Rating |
Image |
Products |
Score |
Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 Best |
EcoGardener – Durable and Heavy-Duty Landscape Fabric Editor’s Choice |
CHECK PRICES | ||
2 |
95/100 | CHECK PRICES | ||
3 |
93/100 | CHECK PRICES | ||
4 |
92/100 | CHECK PRICES | ||
5 |
90/100 | CHECK PRICES |
Surely, anyone who owns a garden wants it perfect and healthy. Any gardener, farmer, or homeowner would want to have healthy plants that all receive the same amount of nutrients. Your back aches from all the bending you did for tending to your beloved plants to ensure that they grow healthily, receive all the benefits from your fertilizers, and are free from plant bugs that eat away their leaves.
Undeniably, we want our garden or yards clean and perfect. But do you just hate it when weeds start sprouting? From a few weeds popping out to an uncontrollable number in just a few days, weeds have given everyone headaches in trying to control them.
The Best Weed Barriers
With its various types, there are also various brands of weed barriers in the market that you can put under mulch or are perfect for rocks, for gravel, under pavers, and even for artificial grass. To lessen your time in looking for the best products, here is a list of the best weed barriers in the market today.
#1 EcoGardener – Durable and Heavy-Duty Landscape Fabric
The first product on the list does not disappoint as one of the best weed barriers of today. This fabric weed barrier has various sizes, which range from 3ftx5ft (smallest) to 4ftx250ft (largest). This eco-friendly fabric weed barrier is easy to install. It is designed to have easy water and oxygen absorption for your actual plants and leaves your soil healthy and undamaged.
Pros
- The product is very durable and easy to install.
- In installing this product, there is no need for professional help.
- It offers a premium offer; it is heavy-duty and ready to withstand any weather conditions.
- It is perfect for any type of weed.
Cons
- Some customers think that some parts of the felt underside are sometimes unbalanced in amount.
- It can be too expensive for some starters, but it’s actually in the mid-range category.
#2 Scotts– 3 By 150 Feet Pro Landscape Fabric
The product offers good erosion control and long-lasting weed control. It is not only good for your garden, but it is also good for patios, walkways, and wall jobs. Scott’s Pro Landscape Fabric is excellent in quality.
Pros
- It is cheaper as compared to the other products on the list. This makes it an excellent choice for starters.
- The product keeps away small weeds effectively.
- You can easily cut the fabric in different lengths to your desired fit.
Cons
- The product is very thin and does not last long as promised by the product.
- The product is not suitable for bigger weeds.
#3 DeWitt– Fabric Weed Barrier (4 x 50 Feet)
DeWitt– Fabric Weed Barrier (4 x 50 Feet). Via: Amazon.com
The product promises a 12-year use, which is environmentally friendly. The product is specially designed for an easier cut to fit throughout your garden. DeWitt Fabric Weed Barrier does not disappoint as one of the best weed barriers in the market today.
Pros
- The product is durable, thick, and can last for a couple of months or years.
- The product is easy to cut, which is essential for covering up rows in your garden.
- You can use this product for any type of weeds.
- The product performs well in keeping your actual plants have the sufficient amount of moisture while blocking the plants from the weeds.
- It has a non-woven fabric and is hydrophilic treated, which is perfect for water and oxygen circulation.
- The fabric also minimizes light penetration to further control weeds.
Cons
- The product is excellent only for small gardens.
#4 Easy Gardener– Landscape Fabric (3 x 50 Feet)
The product promises a 15-year use, saving you money in the long run. It is also guaranteed to be environmentally friendly. The product allows oxygen and water circulation while controlling the weeds in your lovely garden.
Pros
- This product is another cheap option for starters.
- You can use this with or without mulch and promises to perform better when combined with mulch.
- The landscape fabric works well in preventing smaller sized weeds from sprouting.
- This product can is relatively easy to install and use.
Cons
- The product is not water permeable.
- It is not good with preventing bigger weeds.
#5 DeWitt Heavy Duty Weed Barrier
The last product on the list of best weed barriers in the market is made from heavy-duty plastic-like fabric that guarantees to last for years. It is water permeable and allows circulation of oxygen for your actual plants while effectively keeping out the weeds in your garden.
Pros
- The product effectively controls any kind of weed in your garden.
- The product is designed to be easily cut and used.
- Since the product is heavy-duty, it can definitely withstand varying weather conditions.
- The product is thick and very durable, making it last as long as the product proclaims.
Cons
- The product can be too expensive.
- When cut, the edges may unravel, which is not good around decorative plants.
How to Identify Weeds?
How can you identify weeds? To help save the balance in your yard, it is best to know what you are looking for.
- A weed is a plant out of place that is not intentionally sown.
- A weed is a plant that is growing where it is not wanted.
- A weed is a plant that is competitive, persistent, and interferes negatively with human activities.
Weeds, despite being just a plant out of its place, have characteristics that are found common on among the listed 8000 species of 250,000 plants that behave like weeds should. These characteristics are:
- Such plants have abundant seed productions.
- The rapid population is established with these plants.
- Weeds have dormant seeds.
- Plants’ buried seeds have a long-lasting life.
- It has an adaptation for the spread.
- These plants contain the presence of vegetative reproduction structures.
- Weeds have the ability to occupy sites where it is disturbed by human activities.
