Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 May 24, 2011 4:19 pm Our last place I convinced my husband not to use weedmat and just keep a thick layer of mulch on the garden. Which in turn meant we were constantly pulling out all the weeds - they thrived in it. We're not keen gardeners and we'll have alot of gardens (due to the HSTP disposal area) and I'm not keen on spending my week-ends always weeding the garden. Which means this time he is adament we'll have weedmat down ... unless someone has some better ideas. ~ trying to build our dream home by the sea ~ Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 2May 24, 2011 5:17 pm Dont do it. Once you have weedmat down how will you ever get it out? Weeds will blow in from above and germinate anyway, not come up from below. Use a thick (100mm at least) layer of uncomposted tree mulch. This will suppress weeds from below and wont be a favourable medium for weed seeds to germinate in. You will still get a few but they can easily be pulled out or sprayed out if you are really lazy. Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 3May 24, 2011 9:55 pm If you keep pulling the weeds out before they set seed, you will need to do minimal if any weeding eventually. My garden in the front yard is only just starting to get a few small weeds since we've had rain. I'll go out next weekend and pull them up. it'll take no more than 5 mins - 10 if I want to be sure I have this lot. Then I may go out in 2-3 weeks or so and get another small round. Next round would be as it starts to get warmer. The rest of the front yard is full of horrible weeds which will eventually be dug out but none of these weeds have gotten into my garden. Although I am assuming that you have nothing nasty like bulbs or couch in your garden... Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 4May 24, 2011 9:57 pm Weed mat doesn't keep weeds out. The is loads of threads on it. Weeds grow on the surface and are opportunistic. The problem is the type of mulch folks choose. The darker and more composted, the worse the problems. To solve your issues, use no "weed mat" Use the mulch from your local tree lopping mob or preferably from your local arborist. Use that fresh mulch to at least 10cm thick. I know you read things written by some big names in horticulture but I can assure you that Western Australian studies on it disprove it. Right now in back yard I have small crate near the shed. It has river pebbles in it. There is no soil. There is weeds in it. So the theory that weeds come from under the ground is false Yep based on that **** house bit of evidence Well its true and its a good example. I often get people tell me "Yep I mulched" Well what soprt of mulch? " Oh, the best stuff, you know the one the soil place sells, it was really expensive" ..Then when I visit the client, You can bet it is the most expensive and worst mulch available, black soft composted mulch, Then rarely has the mulch layer been applied adequately. I often apply mulch like the stuff Dollar has posted about recently. I chuck it on 10cm thick and in more open areas, it goes on thicker. It is not true that water won't penetrate. It does and it does it deep. Subsoil moisture will be far higher and deeper. I guess I could crap on about it forever. Just use it and make no compromise, your wishes will come true. You will still get weeds. Nothing stops it altogether. However weeding will be a breeze. They will just lift out, lay them on the top and let them rot back into the mulch. No you won't get more weeds from that Tree lopper mulch is the cheapest and the most effective by a country mile. (This is different to wood chips) Like weeds in a lawn, they happen for a reason and its not about what product to buy or fertiliser you use. Its about the health of the soil and the same goes for gardens. You know what weed mat is for? Its for a commercial nursery to cover the floor with to stop weeds. They will use a combination of that and gravel. It makes covering huge areas of soil cheap. Cheaper than concrete. Imagine what 1/2 a hectare of concrete would cost! Now if you ever go to a commercial nursery that uses weed mat on the floor you'll see two things. One that there is nothing but weed mat. It is like a carpet. However in the spots where dirt and moss and mud have built up, have a guess what is there, weeds. As soon as anything goes on top of weed mat, that is what the weeds grow in. Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 5May 24, 2011 9:59 pm Yep, GD is spot on. It really is no chore. However you can bet that down the road from GD in the same street is some clown with black much and a heap of weeds in the garden. Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 6May 24, 2011 10:02 pm As Keen says don't use the weed mat. Many houses here have used the weed mat and they still have weeds and the weed mat is starting to show through-even when there is nothing planted. Looks very unsightly. Use some nice mulch. You will still get weeds but they will be easy to pull out-spend a couple of minutes in the garden here and job won't be as big. Fu is right. Get mulch from your tree lopper. I did after consultation with Fu BTW Fu thanks again for the tip for mulch from the tree loppers. I have moved half of it. Smells really good. The garden already looks so much healthier. Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 7May 24, 2011 10:13 pm Thanks everyone ... I've read out the replies to DH. Hopefully this will help with my 'no weedmat' campaign. He likes the idea of weedmat ... only because 60 odd sqm of garden for non gardeners is very scary. If he had his way he'd have lawn only ... immaculately kept lawn, but lawn only. I was guilty of using that mulch Fu at our last house ... it looked so nice. Not this time though! I'll see if I can get some tree lopper mulch. ~ trying to build our dream home by the sea ~ Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 8May 24, 2011 10:13 pm When the inevitable weeds do start growing amongst the weedmat they are harder to pull out, as the roots grow through the fibres. You end up pulling a hole through the weedmat and the whole idea becomes redundant anyway. A few months back we re-did a garden that had weedmat in the garden, as well as underneath the existing turf during our excavations. The grass came up in this huge mass of carpet as the weedmat held the soil to the grass. Everything underneath was so dry and hard, no worms in sight. A bit of a waste considering the wet 12 months we've had. Planned Landscape Constructions http://www.plannedlandscape.com.au Find us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 9907611509 Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 9May 24, 2011 10:20 pm I would not have wanted to be with in coo-ee of you doing that job I hate having to fix retic in beds where weed mat is Even just planting a plant is hard work. PL you nailed another point. It is a significant barrier between the air and the soil. This is why natural mulch works so well. It is just how nature does it, only more intensive to meet our needs. They conserve water but most importantly create new soils which are ever being consumed by micro organisms. They turn that into nutrients for the plants and the plants turn that into something you can physically see, the plant itself. Having a barrier there prevents that whole cycle from happening. Like us swallowing a plastic bag. Its not a good outcome in time. However not all mulches allow that process to happen either. Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 10May 24, 2011 10:45 pm Just keep on top of the weeding for a year so you stop them setting seed for the following season. Mulch is so much better than the matt (i had matt for a year and ripped it all out) the matt doesnt let water in as easily as they say so hand watering is a waste of time as you have to sprinkle for hours not to mention any nutrients breaking down. Just get in the habit of grabbing a beer/wine/tea/coffee/etc and go for a potter around your garden checking out how things are growing and just pull up any weeds in your travels. A few minutes pottering here and there is so much more managable than marathon weeding weekends. As you are breaking weed seed cycle you will have fewer and fewer weeds. When i started 3 years ago my yard was infested with weeds and now i barely have any weeding to do. In fact i dont have actual weeding sessions now, just pull them up when i see them. I have a big block too Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 11May 25, 2011 7:41 pm Beatrix is right. You should have seen our block even a few months ago. What a nightmare. I had a quick look in the yard today. The mulch is soooo nice. Re: What to use to keep the weeds at bay? 13May 25, 2011 8:46 pm Rarygirl I hear you about grass. My DP wanted grass everywhere little does he realise the recent drought, the ever changing climates and the dryness here AND I'm the one in the garden all the time. So no, we have 2 areas of grass and that is ample. That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 18274 If what you describe is correct then the brick wall has been dry lined with villa board. That basically means that the villa board is glued to the brick wall with… 3 8550 I'm putting a new floor in my kitchen, slate flagging on a standard concrete slab. 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