raise the soil temperature when you're ready to sow your seeds in the spring.
And finally, covers help protect your plants from strong winds and other harsh weather conditions. It's important to give seedlings a chance to develop strong roots before they're battered by wind or pelted by rain.
Wouldn't it be great if every single one of us could garden outdoors for 365 days of the year? Unfortunately, many of us live in a climate that feels limiting (i.e., too cold for too much of the year). Something many of us don't realize, however, is that there are a lot of plants that can grow when there's a threat of frost. Even better: we can use frost cloths, polytunnels, or fabric cloches to create our own garden thermostat and extend our growing seasons.
As winter nears, frost cloth can buy you extra time for your plants to finish producing for you. Leafy greens grown under frost cloth can hold up until temperatures dip below 25°F.
In the late winter or early spring, you can be patient and wait for the temperature to rise on its own. Or you can use frost cloth to help nature along. Not only can frost cloth protect seeds from late-season frosts, it can actually help soil warm up faster. Covering with fabric, plastic, or even mesh creates a mini greenhouse effect over your garden bed—you can actually raise the temperature of your soil by 10 to 15 degrees.
That extra warmth means more days of growing in the garden, which means you’ve extended your season!
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Soil Retaining Mesh. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Note: If you're using plastic over your plants, make sure to roll back your garden cover during sunny days to avoid scorching your plants.
You can find the full list of my favorite season extenders available on Amazon here. If you have a specific row of plants you want to protect or even just a single plant, explore Gardener's Supply Company's line of clear PVC cloches, which can easily be placed over the plants you wish to protect or a new row of seeds.
In very cold climates, you might consider building cold frames to fit over your raised beds.
In hot weather, you can extend the life of plants that are prone to being scorched or that prefer cooler weather (such as lettuce plants) by covering them with shade cloth or a wicker cloche. This simple act of giving leafy greens shade can delay bolting (going to seed) by a few weeks, if not the whole season.
Shade cloths might feel similar to the mesh I recommend to keep garden pests at bay, but they tend to be dark green or black in color to absorb more sunlight.
The "shade factor" you'll see on the packaging of shade cloths refers to the degree of sunlight that will be blocked by the material. Different products will range from 25 percent all the way to 90 percent. If you're trying to grow tender salad greens in the full sun on a hot day, look for a shade factor between 50 and 60 percent. Fruiting plants most likely won't require anything above 30 percent.
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Explore my complete Amazon list for floating row covers here.
Few things are more frustrating to a gardener than lovingly tending a kitchen bed, only to have your prized veggies become a tasty meal for something else.
When I first started growing salad greens, I learned quickly that there were about a million different pests that wanted to eat my leaves before I could get to them. I tried it all: cayenne pepper, shiny CDs, forks stuck in the dirt. But nothing was relieving the pest pressure on my plants.
Until, that is, I found out about garden mesh fabric, or agfabric, created specifically for pest protection. I purchased some from a local garden store, and for me, nothing has worked better than this simple physical barrier that lets water, sunlight, and air in, but keeps pests, even birds and larger animals, out.
The key is to cover your garden from the moment you first plant your transplants into the garden or sow some seeds. Young plants are particularly vulnerable to pest pressure, but garden mesh will give them all the protection they need from the get-go.
Ideally, your garden mesh should stay on your plants all the time, except, of course, for when you're ready to harvest, prune, or just gaze admiringly at your healthy plant babies.
If you have fruiting plants that are flowering and need to be pollinated (or if you just like to look at your kitchen garden during the day in all its leafy glory), you could leave your garden uncovered during sunlight hours and then drape the mesh over at night, when creepy crawlies are most active.
Read more about garden mesh as an organic solution for pest control.
Explore more organic pest control recommendations available on Amazon here.
If you have pests that burrow and attack your garden from the ground, then you'll need to add something to the bottom of your raised beds to act as a barrier. Galvanized hardware cloth will do the trick. Think of it like an underground security fence.
And don't worry: galvanized steel is food safe and won't compromise the organic nature of your garden.
You can find hardware cloth measuring 10' x 3' here, or try searching for the size you need.
Shop Our Favorite Gardening ToolsYou could drape your cover directly over your garden bed, but you risk smooshing the more delicate plants you might be growing in your kitchen garden. You also might trap water on leaves, which can cause mold and disease.
If you don't have an existing support structure or appropriately sized trellis to hold your cover in place and keep it off your plants underneath, you can buy simple flexible hoops to do the trick.
Space your garden hoops every couple of feet in your raised bed to serve as a frame for the mesh. These hoops can support frost cloth, shade cloth, and agfabric.
Before you cover your garden with mesh, check the soil and your plants, including the underside of leaves, for visible pests. The last thing you want to do is trap pests inside your garden and give them a free-for-all buffet.
Once you're confident your garden is clear of pests, lay your mesh over the hoops. Tenting my garden this way has deterred animals from jumping straight into my bed (like the mother rabbit who was determined to have her babies beneath my lettuce).
Pins, garden staples, or clips are essential to holding your covers in place. Without them, your covers could sink under piles of snow or, worse yet, blow away. Holding your cover in place also adds an extra layer of security from animals like squirrels who might be looking to burrow their way in.
Landscaping pins, also called garden staples, can be pushed right through garden mesh to secure the fabric in place. They're easy to install and remove when you're ready to tend or harvest your plants.
Look for pins made of galvanized steel so that they're rust-resistant.
You can buy pins on Amazon here or Gardener's Supply Company here. Gardener's Supply also has pins with a handy loop at the top for easier removal. You can find them here.
If you're using a thicker material or plastic for garden cover, you might need to secure your fabric in place with garden clips instead of landscaping pins. Clips can easily be attached to tubing, fences, or trellises.
Gardener's Supply Company sells a set of 12 stainless steel maxi garden clips here. If you're buying garden hoops or a greenhouse kit from them, look for clips made to fit the dimensions of those structures.
Purchase steel clips on Amazon here.
Frost? Check. Hungry chickens? Check. Conniving squirrels? Check. Bright sunlight? Check.
So many of the problems you may have encountered in your vegetable garden journey thus far can be solved with a simple cover.
As you can see, many of the products I recommended can function as shade cloth, pest barrier, and frost protection. They can be used season after season, they can be stored easily when not in use, and they're relatively inexpensive. Now that you know the terms to search for (such as garden cloche, row cover, and frost cloth), you can do your own searches and discover the many options available to you. Find the product that's best for your garden space.
Start with one garden cover to solve your most pressing concern and see how a simple piece of fabric or plastic sheeting can help your garden thrive.
For more tips on how to increase production in your space, check out the many resources we offer here at Gardenary. We love helping you end your gardening woes once and for all, sans chemicals.
Keep on growing, my friends!
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