Avoiding Weeds - Weed Matting or Alternatives

movieman on 30/10/2016 - 17:26

Hi everyone,

Im currently planning to landscape and wish to avoid constantly needing to pull weeds.

Ive been advised to install weed matting, plus approx 100mm mulch on top, so avoid weeds.

Can you recommend any products? Some on ebay seem good.

Thanks.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • mrham on 30/10/2016 - 17:58
    +4

    Newspaper and mulch.

    I have weed matting.. they still get through

  • Savas on 30/10/2016 - 18:35
    +3

    I would definitely avoid weed matting, it seems to make it worse. Newspaper is much better

    • movieman on 01/11/2016 - 10:45
      +1

      Thanks.
      Problem is I have approx. 300m2 of area, and newpaper isnt feasible.

  • RobMel on 30/10/2016 - 19:25
    +1

    find after a few yesrs with weed mat and newspaper the mulch thins out by birds etc .. need to replenish one way or the other anyway after 3-4 years.

    • movieman on 01/11/2016 - 10:46

      Thanks.

      Im happy to replenish every 3-4 years, jusr want to do it most efficiently from the outset.

  • mskeggs on 30/10/2016 - 19:28
    +4

    Sheets of newspaper are as good, and a lot less messy in 2 years time when you want to change things.
    The problem is that after the mulch starts to compost, it effectively becomes soil, and allows weeds to grow on top of the matting.
    Best course is to just keep on top of it and renew the mulch ever couple of years.

    • movieman on 01/11/2016 - 10:47

      Thanks.
      Not planning to change things.
      Already have a lot of concrete and other entertaining areas.
      Just lookimg for a good afforable, low maintenance option.

  • fruit on 30/10/2016 - 19:30
    +1

    Fire

  • chumlee on 30/10/2016 - 19:41
    +6

    Concrete

    • movieman on 01/11/2016 - 10:48

      Already doing approx. 200m2 of it; too expensive to concrete it all.

  • c64 on 30/10/2016 - 19:54
    +3

    skip the weed mat and plant some sort of ground cover. weed mats just fall to bits and leave strands of plastic everywhere.

    • dassaur on 30/10/2016 - 23:07
      +1

      seconded. start with newspaper. wet it. put your soil on top. plant some ground cover, then mulch heavily.

    • movieman on 01/11/2016 - 10:49

      Thanks.

      Any recommendations on low maintenance I can plant?

  • pjcook on 31/10/2016 - 09:25
    +1

    You will find that weeds still grow as the seed blow in on the wind and can germinate above the weed mat.

  • Tiller76 on 31/10/2016 - 10:36
    +1

    I'm impressed no one said to call the bikies. lol

    • c64 on 31/10/2016 - 10:57
      +5

      the OP said he wanted to get rid of weed, not acquire it

  • GangGang on 31/10/2016 - 19:49

    It depends what you put on top of it. If you're putting thick grass with top soil. The weeds will come through at first but once the grass is established it should be fine. I've put weed mat under my pebbles and it's fine. I didn't put it under my hedges and now weeds are growing because I was lazy. Put the extra effort in the start to stop you from doing long maintenance in the future.

    Newspaper and mulch are good but I wonder what will happen over time when they degrade? The seeds might survive and sprout when the newspaper is gone.

    • movieman on 01/11/2016 - 10:57

      Thanks.

      Planning to plant some low maintenance plants that dont require much attention in the future.

  • kima on 01/11/2016 - 02:15

    add some salt where you dont want anything to grow, then thick newspaper then mulch

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