Home » How to Plant Through Landscape Fabric©

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If you want to know at least 40 ways how not to use landscape fabric then I am the gal to talk to! I have used all kinds of landscape fabric and most times have been unhappy with it. For every good result I achieved it over the last 20 years of using different kinds of landscaping fabric it seems as if a new problem resulted. My objective for using landscaping fabric is to keep down the weeds and you cannot if you cover the fabric with dirt. You must use gravel or mulch and it must be at least 2 inches thick on top of your fabric.

The one I have finally settled on for areas with sparse planting is heavy duty polypropylene landscaping fabric which keeps out light and which plants and weeds cannot grow through.

Basically the rules are simple.

1. Lay out the heavy duty polypropylene landscaping fabric and peg it down. (Remember to buy fabric pegs when you buy your roll of fabric. Most people forget this or don't even realize they need them.)

2. Make crisscross marks in the fabric with a sheet rock knife, scalpel or Exacto knife in the area where you want to place your plants.

3. Next fold back all four points on top of the layer of fabric thus giving you a square hole.

4. Dig the dirt out of the hole and place it in a bucket. Why? Simply because you are not using dirt on top of your fabric around your plant, but gravel or mulch you will not need all that dirt and you want to easily haul away any excess dirt after you have tamped down your plant and filled in with dirt until it is even with the landscaping fabric.

5. Set your plant in the hole, fill in around it and tamp it down with some of the dirt you took out of the hole, water well letting the water soak in and ease back in some of the landscaping fabric towards the plant, but leaving enough space around it so your plant can receive water amply when it rains or when you have to water.

6. When you have completed the planting now is the time to either put your mulch or gravel around the plant.

7. Now go on to the next plant location and follow steps 1 through 6 until you have all your plants into your newly created garden.

8. When they are all done you can easily fill in any spaces of landscaping fabric with your mulch or gravel.

"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love.

 

Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com