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Vegetable Gardening

Weed barrier-mistake? too much compost? HELP!

15 years ago

The notion of a virtually weed-free garden bed and warmer soil sooner is what motivated me to lay black plastic weed barrier on my garden bed. Three, 3X20 rows of it, to be exact.

It is the thin, black plastic, says it's water permeable.

I added a very generous load of compost to the entire garden and tilled it in, then put the barrier on top. After laying it out so nicely, I tucked the ends in and lightly scattered compost over the top of it to hold it down.

Sounds good so far...except now I am wondering if water will really get through it? What about nutrients? Will the compost be enough? Is there such a thing as too much compost? Have I doomed myself to a huge mess? Do I need soaker hoses underneath?

OH what have I done?!!?

Comments (5)

billv
15 years ago
We may be talking apples and oranges here because to me, the water permeable weed fabric is not plastic; it's also light permeable and needs a good layer of mulch on top to keep the weeds down.

But first, what is your purpose? Do you intend to plant transplants through the fabric? Will you plant seeds through the fabric? I may be missing the point but regardless of the answer, the fabric I have seen has no problem with water getting through and you will not need any irrigation. A more likely problem might be light penetration and weeds growing underneath.
purplemage
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks billv!

My purpose was to keep the weeds down to a min and to warm the soil for earlier planting.

I was certain that the barrier I put down was plastic, perhaps I am mistaken. Nah, I'm pretty sure it is. I'll look again.

I intend to put transplants through the fabric...and some seeds...the larger seeds, such as beans.
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In light of what tropical thought said I wanted to reread to see if I could understand what he was talking about. I thought maybe I missed something, but I don't think I did. I'm not sure I agree with anything he said. Bill, you said, "This year I got a load of compost and spread it over the lawn as a top-dress, but I'm relatively certain I overdid it. It's been on the lawn for the entire summer and while walking across the grass, which stays green but doesn't seem to ever grow - very weird I know - it's like walking on a layer of cork. No amount of watering seems to soften it up and it actually develops cracks in the surface when dry." Reread what morph said up front. What you're experiencing is exactly why we always advise against rototilling compost into the soil to prepare for a lawn. Your grass will not perform the way you want it to until all that rototilled compost is completely decomposed. Compost needs air to decompose, and since it's buried, it doesn't get enough air to go very quickly. The shampoo will help in many ways. Your original soil may not have been perfect, but it could have been improved more efficiently by 1) growing grass (or even weeds) in it, 2) fertilizing with organic fertilizer, and 3) soil test to correct chemical deficiencies or imbalances. The first two would get the proper organic matter into your soil and the third would improve the effectiveness of that organic matter. The filtered sun is going to limit you to the fescue type grasses. Fescues quite often need to be overseeded in the fall, so is that going to be an issue? Also watering twice a week is too much. Ideally you would be watering once a week when temps are in the 90s. When it cools into the 80s you should back off to once every 2 weeks. Each time it should be deep watered, meaning a full inch each time. That can take awhile to get it, but proper watering can transform a lawn.
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flatlander
15 years ago
if you're going to plant through the plastic, it will work fine. if you think it's getting to hot, a little mulch on top of the plastic will cool things down. i used this approach all the time until i started using raised beds and more intensive planting and it works fine.
digdirt2
15 years ago
Like this?

{{gwi:39264}}

Just planted these 2 short rows in one bed. I run soaker hose underneath the plastic (you can see the end of one sticking out ;) and then cover it all with 4-6" of hay. Then the cages go on.

Mid season it looks like this:

{{gwi:10965}}

I have discovered that with the soaker hose on top too much runs off to the sides before it can leach through the plastic.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your garden! ;)

Dave
gardenlen
15 years ago
cooch grass and nut grass/sedge will all come through those plastic barriers, and as we also have doubts about their ability to let moisture through and they are forever, we never use the stuff.

we use raised/lasagne beds and we don't have weed issues especially not from what we have covered first with newspaper as we make the beds.

have a look at our pic's on our site see what we achieve.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

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