Aussie Gardening

[snarley]

Hello all,

I am looking to cover an area with white river stones and want to stop ANY weeds from coming up through them. I am thinking of covering the ground underneath with black plastic or weed mat. Nothing has to grow anywhere near where I will be covering , and the few shrubs that are near will have weedmat near them to allow water to seep through.

But in the majority of the are I want NOTHING growning ..weeds included !

What are your thoughts on stopping the weeds with these two options ? I an leaning towards the black plastic as a permant measure.


Thankyou

[grosh147]

g'day snarley. i had alot of trouble once with black plastic that had gravel over the top. grass would grow underneath really thick and expose itself where ever it could, enjoying the fact that the plastic acted like a mulch staying moist underneath. the culprits were kikuyu and couch, common in lawns. the best covering i've seen for stopping weeds is a thick layer of eucalypt leaf litter

[Correa]

I have used weed mat in my ferny, which is covered with rock. I haven't had a problem with weeds except around the plants and joins. Very minimal and very easy to pull out!

Regards

[Krissharky13]

I have used both, the black plastic is cheaper,and lasts longer, however as it is fully non porous and thus will collect small pools of water so depending on your rainfall,or nearby sprinklers... this can cause probs like mossies breeding etc and more importantly, most white pebbles/rocks wont stay white when constantly moist..on the other hand weed mat is porous so in an area that does get regular water it is the better choice. My last point is that both methods have a useby date of only a couple of years , meaning that the weeds have a nasty habit of just blowing in , lodging themselves in the very place you dont want them and soon enough ...back to square 1, geez hope i dont put you off lol but having said all this i still use both methods.

[bernsad]

Forget black plastic; HORRIBLE STUFF! It doesn't allow water to penetrate and it prevents air/oxygen getting to the soil surface. The woven weed mat is a much better option to go under mulch. As Krissharky pointed out there is still the possibility of weed seeds blowing in on top of your barrier so you still need to keep watch and do the occasional bit of weeding and you also need to try and control sources of weed seeds around your property.