A weed barrier is the best option to prevent weeds. There are different types of weed barriers you can use and according to that the way of putting down weed barrier is also vary. So, how to put down weed barrier?
Here are three types of weed barriers you can use for preventing weeds:
1. Organic Weed Barriers (Straw, Shredded Leaves, Compost)
2. Newspaper and Cardboard
3. Weed Barrier Fabric (Landscaping Fabric)
So let's see how to put down these weed barriers.
Organic Weed Barriers (Straw, Shredded Leaves, Compost)
So here are the steps to put down organic material as a weed barrier:
1. Choose the Weed barrier
The first step of using organic weed barriers is to choose a weed barrier from the above list. There are so many other organic materials you can use as a weed barrier.
The advantage of using these weed barriers is that they are very cheap in price or you don't need to pay money for that because these organic weed barriers are easily available in your garden or yard and also you can make them at home.
2. Prepare the Surface
Before applying mulch you need to clean the area around the trees, plants, and where you want to mulch. For cleaning the area, you need to do edging to make perfect beds or areas for mulching.
For doing edging perfectly and fastly you can use an edger and if you don't have that don't worry you can also do in your own way.
After doing edging you need to dig that area up to 3 to 4 inches and clean that area by removing all the soil and roots that are coming out after digging.
If you do mulching without removing these roots then it will grow in the future. So make sure that all the roots and tiny particles of grass are removed.
3. Apply your Mulch as a Weed Barrier
Use a wheelbarrow to bring material on the site and use shovel to spread that material on the excavated area. Using these tools makes your work fast and perfect.
While spreading the material make sure that the layer of the material needs to be very thick. If you spread the material very thin then sunlight easily passes through the mulch and it causes the germinations of weeds.
So you need to put down this weed barrier up to 3 to 4 inches. Just fill that excavated area perfectly so there is don't need to calculate the inches because we already dig that area up to 3 to 4 inches that is a bit easy for you.
4. Regular Maintenance
After doing mulching you need monthly regular maintenance because organic mulch breaks down day by day. So you need to cover that area where the mulch breaks down.
If weeds have grown like patches then remove these patches of weeds and add the thick layer of mulch in that area.
And If you see all the mulch breaks down then you can also change all mulch with new mulch.
Newspaper and Cardboard
So here are the steps to put down newspaper and cardboard as a weed barrier:
1. Prepare the Area
Before using these types of material as a weed barrier you need to prepare are around trees, plants, and other areas where you want to put down weed barrier.
For preparing the area, you need to first dig up to 2 to 3 inches. After digging you need to remove the roots that are coming out at the time digging and also remove the tiny particles of lawn or grass.
Removing and cleaning is the most important process you need to do if you don't do this process properly then there are high chances of germination of weeds.
So, after removing and cleaning you need to fill that excavated area perfectly with clean soil and after filling the hole with clean soil and leave it for 2 to 3 days so that it becomes a bit hard and it feels like there is no excavation happen in this area.
So we are done with preparing the area and let's go further for the next step.
2. Spray the Water
Spraying the water does the area well moist and helps you while putting down a weed barrier.
Because of the water spraying on the area newspaper, cardboard, and fabric easily sticks to the area and there is no need to take extra efforts to put down weed barrier.
3. Put Down Weed Barrier
Place the newspapers or cardboard and it is totally up to you that what you want to choose between the newspaper and cardboard.
If there are trees already available then place the paper or cardboard according to that and you can also cut the cardboard according to the shape of trees or plants.
If there are no plants yet then you need to leave 1 to 2 inches space for planting the plants or seeds.
If you are using newspapers as weed barrier then you need to spread newspapers perfectly to make the thick layer of that newspaper so that sunlight doesn't pass through that newspaper layer.
Otherwise, you can use cardboard and this is a bit easy to put down because cardboard is very thick and only one layer of cardboard is enough as a weed barrier.