Common Weeds in Your Yard
There are common weeds that almost all people encounter in their yard. If you know little about them, here are some of the common weeds you can look out for:
1. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
This common weed is a cluster of creamy white flowers. In addition, it is accompanied by feather-like foliage that gives off an aroma when crushed. Yarrows can grow and thrive in dry, arid, and sandy conditions which often mean that your soil has a lack of nutrients. It usually has 20 inches height and 12 inches spread.
2. Daisy weed (Bellis perennis)
This is considered the most common perennial weed. Daisies have white petals and a yellow center. Daisy weeds have green spoon-shaped leaves that form clusters of rosettes in the grass. It usually has a height of 3 inches and a spread of 6 inches.
3. Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense)
Creeping thistles have purple flower heads and spiky, wavy thistle-like leaves. The characteristics of the leaves often make it unpleasant to walk by or sit on. This weed is often a problem on recently seeded lawns or bare patches on grasses. It usually has a height of 4 feet and a spread of 18 inches
4. Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
This is a kind of perennial weed that has clusters of violet-blue flowers with round, glossy, scalloped leaves. It gives off an aromatic scent. It usually has a height of 10 inches and a spread of 16 inches.
5. Great plantain (Plantago major)
The great plantain is another type of perennial weed that has broad, oval-shaped foliage with a pronounced rib marking. The flowers have a pale greenish-gray color. It usually has a height of 6 inches and a spread of 8 inches.
6. Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
This weed has yellow flowers with three-lobed leaves. It spreads fast using its underground creeping root system. Creeping buttercups thrive in the damp soil which can be a good indicator that your garden needs better drainage. It usually has a height of 24 inches and a spread of 18 inches.
7. Common ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)
This common weed has yellow star-shaped flowers and bluish-green lobed leaves. It produces toxins which need some precautions when handling. It usually has a height of 32 inches and a spread of 10 inches.
8. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Everyone knows what a dandelion is. This very common weed has yellow flowers that that turn into fluffy white seedheads as it matures. It has a height of 12 inches and a spread of 8 inches.
How to Control Weed
There a lot of ways to control your weed situation. These options can range from chemical solutions to natural solutions. Chemical weed killers are products that you buy on the market that help you eliminate weeds like how you eliminate pests. Chemical killers are also known as herbicides which contain glyphosate and is considered to be highly cancerous. Natural weed killers involve natural ingredients that you can purchase easily and are usually organic and homemade.
If you don’t want to involve yourself in herbicides or organic weed killers you can always choose to weed them out by hand which can take a lot of time. One of the ways to also control weed in your garden or lawn requires to block out nutrients from them by devising smart methods in gardening for your actual plants. These smart methods including planning out the distance of your plants, using mulch, using irrigation drips, and planning out when to actually weed out weeds.
Asides from all these methods, there are also weed barriers used perfectly for gardens, for flower beds, and even for playgrounds.
Type of Weed Barriers
Weed barriers are an alternative to weed killers that can be very harmful to your health and to the environment. Essentially, weed barriers help block off sunlight, oxygen, and water to pesky weeds which can kill them or stunt their growth altogether.
Here are 4 types of weed barriers:
1. Natural Barriers
Natural barriers have long been used for a lot of centuries now. These natural weed barriers include mulch, dried leaves, peat moss, straw, and thick layers of other organic matter than can block out nutrients for the weeds. Since these barriers are natural, they are of course biodegradable and needs to be replaced from time to time. The downfall of natural barriers is that some organic materials may contain weed seeds which can worsen the weed problem. Also, thick layers of organic matter can also prevent water and oxygen to your actual plants which can affect their growth as well.
2. Homemade Barriers
Homemade weed barriers include materials such as newspaper, plastic garbage bags, pieces of cardboard, and other household materials suitable for the need of blockage. Some materials for homemade barriers except for plastic can decompose after some time. However, this can be messy and can reduce aesthetic value, especially when using it for gardens. One of the disadvantages for home made barriers is that weeds can tear up paper and can cause them to grow out of the barrier. Despite this, using homemade barriers are a good way to recycle.
3. Fabric Barriers
These fabric weed barriers are made up of specialized geotextile and are laminated with black polyethylene material. This kind of weed barrier is often called as landscape fabric and is deemed more effective than herbicides. Most gardeners cover the whole plot or flowerbed with the fabric and create enough slits for their actual plants to grow out of. Despite being very effective, this product can be too expensive for some. It can tear up after a few years of use and needs to be replaced by then.
4. Plastic Barriers
Plastic weed barriers are long loved for their long-lasting capacity and their effectiveness in controlling weed problems in your gardens or yards. The plastic weed barrier effectively blocks out sunlight, water, and oxygen to the weeds. Having a black color, the plastic weed barriers absorbs sunlight which helps warm up the soil promoting fast root growth. This product can be really expensive and is highly recommended for long garden projects.
Conlusion
Weed barriers are an excellent product to block out or control weeds in any place from your garden to your farm. This is a good alternative to herbicides since they do not pollute and harm the environment nor cause any damage to human health.
Out of all the top 5 best weed barriers on the list, I highly recommend the first product, which is EcoGardener Landscape Fabric. It may be one of the expensive products on the list, but it does not really leave your wallet empty when you find out how good the product actually is. The price is actually in the mid-range category. EcoGardener Landscape Fabric is very durable and has high-quality and lasts as long as the product recommends.
Apart from weed barriers, you can also control your weed problem with commercial weed eaters or battery-powered weed eaters. Thank you for reading!
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