4. Spray Water on the Weed Barrier
Spray the water on the layer of the newspaper or cardboard and water it thoroughly to soak paper or cardboard absolutely.
So this layer of cardboard and newspaper will perfectly stick to the ground and so you don't need any extra pins and other tools to stick these papers or cardboards.
5. Use Wood chips or Bark If you Wanted
If you leave that layer of paper or cardboard as it is in your yard then just imagine how ugly and dirty it looks.
So to remove that ugliness you can use wood chips or bark on the top of the paper or cardboard layer and now imagine that in your yard it looks very appealing and looks better than before.
But this is up to you if you don't want to use wood chips or bark then it's absolutely fine. But my suggestion is to you that it looks very good if you cover these papers or cardboard using wood chips or bark and according to landscaping it looks very nice in your yard.
Weed Barrier Fabric (Landscaping Fabric)
So here are the steps to put down landscaping fabric or weed barrier fabric:
1. Measure the Area
The first step is to measure the area where you want to put down weed barrier fabric so that you can have a slight idea that how many landscaping fabric you need for the area.
If you don't measure the area then you buy many rolls of landscaping fabric and you have done your work with one roll then remaining rolls are a total loss for you so measure the area if you have a very tight budget and trust me it's gonna help you.
2. Prepare the Area
For preparing the area you need to dig out 1 to 2 inches thick so that you can easily remove damaged roots and tiny seeds or tiny lawn particles that comes out while digging.
This is a very important thing while preparing the area if you leave these seeds, roots, and tiny pieces of the lawn as it is then it will grow in the future. So make sure that you have removed all these things and your area is totally clean.
After digging you need to fill that excavated area with clean soil and make sure that the soil has important nutrients that help plants.
If there are plants already planted then take care of plants while digging and don't damage the plants.
3. Put Down the Landscaping Fabric
Put down the landscaping fabric according to your area and make any necessary cuts as you need.
If your area is wide in length then first put down roll for a half part and then put down the roll on the remaining second half.
Put down weed barrier fabric according to your judgment and it's difficult that every time the area you want to put down weed barrier fabric is in perfect shape so put down and cut weed barrier fabric according to your space. If you have a perfect shape area then it's great then you don't need any extra efforts to take.
4. Secure the fabric using staples
First, make sure that your landscaping fabric is in a good position then use landscaping staples to fix the fabric permanently.
After every staple, you need to secure the position of the fabric because when you fix these staples using a hammer or small hand maul then the position of fabric slightly changes so you need to make sure the position of fabric according to your area is secure or not.
First, you need to fix the edges of the fabric and then go down and fix the remaining fabric according to your judgment.
5. Plantation
After fixing the landscaping fabric it's time to plant plants. For planting the plants you need to make an X-shaped incision in the landscape fabric for each plant using scissors or a utility knife as shown in the above video.
The size of the X-shaped incision depends on the size of the plant you want to plant so make sure that the size of the X-shaped incision is big enough to dig out the hole comfortably.
After making the X-shaped incision pull out these flaps aside to dig a hole and then install the plant and backfill with the soil. And lay down that flaps to cover the base area of the plant.
And for fixing these flaps use landscaping staples with a hammer or small hand maul as shown in the above video so that flaps don't come out in the future and that prevent weeds from growing.
If the plants are already planted:
If the plants are already planted then you need to first cut the landscaping fabric in several pieces according to your area and then fix the fabric like a puzzle.
And another option is that while putting down the fabric first hold the fabric over the plants with the help of one person and then with the help of another person do markings on the fabric where plants are planted on the area.
And then make an X-shaped incision and then you can easily put down weed barrier and fix this with staples. It is a bit tricky method but still, it works. It's totally up to you how you can use your creativity to make the work done.
6. Add mulch
You can use organic mulch like wood chips and bark to cover the landscaping fabric so no one can guess that landscaping fabric installed on the land.
Adding mulch over landscaping fabric gives an extra unique look to the plants and to your total yard.
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